Bluestone Review says Australia’s London 2012 Olympic team had ‘toxic’ culture

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Australia’s London Olympics swimming team was beset by “culturally toxic incidents” including misuse of prescription drugs and bullying that highlighted a failure of culture and leadership, a report said.

The so-called Bluestone Review, commissioned by Swimming Australia after the nation’s worst performance in the Olympic pool in two decades, found that a culture existed within the team which “did not appear to assist or support high-level performance for most people.”

“There were enough culturally toxic incidents across enough team members that breached agreements (such as getting drunk, misuse of prescription drugs, breaching curfews, deceit, bullying) to warrant a strong, collective leadership response that included coaches, staff and the swimmers,” the report said. “No such collective action was taken.”

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