Australia Does Its Swim Parents Proud
2008-07-28
Craig Lord
The Dolphins will have mum and dad in the crowd in almost every case, courtesy of a commitment by the Australian Olympic Committee

The Australian Olympic Committee has guaranteed that it will meet a commitment to provide two tickets per athlete for the sold-out Olympic swimming events at the Water Cube after claims they had fallen 10 tickets short for one session, according to a report by AAP.

Mike Tancred, the AOC media director, confirmed to the agency that the full quota of tickets had been received but said that no allocation could be made for relays because quartets had not been finalised.

'The tickets are there, they're just being held back because the relay teams and the relay swimmers haven't been named as yet. We have fulfilled our promise that there will be two tickets per family for each heat and final in swimming. We're just waiting for those relay swimmers before the tickets are handed out. We have worked really hard to get the tickets and we've done our best in a very difficult situation. We've made families a priority and we're just waiting on those relay teams but the tickets are there,' said Tancred.

Of the 43-person Australian swimming team, only four swimmers will not have parents travelling to China for the Olympic Games, AAP reports.