Swim team manager Martin Allen has added his voice to the chorus of those bemoaning Bermuda's lack of facilities.

Despite the Island sending swimmers to every major Games for more than 20 years, and despite being promised an Olympic-sized (50 metre) pool since the late 1970s, nothing has been done by successive Governments.

Mary Beth Aitken, whose daughter Kiera destroyed her own 100 metres backstroke national record at Beijing's Aquatics Centre on Sunday, said prior to that event she was appalled by the lack of support given to Bermuda's successful swim programme.

Allen, attending his first Olympics although he's been involved in the sport for some 30 years, echoed the same sentiments.

"In spite of repeated calls from the swimming association and from national coach Richard Goodwin and Ben Smith, we just don't seem to be making any headway at all," he said.

"I remember back in the –'70s going to a preliminary meeting when, I believe, Quinton Edness was the Minister of Sport, and the new design for the National Sports Centre was unveiled.

"I remember thinking this was magnificent, let's get going. But what happened to it . . . it got shelved, it got put on the back-burner.

"The stadium that got built ... but the pool? There's still not even a hole in the ground.

"But Bermuda, over the years, has been producing excellent swimmers. In 1990 at the Commonwealth Games we had six swimmers, in the Olympics of '92 in Barcelona we also had six swimmers.

"And again the coaches came back from those Games and said 'look what we can produce, look what we have, Bermuda has a lot of talent, we need to develop it, but the swimmers need a pool, 50 metres, in order to train.

"But, unfortunately, year after year it seems to just fall on deaf ears."

Both Aitken and Roy Allen Burch, Bermuda's only swimmers at these Games, both train overseas – Aitken in Barcelona, Spain and Burch at Springfield College in Massachussets.

"It has been this way for many, many years now. If our swimmers are going to get anywhere, they have to look at facilities abroad," added Allen.

"When our youngsters come through the programme, the swimming association and the coaches are always looking at those showing promise at age 14 or 15, to get them off the Island.

"We know we have to get these kids into a good school on the Eastern Seaboard, somewhere they can train on a regular basis and where swimming becomes part of their programme.

"And that's happened a lot over the years. But it's a shame in some way that they have to do that, and when they come back they're still swimming in a –25 metre pool.

"One of the other advantages of having a 50 metre pool is that you can invite teams from overseas for winter training.

"Now, all of our swim clubs are swimming all the year round. We don't close for winter as we have done in the past.

"It would be great to say to these top clubs from the US, come down and train here, we have a 50 metre pool.

It would benefit them, it would benefit us."