Swimming: Inquiry was 'wasted' says Pickering

Brighton and Hove-born Pickering, Britain's most successful female swimmer, believes an investigation which cleared Bill Sweetenham of bullying yesterday "was a bit of a wasted opportunity".

Pickering, who won a record eight world, 14 European and 13 Commonwealth Games gold medals before retiring five months ago, blasted the performance director for making her cry and showing a "lack of respect" towards her.

But she believes the probe should have been widened to find out how to stop the exodus of elite swimmers under the current regime and encourage leading juniors to carry on.

Pickering feels Britain's failure at the Olympics and the World Championships last month to win anything reveals the lack of top swimmers.

The former Shiverer (Hove) said: "The investigation was a bit of a wasted opportunity and I wasn't hugely surprised by the outcome. I appreciate British swimming had to inquire into allegations of bullying because it is getting into the sensitive area of child protection.

"But British swimming has fundamental problems and a lot of them are not to do with bullying or whether Bill has upset swimmers. The investigation should have been broader.

"The biggest problem is that we are not keeping our swimmers in the sport. That needs to be addressed urgently.

"The fact 15 or 16 elite swimmers, including me, have retired since the Athens Games under 18 months ago alone shows that something isn't right.

"It's not just a few older swimmers who don't like change. The majority of us embraced the changes but clearly something has gone wrong from during Athens to now.

"I feel swimmers are not happy because the regime is too rigid. That is not just down to Bill Sweetenham but everybody who runs it."

Pickering, who swam in four Olympics, still feels hurt by the way Sweetenham dealt with her.

She said: "We had some runins.

"Some of the things we were doing were absolutely pointless.

I was upset at having been spoken to with a lack of respect."