Australian Olympic swimmer Madeline Groves has accused two of the country's leading coaches of misconduct and lifted the lid on what she says is a culture of "misogyny" and "perversion" in the sport.
In an exclusive interview with the ABC, Groves also revealed that she was sexually abused from the age of 13 by a person who still works in swimming.
It is the first time the dual Olympic medallist has elaborated on her explosive social media posts in June, when she withdrew from the trials for the Tokyo Olympic Games, "as a lesson to misogynistic perverts and their bootlickers".
"You can no longer exploit young women and girls, body shame or medically gaslight them and then expect them to represent you so you can earn your annual bonus. Time's UP," Groves tweeted.
The posts ignited a media firestorm and led to the appointment of an independent panel to investigate the treatment of women and girls in the sport.
In a statement, Swimming Australia said it had taken all Groves's complaints seriously and taken steps to address them.
Since August, the 26-year-old butterfly star has been in Europe, competing in the International Swimming League (ISL) as a member of the DC Trident team.
Groves spoke to the ABC in London during a break from the competition.
'I didn't feel like there was anyone I could tell'
Groves said she decided to do an interview after watching the ABC's three-part investigative series about former elite swimming coach, John Wright.
As 7.30 revealed last month, Wright is accused of sexually abusing a number of teenage boys he trained at Queensland pools in the 1980s and 1990s.
The reports led to a Queensland Police investigation and Wright's arrest. He is now in custody facing nine charges of indecent dealing with a child and one count of common assault
"I think seeing the report on the John Wright case, there's this attitude that that type of thing is a historical issue and it doesn't happen anymore and that times have changed," Groves said.
"But I don't think that's necessarily true," she added, fighting back tears.
"Because when I was underage, on multiple occasions I was actually molested by an adult male.
Groves said the abuse started when she was 13 and continued until she was 18.
She declined to identify the alleged perpetrator but said he still worked in swimming.
"I haven't made a complaint about this individual," she told 7.30.
"I guess my experience from trying to make complaints about other people in sport was so discouraging, it really didn't leave me feeling that making a complaint about this person would be any different to the others.
"I don't think I really want to report it to police. It's obviously a huge process emotionally and it takes such a long time … and then it doesn't necessarily end up working out that well.
"I've had a couple of other friends and people that I know in swimming that have been sexually abused and assaulted and they've been through that process.
"And I think if I made a complaint, I don't really think anything would be any different to that.
"It's an uncomfortable thing to have to talk about and deal with, but it's not my fault, and I just hope that by speaking about this stuff that it is taken seriously and that there are protections put in place."
'A cry for help'
Groves said her "misogynistic perverts" tweet was the culmination of years of frustration and disappointment dating back to when she started competitive swimming at the age of 12.
"Deciding not to compete at Olympic trials was a culmination of those feelings, and really, in a way, like a cry for help that hopefully someone would listen and maybe do something about this huge issue in Australian sport," she said.
She said she had experienced "a difficult journey" with the sport's governing body, Swimming Australia.
Groves said her tweets were describing a pattern of behaviour she had experienced and witnessed since she was a junior swimmer.
"I remember very clearly when I was 12 … I was complimented for losing weight, which I distinctly remember thinking was strange, because I was 12," she said.
"It just seemed confusing to me that I would be complimented for losing weight. And really, from that time, nothing changed.
"It just really felt like a free-for-all, from all staff and coaches, at sort of every level of competitive sport, to make inappropriate comments about young girls' bodies, and that is perverted to me.
"That was seen as you failing … because you were gaining weight when you were just developing in a normal way."
Comments from a young age took toll
Groves trained under coach Michael Palfrey from the age of 12 to 15 at St Peter's Western Swim Club in Brisbane.
Palfrey is the former head coach of the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS), and trained Olympic medallists Brianna Throssell, Tamsin Cook and Zac Incerti.
In 2014, Palfrey was the subject of two WAIS investigations into claims of improper conduct towards junior swimmers. WAIS CEO Steven Lawrence Armstrong said in both instances the complaints were found to be "unsubstantiated".
Groves said from the age of 13, Palfrey required her and other girls to weigh themselves on the pool deck, often while dripping wet in their swimwear.
"I would basically go and hide in the bathrooms, or go and hide, like, in another part of the pool area so that I wouldn't have to do it or they wouldn't be able to find me," she said.
She alleges that Palfrey controlled what she ate and made sexist comments.
