Note: This post has been corrected to reflect the fact that Pia Holmen was only on leave from her position on the board of Danish swimming, not her job as Director of Danish Swimming.
Several weeks ago, shockwaves reverberated across the Danish Swimming community. Pia Holmen, the top official in Danish Swimming for roughly the last twenty years, had to resign in disgrace, after an official government investigation found her leadership during that period lacking (link in Danish).
I got several requests to explain what had happened and give some perspective, but was moving apartments at the time. I also knew I had a trip coming up where I would get to talk to people on the ground in Denmark. More on that trip later, but here are the major revelations coming out of the report.
Pia’s Exit
Holmen had been on leave from the board of Danish Swimming (but not her paid position as the Director of Danish Swimming) since the investigation was launched. For those unfamiliar with what triggered the investigation you can read my blog post from last year. Ultimately, many decided that Holmen as leader of the organization failed to provide appropriate oversight of top ranking employees.
Her resignation is significant in that her legacy will now include both this scandal and presiding over the best period of results in Danish Swimming history. Holmen also appeared to suffer the most immediate consequences because of two factors beyond her control.
The two coaches accused of the behavior, Mark Regan and Paulus Wildeboer, exist out of the realm for Danish authorities to punish. Wildeboer died in 2015, so he cannot counter any of the accusations made against him. Regan appears to all but be in hiding somewhere in New Zealand.
What about Hinge and Lars?
Two figures that may be unfamiliar to many outside of Denmark have thus far avoided any consequences. For context, Lars Sørensen, now the top man at Copenhagen’s biggest swim club, was the direct report of both coaches during the time period.
Michael Hinge was the Danish “talentudvikler” or talent developer for a long period that included the tenure of both men. I should note that I only know Sørensen in passing but have spent some time with Hinge on training camps as well as visits to my club when I was in Denmark.
Sources on the ground told me they think it is unlikely that Sørensen will avoid reprecussions. If Holmen had to resign in disgrace, Sørensen’s leadership was even more crucial to the behavior of both coaches.
Multiple sources starkly contrasted that with Hinge. It’s important to note that Hinge was subordinate to all parties heretofore mentioned. Those sources indicated that Hinge changed his coaching behavior as a direct result of pressure from both National Team coaches to “toughen up”.
Still, Hinge has received some of the most sensational coverage in the Danish media. Former swimmer Sidse Kehlet implicated Hinge in her eating disorder, while another former Danish champion Joachim Mortensen said that Hinge called him “bøsse”, a derogatory slang word for homosexuals.
What do I think?
Well, I’m overall feeling fairly positive about the whole thing. None of these processes are perfect, but overall I think the Danish authorities ran a good process. There was worlds more transparency than I’ve seen from any governing body in the US. This transparency was compelled by a robust governmental investigation.
The process of getting bad actors out of the sport is a hard one. It comes with tradeoffs and while I think that governing bodies should be aggressive, in this case it appears they did a decent job balancing everything.
If there are further significant developments you can expect me to write about it here.