Olympic sailors criticise structures

Sailing: Garrett Connolly is to continue as Olympic team manager the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) confirmed last night - in spite of a letter signed by Olympics 2004 team members to the association president criticising the management for Athens and a forthcoming report into the under-performance in Greece.

Ahead of publication of the Athens Olympic Review, carried out by Wharton Consulting, the disappointing performance of Ireland's Olympic entrants is once again under the spotlight.

An extended report commissioned by the ISA and the Irish Sports Council was to have been published last month but it is understood the ISA requested that it be deferred until the main report is delivered, possibly next month.

As a result, the content of the Wharton report remains confidential between the ISA and ISC. However, a meeting of the Olympic sailors last week resulted in a strongly-worded letter to ISA president John Crebbin.

The Irish Times has learned that the letter calls for the abandonment of the current management group structures and criticised the recent advertisements for a national coach on the ISA website and in the media before publication of the Wharton findings.

The advert offered a salary of 35,000 but the Olympic sailors contend that sufficiently qualified individuals with a proven track record of success would only be attracted by a package in the €60,000-€80,000 bracket.

That advertisement has since been replaced by a similar one that does not state the salary offered.

However, a reference in both ads stating that the position would report to the "High Performance Director" has since been clarified to mean the director of performance sailing, a role reportedly earmarked for Connolly.

When contacted yesterday, Connolly declined to comment about either the report or the sailors' group letter. However, ISA chief executive Paddy Boyd confirmed that the organisation had responded to the sailors privately and would not be commenting further.

"Garrett will be continuing in his role as the person responsible for Olympic high performance," he said.

The issues that prompted the sailors' letter were outlined by double-Olympian Maria Coleman. "We have had no debrief from Athens yet but a meeting this weekend appears to be planning for the 2008 Games already - we want our debrief first."

The other issues surround the ISA Olympic Group (or steering committee) that is considered highly qualified but ineffective under the current structure.

While the sailors acknowledge the genuine efforts of the ISA's full-time staff, Coleman added, as every other country had proven professionals running their programmes, the Irish structure lacked sufficient depth of knowledge and experience at Olympic level and should be improved.

"This is a completely unified call across the team," said 49er crew and Olympic newcomer Fraser Brown.

"The so-called 'old guard' in the team actually have very good ideas about how to go forward - they're not old guard, they're the experienced guard."