"I specifically remember on a training camp in New Zealand, I would have been 13 years old, and we weren't allowed to go into the dining room and eat without our coach being there to witness that we were eating the correct meals.
"And I remember on a few occasions, me and a few of my friends would sneak into the dining rooms early and basically steal bread and shove it into our pockets so that we would be able to not eat so much in front of him.
"I didn't realise that I really was starving myself, because I had felt like it's inappropriate to go back and get a second plate of food, or I [didn't] want to be seen to be eating too much bread or too much pasta.
"And that it was some sort of inherent failure of women that we weren't built to handle these pressures and somehow weren't capable.
"These comments really started … when I was 12 years old. And I think it's underestimated how damaging just hearing that type of attitude from such a young age can be and how much it does shape your own behaviour in a way that you are trying to avoid being a target of those comments."
Groves also alleges that Michael Palfrey "manhandled" her, sometimes leaving bruises.
"The manhandling was a very common practice at my swimming club growing up," she said.
"It just was this thing that happened by the coach where it seems like when they got very excited, they would just grab you, grab your shoulder, grab your neck, grab your arms and sort of like, slap you and shake you in a way that was sort of done as like, a playful thing.
"But when you're in your togs and you're an underage girl and you have an adult male grabbing at your body and sort of slapping you ... it really breaks down the barriers and boundaries of what inappropriate conduct is.
In a statement, Swimming Australia said it was unaware of Groves's complaints about Palfrey until it was contacted by the ABC.
SA said it had referred her complaints to the independent complaints body, Sport Integrity Australia, for consideration.
"Given it is now under an ongoing investigation, it would not be appropriate to make further comment on the matter," it said.
'I was left feeling empty and suicidal'
Groves said when she was 15, she took a year off from swimming.
"I just felt so incredibly burnt out and overwhelmed and just discouraged by the sport that it just wasn't something that I wanted to do anymore," she said.
"I was making junior Australian teams and winning at Australian age national championships. But I was really left still feeling empty and really suicidal … because my whole world was swimming.
"It was something that I did every single day. I was made to feel like every decision I made, whether I was at the pool or not, was going to have a bearing on whether I was ever going to be successful in life.
"And that sort of pressure, of course, is going to be overwhelming to a developing person. It certainly wasn't an option to just train less.
A #MeToo moment in swimming
In 2010, the year before Groves took a break from swimming, she was selected to compete at the Oceania Swimming Championships in Samoa. Glenn Beringen was the head coach on the trip.
A decade later, she would tweet about her experience, saying:
"We didn't really have a #MeToo moment in swimming but just realising maybe it was this weirdo staring at my tits when I'm trying to swim."
"Can I just say I definitely made a complaint a few years ago about a person that works at swimming making me feel uncomfortable the way they stare at me in my togs and I think they've possibly been given a promotion since."
Groves says she was referring to Beringen, an Olympic medal-winning former swimmer and coach.
Beringen was Swimming Australia's national youth coach until a few weeks ago, when Swimming Australia made his position redundant.
Swimming Australia told the ABC:
"As part of a routine High Performance review following the Tokyo Olympic Games it was determined the role of National Youth Coach was not required for the next Olympic cycle and Glenn's contract was therefore not renewed."
Groves alleges Beringen stared at her breasts and touched her inappropriately on the trip to Samoa.
"He was Petria Thomas's coach and obviously being a butterflyer myself, Glenn was presented as a very important person that had coached one of my heroes and if I wanted to be like my hero Petria Thomas, I should go along with Glenn's advice and basically tolerate his behaviour," she said.
"As a 15-year-old, I was sent to a foreign country basically alone with no real support network, having this strange man be the one that was going to look after me.
"It was this noticeable pattern of this person always wanting to talk to me as soon as I'd gotten into my togs.
"There was seemingly no interest in speaking to me when I was clothed … but as soon as I was in my togs, it was the time when this person wanted to take me away from the group and have these intimate conversations with me and stand very close to me, inside my personal space and really standing over me and staring and leering at me.
"They would repeat things that they'd already said to me or things that they'd already said earlier that day.
"And they'd be saying these things to me and just blatantly staring at my breasts basically, sometimes, not even trying to make eye contact with me.
"And there would be touching of my arm, touching of my lower back. And sometimes he would adjust my tog strap as well.
"It just seemed so blatant that I just thought that other people would know what was going on, and if it was a problem, that they would do something about it.
