Tom Daley’s husband has slammed swimming event organisers for creating a “toxic environment” for families after he claimed he was prevented from watching the Olympic diver with their son.
Dustin Lance Black, 44, said on Twitter that British Swimming was “corrupt” after officials apparently barred him from spectating at this weekend’s Diving World Series in London.
He accused British Swimming bosses of confronting Daley, 24, during the competition with the news that Black and their 10-month-old son, Robbie Ray, had been forcibly removed from the London Aquatic Centre.
The organisation said in a statement on Monday that the situation arose due to the venue’s policy of not allowing buggies and prams into spectator seating areas.
But Black, a Hollywood writer who married Daley in 2017, said the issue was not over the use of buggies and pointed to a broader problem which “happens at every British Swimming event”.
HuffPost UK understands that some of Black’s claims on Twitter could be subjected to legal action by British Swimming.
“This is an illness within the organisation which leads to families being kept at arm’s length and being demonised,” Black added to the BBC. “There is no other country that does this. When it is a [International Swimming Federation] event and not a British Swimming event, there is no problem.
“Any other country we go to we are made to feel welcome. What happened this weekend was a bit of the last straw. They demonise family members and treat us as if we are somehow incumbent. [They] would rather we are not there.”
Despite the furore, Daley achieved gold with partner Grace Reid in the mixed 3m synchro.
A British Swimming spokesperson told HuffPost UK the organisation would not amend its statement following Black’s response.
Its original statement read: “British Swimming is extremely disappointed that Tom’s husband felt that he couldn’t be at the London Aquatic Centre to support Tom.
“The London Aquatics Centre’s policy is not to allow buggies on to the spectator concourse for health and safety reasons and British Swimming supported this policy to ensure the safety of everyone attending this exciting event.
“British Swimming recognises the fundamental part that families play in supporting all of the athletes and offered to put measures in place to store the buggy during the event so that Tom’s family could be present. We were pleased to see some of Tom’s family there last night celebrating his success.”