Tom Daley's husband Dustin Lance Black has accused British Swimming of "corruption" in a row over access issues concerning their baby son, Robbie.
In a series of explosive tweets, Black accused the governing body of presiding over a "toxic environment" and of "creating a situation that is neither safe nor welcoming for our family".
Black and the couple's son, whom they welcomed via a surrogate last year, were not present to watch Daley and Grace Reid win gold in the mixed synchro competition at the Diving World Series in London on Sunday.
Sadly, organisers at @britishswimming have succeeded in creating a toxic environment for our family at their events so we can't be there in person on this very special London morning. If you are there, please give a big cheer for our @TomDaley1994 for us! 👏 — Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) May 19, 2019
Their issue appears to resolve around British Swimming's inability to grant special dispensation to the couple to bring a baby buggy onto the concourse for the event, primarily to ensure their son's privacy.
Although they have released a number of selected images of their family, Black and Daley are keen to ensure that no identifiable photographs of Robbie are released into the public domain.
In a tweet prior to the event on Sunday, Black revealed his and his son's absence by claiming that "some rather cruel, thoughtless @Britishswimming organisers have created a situation that is neither safe nor welcoming for our family".
So we agreed over the weekend to resolve our dispute with @britishswimming in private. 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. This organisation is corrupt. — Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) May 20, 2019
He followed up on Monday by alleging British Swimming had "lied" about the circumstances of an attempted resolution, adding: "This organisation is corrupt."
In a statement, British Swimming responded: "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."
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Mark Staniforth, Press Association Olympics Correspondent');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '9dbe4f41-cd5b-4ba5-a6e8-13ea0d39988c');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:uk');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:diving,sport:other');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Tom Daley\u2019s husband hits out at British Swimming in buggy row'});
