Cayman Islands Olympic Committee President Donald McLean says the local swimming association did everything it could to prevent Geoffrey and Lara Butler from going to the Olympics.
It’s an accusation those at CIASA deny.
The Butlers were selected for Rio 2016 through the International Olympic Committee’s Universality Programme, geared to help smaller countries send athletes to the games even if they didn’t meet qualifying standards.
Appearing on the 27 July episode of Let’s Talk Sports, McLean said the Cayman Islands Amateur Swimming Association refused to fill out paperwork or cooperate in getting the swimmers selected through the programme.
“This is where we had a little head-butting with the national federation because their philosophy or policy is that they do not condone universality invitations, (swimmers) should qualify,” McLean said. “I disagree because our object is to send people to games, not hinder them. Having said that, the swimming federation tried everything possible to prevent these athletes from going.”
CIASA President Michael Lockwood responded to McLean’s comments with the following statement:
“We’ll just do the best we can to support Lara and Geoffrey on their road to Rio. We arranged last week for them to do a training camp in Miami and we’ve made efforts to support them the best we can at this point and see them through to the Olympics.”
Geoffrey Butler is set to take off in the men’s 400-metre freestyle while Lara Butler will compete in the women’s 100-metre backstroke.
