Bill Sweetenham cleared of bullying allegations

January 6, 2006

Australian coach Bill Sweetenham has been cleared by an independent inquiry of bullying allegations made last year by former British table tennis player Matthew Syed. Syed had accused Sweetenham of damaging British swimming and causing the retirement of 13 senior British swimmers.

Sweetenham has been the performance director for British swimming since November 2000, when he took over from Deryk Snelling. His contract, which was recently renewed, runs up till the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

Syed's claims had been denied by Sweetenham, British Swimming and many of the swimmers involved. Despite this and the result of the inquiry some of the swimmers maintain that the inquiry was not thorough enough.

The inquiry will be published later in the month when Sweetenham returns from Australia.