The annual rowing regatta for schools in the Australian state of Queensland usually passes off without too much attention. Each year more than 600 of the state's most promising teenage rowers battle it out on the crocodile-inhabited Fitzroy River, in the city of Rockhampton. "We've never had any media wanting to attend here," Anthea O'Loughlin, head of Rowing Queensland, tells the BBC.
But this year is different. In six years' time, the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics are set to stage rowing and canoe sprint events in this very stretch of water, which has just passed a technical assessment and been endorsed as safe and fair for athletes. While sightings of saltwater crocodiles on the river – which number around 500 and can grow to four metres (13ft) long – are not uncommon, state government files going back more than 40 years record no attacks by the reptiles on humans.
And while influential figures at last month's World Rowing congress in Amsterdam made occasional references to "safety", the presence of the reptiles was not their chief concern. "Fairness" is what's been raised with British Rowing's chief executive Tom Solesbury – a reference to the tidal river's natural bends and currents which many in the rowing community say make it unsuitable for elite competition. Drew Ginn, who has won three Olympic gold medals for Australia in rowing, told BBC Radio he had concerns over potential flooding and "fairness and integrity" at the venue.
"Personally, I'm not fearful of the Australian animals but I've never had a crocodile near me," he said. "I'm sure I'd row faster, I'm sure all the athletes would row faster. That's on the list of concerns, I don't think it's the highest priority in concerns but it was certainly cited very early on." The German rowing body's president Moritz Petri said athletes had also questioned the sustainability of holding the event some 600km (373 miles) from Brisbane.
But the "so-called impediments" got short shrift from the most senior politician in Queensland, state premier David Crisafulli, who reached for less diplomatic language. "Let's be honest, let's scratch beneath the surface and call it for what it is," he said days after the Amsterdam meeting. "It is a group of interstate and overseas elites who are trying to bully their way because they don't want to go to regional Queensland and that's not right." Rowing chiefs contacted by the BBC before Thursday's decision declined to comment directly on Crisafulli's "elites" remarks.
But both Petri and Simon Wickham, chief executive of Rowing New Zealand, said their concerns had nothing to do with regional or urban preference but with competitors getting fair racing. Petri added it was about what's best for their athletes who will train four years for the event, "dreaming night [after] night of becoming an Olympic champion". Whether it was crocs or currents that tipped the balance, ultimately it was the sport's governing body World Rowing and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that had the final say on the river's suitability.
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