The victim left the swimming club and the perpetrator remained.
The question is why no one at the federal level intervenes and solves the injured battle in Swedish swimming.
– It is the association itself that will make the decision, says Matthias Helmberg of the RF.
A 19-year-old swimmer was convicted in March of two counts of sexual offenses against a younger girl. The victim was previously a club associate with the perpetrator, but felt bad after the events turned into a rival association.
Now the mood is tense between the two parties. They share a training pool, which means that the girl regularly needs to stay near the 19-year-old if she wants to play her sport.
The Swedish Sports Association was involved early in the mediation, but was unsuccessful in arriving at a solution that pleased everyone.
Because of the maneuver, several competition associations boycotted the 19-year-old’s club, not just the one for which the girl is now swimming. The current associations will not train with or compete with the 19-year-old club.
How do you see RF incompatibility?
The case has been officially settled
We do not comment on individual cases of the kind that you describe, says Matthias Helmberg, Head of Interest Policy.
Was the boycott a failure on your part?
– In general, we try with the concerned unions to support the associations to solve what happened in the best way. If we fail in this case, I cannot comment.
Two of the county clubs want the 19-year-old out of his club and not to compete against swimmers. But this decision is made solely by the Swimmers Association, which has chosen to allow him to continue his project. Thus, the case was officially settled.
Neither the Swedish Sports Federation nor the Swedish Swimming Federation, with which Sportbladet has also been in contact, have a mandate to control how the federation should act in such a situation. It is not their duty to keep a swimmer out of training or competition.
All the unions can do is make recommendations and continue to mediate in the hope that a solution will be found soon.
In the sports movement, all federations are their own legal entities. So in these processes we support how to understand and act. It’s up to the association to decide, says Matthias Helmberg.