The husband of Tom Daley accused British Swimming of telling lies as a row relating to the couple’s baby son’s access to poolside events escalated on social media.
Dustin Lance Black accused the governing body of creating a “toxic environment” for the family at its events when he and the child could not be present to watch the Olympic diver win gold with Grace Reid in the mixed synchro competition at the Diving World Series in London on Sunday.
In a series of tweets over the past 48 hours, he went on to claim that “some rather cruel, thoughtless @britishswimming organisers have created a situation that is neither safe nor welcoming for our family”.
While the exact cause of the row remained unclear, a statement by British Swimming appeared to suggest that the issue revolved around allowing the couple to bring a baby buggy on to the concourse for the event.
In a statement, British Swimming said: “British Swimming is extremely disappointed that Tom’s husband felt that he couldn’t be at the London Aquatic Centre to support Tom yesterday.”
“The London Aquatic Centre’s policy is not to allow buggies onto the spectator concourse for health and safety reasons and British Swimming supported this policy to ensure the safety of everyone attending this exciting event.”
However, the statement provoked fresh anger on Twitter on Monday from Black, who said that the situation “had little to nothing to do with a pram”.
“I never asked to bring one in, and we certainly had no interest in being poolside with one. Anyone there plainly saw that our son was on my lap. This pram story is a lie,” he said.
Black said that the couple had agreed over the weekend to resolve the dispute with British Swimming in private, adding: “And within the hour the CEO of @britishswimming put out a press release that is an absolute misrepresentation of what occurred. Or as my mom would call it: a lie.”
British Swimming did not respond on Monday when asked about the dispute that threatened to overshadow Daley’s success at the event. Black told BBC Sport that he had been informed that “people were complaining” after he took Robbie in a pram into the disabled section at the centre.
He insisted that the issue had initially been resolved but that Daley was then told that his husband and son had been “removed from the event”.