We started the first part of this two-part Forum with this: Somewhere out there, Cornel Marculescu, the director of FINA between 1986 and 2021, has surely been smiling at what 'reform' came to mean in the sport he governed, and in the Olympic realm that conveys the message of each of its constituent disciplines to a much bigger audience once every four years:

FORUM: May One Seismic Shift On Olympic Heights Follow Another

In the first of a two-part FORUM, we look at the monumental u-turn taken by Kirsty Coventry and the IOC last week, and what it tells us about what should happen next if all those integrity and reform badges on blazers are to be in any way meaningful

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

If I had to sum up the three things that characterised Marculescu's tenure at the helm of FINA for almost four decades and, ultimately, accounted for his departure, I would list this:

1. A determination to protect the organisation and its status quo at almost any cost for reasons along a spectrum from the justifiable and understandable to the unjustifiable and unacceptable.
2. Oversight and management of a system of guardians and governors who could all too often to be said to be less interested in athletes and their welfare (including healthy ways of growing aquatics sports) than in the self-preservation that sat - and still sits - at the very heart of a culture in which staying in power by whatever means possible remains all pervasive.
3. The Sun Yang* saga that gave us a glimpse of a signatory to the WADA Code hugging an anti-doping problem on the Olympic deck - literally, in the case of Sun, and metaphorically in the case of China - coupled with the political ambitions of 'executive volunteers' too ready to look the other way when led by a president (Maglione) unfit for office, in my opinion, his support for Putin and Russia at the height of a Russian doping crisis, and breaking his promise to serve two terms only - before he and Ghose around him changed the rules to ensure he could stay and stay again - key among reasons

Some of those who sought to distance themselves from events that unfolded on their watch in the era of Maglione (as a puppet president) and Marculescu (as the smart operator in the professional role as director) slapped a 'reformist' badge on their blazers and remain in place to this day. They are just as responsible for some of the bad things that happened in FINA days as Marculescu was, if only because they had to the power to tell the director what should and should not happen.

The cases of Sun in 2018 and the China-23-Go-Free that coincided with the season in which Sun would be banned for four years and three months, did not end in the same way. And yet, the parallel screams from the pages of both case files:

• files kept confidential by the guardians and governors of clean sport protecting China from exposure of highly questionable circumstances were revealed by media working with whistleblowers - and they contained material that could be said to be both of and in the public interest, particularly because of their implications for clean sport and trust; for athletes, coaches and programs abiding by the WADA Code; and for those, including national taxpayers, who fund Olympic athletes and therefore the business of the IOC and its affiliates such as World Aquatics, and the commercial partners who work with them.

It is in that context - with parallels between the manner in which FINA leaders, China, Doping and commercial deals all cycled around the Sun saga, and the manner in which World Aquatics leaders, China, Doping and commercial deals circle around the 23-go-free saga - that we consider the following conundrum and questions:

This past couple of weeks has seen national championships unfold in various countries around the world, including Britain, Hungary and Italy, while selection events for international action have taken place in Bergen and elsewhere.

Those championships raised a question in me: how many of those events featured a visit from a heavy complement of World Aquatics' top 'executive volunteers' and representatives?

I ask because I don't know, and because I think it's important that we do know. I pose the question above to each country out there. Why? Because the whole lineup of folk representing World Aquatics, including members of the executive, did attend the Chinese Spring Nationals a few weeks ago

It's not unreasonable to ask 'Why'?

Let's take a look...