"But that didn't happen. So I guess it just really felt like something else that I had to tolerate if I wanted to be a successful Australian swimmer."
After repeated requests from the ABC for a response, Beringen sent an email on Wednesday saying the allegations were "completely untrue" and that he had "fully co-operated with an independent investigation into these allegations and they were found to be without foundation".
Groves says she first complained about Beringen's behaviour in 2017, as part of a review of the Australian team's trip to Hungary for the FINA World Championships.
The review was conducted by the Australian Swimmers' Association.
"I remember when this review was announced that many of us swimmers … when we were speaking to each other, we had said that one of the things that we would complain about was Glenn Beringen's conduct," she said.
"I remember many people making similar comments about feeling uncomfortable at the time.
"It felt like this was the opportunity for people to maybe raise this through this independent review.
"And hopefully, because it was an outsider doing the review and handing the report to Swimming Australia, they would sort of have to do something about it."
It is understood that Swimming Australia received the complaint by Groves and two junior female swimmers about Beringen's behaviour on the 2017 trip.
Groves said she got no response to her complaint and the report was not made public.
Groves complained about Beringen again in 2019, after she attended a national event camp where he was coaching.
She wrote: "Can't believe you still allow Glenn Beringen on camps after so many females complained about him. He makes me feel very uncomfortable".
Groves says she got no response to her feedback.
'The darkest time in my career'
2017 was a difficult year for Groves — she was diagnosed with two chronic illnesses, endometriosis and adenomyosis, and underwent two surgeries.
She was fighting a dope testing rule violation, which FINA ultimately dismissed, and says she was battling Swimming Australia over funding.
"I had originally asked Swimming Australia for about $5,000 to help me pay for my medical procedures, and, you know, pay my rent, so I could make it through to the [2018] Commonwealth Games," she said.
"I was hoping that being a medal favourite in my event that Swimming Australia would see the value in helping me reach that potential.
"A week to the day after my surgery, I met with someone from Swimming Australia and asked them for help.
"And they told me that there was no help available to me, that I would only be eligible for help if I failed to make the Commonwealth Games team, which was in about three months' time at that stage, and that maybe I should just quit swimming, which was shocking to me.
She says in desperation, she sought the help of radio talkback host Alan Jones.
"I contacted Alan Jones at the time, who has a reputation for helping athletes when they need it and he contacted the president of Swimming Australia at the time and basically asked, 'Why is your athlete having to come to me for this small amount of money?'"
Groves says the email resulted in her receiving $32,000 of government funding that she had been owed, but from then on, she was treated as a "problem child".
"I was just expected, the week after major surgery, to return to training 10 times a week, and there was sort of some real confusion around why I wasn't capable of doing that," she said.
Groves left her squad and trained alone in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.
"I coached myself in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games and thankfully was able to rekindle that love and joy for swimming and realise that I do really love being a competitive athlete.
"I really surprised myself that I somehow still managed to make the team for the 50m and 100m butterfly.
"I was really proud of myself that despite going through the darkest time in my career, some of the most vulnerable times of my life feeling like any support I thought existed around me was a lie … that I was still able to make an Australian team."
Groves went on to win a silver medal in the 100m butterfly and a bronze medal in the 50m butterfly at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
A few months later, Groves received an email saying that her annual funding would be halved, from about $40,000 to $20,000 per year.
"I was very frustrated. I thought I had proved that I was taking this seriously, that this is something that I really wanted and that I deserved to be helped," she said.
"This was despite Swimming Australia being fully aware of the ongoing health issues that I had, endometriosis and adenomyosis … I hadn't had any financial support to treat those illnesses from them so it was galling to me they thought it was appropriate to then further cut support to a chronically ill person."
Groves said she met with Swimming Australia's then-head of high performance, Alex Baumann.
"I was really just met with total indifference. It really didn't matter what I had been through or the long-term impact that this had had on my training, and that I was still able to achieve high level results," she said.
"I said, 'But I won two medals at the Commonwealth Games.'
"And Alex said back to me, 'The Commonwealth Games don't matter'. And I just was so frustrated because I thought, 'Well, why did we send, like, 70 athletes to compete at this competition if it didn't matter?'"
She said the funding cut was only reversed after she complained to her coach at the time, Michael Bohl.
In a statement, SA said:
"Ms Groves received Direct Athlete Investment Support (dAIS) from the Australian Institute of Sport and was also supported through dAIS after she requested to take a break from competitive swimming in 2017.
