South African swimmer Roland Schoeman waded into a racial controversy by branding the Indian crowd at the S.P. Mukherjee aquatics complex “monkeys” on Friday.
With the local crowd cheering home lad Veerdhawal Khade just before the start of the 50m freestyle event, it led to a false start by the swimmers. Schoeman, a legendary swimmer in his own right, showed his displeasure with a nasty remark. “It was very disgraceful. A guy in the stands just kept shouting and people like that should be ejected. It’s unacceptable to be at a professional event like this and have people going on like monkeys,”said Schoeman in a most unprofessional manner.
After the false start, amidst cheers of “Khade, Khade”, the swimmer also splashed angrily at the water to make his displeasure clear.
If it was the Aussie and English swimmers who blamed the poor quality of the pool with allegations of water-borne stomach infections, it was the turn of Schoeman to show himself in poor light.
Schoeman also slammed the Commonwealth Games staff for being unprofessional as they did not provide him with a towel after the false start. The Indian officials were, meanwhile, very miffed with Schoeman’s comments.
“Everyone has gone out of their way to make them feel comfortable, but many swimmers have been rude to our volunteers. They have all been asked to grin and bear. Coming from a veteran like Schoeman, this is shocking. The spectator wasn’t correct, but the gestures and jibes are totally uncalled for,” said a top official from the Swimming Federation of India.