Swimming Australia has released the findings of a report commissioned in June 2021 after explosive allegations by Olympic silver medallist Maddie Groves of the sport's "misogynistic" culture.
At the time, Groves announced she was withdrawing from Tokyo Olympic trials as a "lesson to all misogynistic perverts in sport and their bootlickers."
It led to the establishment of an independent panel to investigate the treatment of women and girls in the sport.
The panel spoke to 150 participants including former and current athletes, parents, coaches, technical officials, volunteers and administrators.
In a media release, Swimming Australia said the "open and frank" feedback it received was "difficult to read".
The report contains a total of 46 recommendations.
Some of the key recommendations include that the sport should do away with the use of skinfolds "as a measure of body composition at any stage of a swimmer's career".
This includes amending language in current coaching materials to be "more respectful towards women (for example remove existing descriptions such as "large thighs" when describing the bodies of female swimmers)".
It also calls for a task force to promote gender equality within the sport, "to address areas such as "leadership opportunities for women as coaches, officials, administrators and executives".
It commits to establishing quotas for the representation of women amongst advanced and performance coaches, while also pledging to "never again select an all-male team for national and international competitions".
Perhaps more controversially, the report also calls on male coaches in particular "to understand the impacts of bullying and exclusion of female coaches and enhance opportunities for creating meaningful change for gender equity."
Coaches will also be required to undertake specific education on "female-specific health concerns" such as medical conditions impacting female athletes, managing puberty, assessing body composition, preventing disordered eating and "using understanding and empathy to engage in sensitive topics".
In an ABC exclusive interview in December, Groves revealed she was sexually abused from the age of 13 by a person who still works in the sport.