"Her dAIS funding was temporarily put on hold in 2017 due to a suspected anti-doping rule violation that Ms Groves was later cleared of.
"To our knowledge, this funding was subsequently back-paid to Ms Groves.
"Swimming Australia strongly refutes any suggestion that it declined to support Ms Groves during her break from swimming."
It added, "Post 30 June 2020, Ms Groves's funding was suspended due to a breach of the Swimming Australia Code of Conduct."
Overwhelming response to 'misogyny' tweet
Groves said when she tweeted about misogyny in June this year, she felt it was her only chance to be heard by Swimming Australia, which she felt had repeatedly ignored and punished her for speaking out.
"I really had an overwhelmingly positive and supportive response to my tweets," she said.
"I don't know what I expected at the time, but I certainly didn't anticipate the sheer volume of people that would reach out to me.
"It was athletes, staff, coaches from Australia and abroad, both swimmers and non-swimmers that had contacted me, expressing that they understood what I was talking about and often shared some really upsetting stories with me about their experiences in swimming.
"It was just really awful to have to know that so many people had also had really negative experiences in swimming and that these people felt like they had me to reach out to me.
"There were many different stories. A lot of stories from recent years about people feeling fat-shamed and struggling with eating disorders and body image issues, but also some really awful stories about sexual assault and abuse.
"And a few stories, talking about being raped as well. And some really serious incidents that none of these people felt like they were looked after, when they had those things happen to them. Like, even if they did go somewhere for help, they weren't often met with the support that they expected."
After her tweet, Groves and her lawyer Tim Fuller met with the then-Swimming Australia CEO Alex Baumann and the president of Swimming Australia Kieren Perkins, another meeting that left her feeling unsupported.
"It was a very interesting meeting to me, because it was really the first time that Alex had shown any interest or care for what I was going through," she said.
"And it really did seem like an act that he was putting on for the legal representation that was present. Because certainly conversations over the years, he was not showing the same concern.
"The lawyers asked what I was referring to [in the social media posts].
"Kieran really just seemed like he was in the room as a box-ticking exercise. He barely looked at me and didn't shake my hand when we walked into the room.
"He didn't ask me any questions or show any concern for me. It was really just the legal representative trying to get information out of me.
"I was pretty brief on details at that point. I had expressed my disappointment and … we did discuss the tweet that I'd made about Glenn Beringen.
"They did say that they would investigate my tweet about Glenn Beringen."
Groves said she received a letter from Swimming Australia in October to say her complaint was "unsubstantiated".
In a statement to the ABC, Swimming Australia said after the meeting with Groves, it engaged an independent investigator to review her claims against Beringen.
SA said Groves was asked to provide further information to the investigator, but she declined to do so.
"The investigator ultimately determined that the complaints were unsubstantiated," it said.
SA said earlier this year, it decided not to renew Beringen's contract.
Groves said when she met with Baumann and Perkins in June, SA had just announced an independent panel to investigate her claims of a toxic culture in elite swimming.
"They weren't very forthcoming in this meeting about what the panel would entail, despite it seemingly being announced as a reaction to what I had done," she said.
"It felt more like a PR exercise and like a damage-control thing rather than a genuine concern for what I was talking about.
"There was no detail as to what this panel was going to investigate, and really no clarity around the obligations they had to report abuse that they may have been made aware of.
"There was no clarification around whether the final report would be made public or not, which I don't believe it will be."
Groves says she was speaking out in the hope that she could help to change the culture in swimming and make it a safer sport for women and girls.
"It just really seems like there is this vicious cycle of using and abusing female athletes until they're burnt out and broken.
"I feel like if I didn't speak out, if there's not a proper investigation into the culture of this sport in Australia, that cycle is just going to continue forever."
In a statement, Swimming Australia said:
"Swimming Australia remains resolute in its commitment to continually improve our sport to ensure it is a safe and thriving environment for all participants from the grassroots through to the elite level.
"Swimming Australia has appointed an independent panel of experts to investigate issues relating to women and girls' experiences in swimming. The Panel's report and recommendations are expected early next year."
SA did not say whether the findings would be made public.
“Swimming Australia will continue to work with Sports Integrity Australia to improve our processes in line with the panel's recommendations and our ongoing commitment to providing an environment where all athletes feel safe," it said.
Watch this story on 7.30 tonight on ABC TV and ABC iview.
