Swimming World Cup: Hong Kong swimmers battle mouldy hotel, transport chaos in South Korea

Athletes attending the South Korea leg of the Swimming World Cup said the event has been poorly organised, and complained that their hotel rooms were dirty, had mould, and lacked hot water and working air conditioning.

The substandard facilities led World Aquatics, the sport’s governing body, to move the 11 swimmers it invited to the series – including Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey – to another hotel.

A Hong Kong coach, and a swimmer who asked to remain anonymous, also said transport to and from the venue in Incheon was “chaos” and shared an image with the Post of athletes having to lie on the floor of an overcrowded bus while on their way back to the hotel on Thursday night.

“[World Aquatics] did move the invited athletes after one night, and they asked me if I wanted to move as well, but I said no because I have other athletes that I’m working with, and the location of the hotel is kind of nice,” said Tom Rushton, Haughey’s coach.

The upheaval seems to have done little to disrupt Haughey’s rhythm, however. On Friday, the quadruple Olympic medallist won gold in the women’s 200-metre freestyle, while teammate Ng Lai-wa took silver in the women’s 1,500-metre freestyle.