Stats don't tell true story of GB's world swimming campaign

By David Jordan, Sportsbeat

EVERY weekend in Shanghai hundreds of middle-aged parents gather in Renmin Park to exchange their children’s CVs at a remarkable marriage market.

GOLDEN GIRL: Keri Anne Payne didn't need to visit Shanghai's marriage market - although her 'value' will have rocketed after retaining her open water world title. She is marrying British team-mate David Carry next year (Reuters)

In the shadow of the futuristic Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall couples attempt to chart the path of their own progeny armed with statistics on everything from school qualifications to body measurements.

With the pressure to marry so high and a municipal population over a third of Great Britain’s to compete against, the weekly congregation just north of People’s Square is often the best – sometimes the only - chance for the Shanghainese to pair up their offspring.

Operating under such pressure the proposals are stripped down to the bare minimum and aesthetics are out – no love, no romance, not even a picture.  

So it was across the same city that Michael Scott, British Swimming’s national performance director, was engaged in a similarly clinical attempt to woo the travelling press following the World Swimming Championships.

Equipped with a checklist of British successes at the Oriental Sports Centre the Australian sold his squad’s achievements with all the enthusiasm of a proud mother:

“If you go through our indicators we’ve achieved the base medal target we set with UK Sport,” said Scott.

“Other targets we had was to qualify every team for the Olympic Games in the relays, we did.

“We aimed to improve the combined number of finalists and semi-finalists and we’re up on that stat. Combined Rome was 39, here was 42.” 

One point was conceded – one relay team, the women’s 4x100m freestyle team, had failed where five others had succeeded in reaching the medal finals.

On the flip side three times a British swimmer had fallen just one place shy of the podium. Fran Halsall, in both the 50m and 100m freestyle, and James Goddard, in the 200m medley, finished cumulatively just 2.7seconds short of a bronze.

The six medals garnered also lifted Britain to a fourth place finish – the highest ranked European nation behind swimming superpowers USA, China and Australia.

Yet for all the stats, the facts and the data suggesting a job well done, there appeared little appetite on either side of the fence to pop the champagne corks.

Scott admitted the team had emerged from a “rollercoaster” week “battered a bit” and vowing to “leave no stone unturned to get the results next year.”

While subsequent articles in the press have sounded a down beat note – with some even going so far as to question the will to win inside the British team.

So where had the stats fallen down?

Long before targets were agreed with UK Sport the benchmark for success had already been set in most minds by the nine medals (including Tom Daley’s diving gold) claimed at the last worlds in Rome two years ago.

Against a backdrop of tumbling records at the Foro Italico, Britain capitalised on the momentum of the Beijing Olympics and again increased expectations on themselves by plundering the precious metals at the Europeans and Commonwealths last year. 

Failure to surpass, or at least equal, their last World Championship haul was always going to smack of a backwards step.

GOLD: Liam Tancock retained his 50m backstroke world title but failed to medal in the 100m backstroke - which, unlike the shorter distance, is included in next year's Olympics (SWpix)

Of the seven athletes who took to the podium two years ago only three returned in China – Liam Tancock, Keri-Anne Payne and Rebecca Adlington – who doubled her count with 400m freestyle silver and 800m gold.

They were supported by silver medals for Hannah Miley in the 400m medley and Ellen Gandy in the 200m butterfly.

Yet it is the fate of the others – the four who tasted glory in Rome and misery in Shanghai – which best encapsulate the tensions surrounding British Swimming.

Jo Jackson, silver medallist over 400m and 800m freestyle, exited in the heats of the 200m. Gemma Spofforth, 100m world champion and world record holder, also crashed out in the heats. Fran Halsall, 100m freestyle silver medalist and winner of five Commonwealth and five European medals last year, finished fourth over both 50m and 100m. While Tom Daley, individual world champion in Rome, was forced to settle for fifth in Shanghai.

On the face of it all four flopped. Had you picked up the quartet’s CV’s pre-championships in Renmin Park then by day eight you’d probably be feeling like a Shanghai bride watching her 6” 4’ scientist husband walking down the aisle looking more Johnny Rotten than Johnny Depp.

The reality – and probably the reason marriage markets haven’t caught on globally – is life is more complicated than a handful of stats.

Jackson endured a nightmare season last year, with asthma so severe it cracked her ribs, ruining her campaign and leaving her to rebuild in 2011. The Richmond swimmer has also switched training groups to Ben Titley in Loughborough and admits it will take time to return to her best.

Halsall underwent ankle surgery over the winter and only returned to full-time training in March, missing out on the butterfly events in Shanghai but falling cumulatively just 0.17 seconds of 50m and 100m freestyle bronze.

Yet for all the stats, the facts and the data suggesting a job well done, there appeared little appetite on either side of the fence to pop the champagne corks....The reality – and probably the reason marriage markets haven’t caught on globally – is life is more complicated than a handful of stats. Sportsbeat's David Jordan reported from the recent World Swimming Championships in Shanghai

Tom Daley’s preparations were overshadowed by the tragic loss of his father while back in the pool he had totally overhauled his routine from Rome, increasing the difficulty in preparation for London 2012. Daley has since decided to leave school in January to increase his chances of mastering the dives before the Olympic Games.

Spofforth’s campaign was also haunted by a tragic loss, the death of her father’s new partner in March at the same hospice and from the same disease which claimed her mother in 2007.

Unsurprisingly the 23-year-old has struggled to find motivation for her swimming and almost quit the sport in Shanghai, where she also went down ill on the eve of the event.   

These are not the only reasons why Britain failed to match the halcyon days in Rome but they go a long way towards it. Of equal importance they are also a microcosm of what British Swimming – and British sport in general – face between now and London.

As the clock counts down to 2012 the interest from the media and the population in general will continue to grow beyond all previous records.

At the point of fever pitch next summer the majority of observers will know who is a world champion, a European champion or a Commonwealth medallist but perhaps little more.

Come August 3 the eyes of 17,500 punters packed into the London Aquatics Centre will all be on the bride as Rebecca Adlington bids for 800m gold.

Anything less and regardless of her preparations or problems it will be viewed by the majority as a letdown – the same will go for all those who have become household names.

Perhaps that above all else explains the unease in Scott’s voice as he spoke of Britain’s success in Shanghai.

Next summer problems, such as the illnesses which ruined the campaigns of Spofforth, Michael Rock and Lizzie Simmonds in Shanghai, will emerge beyond his control.

Big names will not perform and Britain will be tested to as the thirst for medals grows.

Yet one characteristic which marks this squad, and was picked up by my colleague Tom Reynolds at the trials earlier this year, is their unity.

Scott singled out Adlington as the team’s leader in the pool. Her 400m and 800m triumphs sparked Britain into life but she wasn’t alone.

Tancock’s mantra with the press is simple and consistent, he lives to race, but when the squad needed someone to make a statement he spoke louder and clearer than anyone else with his blistering 50m backstroke semi-final swim and followed it up in the final.

Jemma Lowe also sparkled and when she fell short in the 200m butterfly final her room-mate Gandy carried the torch and Miley ensured the week ended on a high.

Goddard nursed a shoulder injury throughout but was agonisingly close to joining Phelps and man-of-the-week Ryan Lochte on the 200m medley podium.

Fourth place means he won’t go down in the history books but then stats aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Britain’s biggest triumph in Shanghai was not in never falling, but rising every time they did.

“The strength of our team is its positivity and resilience. We didn’t crumble, we got stronger as the meet went on,” said Scott.

Who knows they will need to do it all again, and then some, next summer.

© Sportsbeat 2011