Mooney’s good state of mind

THE three-year journey to the 2024 Paris Olympics starts this weekend for Bond University and new head swim coach Chris Mooney.

The 2021 Queensland Swimming Championships at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre shapes as the ideal launchpad for Mooney, who switched to Bond in October.

“I definitely needed a break off the back of the five-year journey, the pinnacle being the Tokyo Olympics, obviously,” Mooney said.

“My arrival at Bond has been absolutely amazing and there has been so much support.

“I knew a little bit about the program but the front office is so impressive. Being a student athlete program, we are looking for success both athletically and academically.

“I’m re-energised and looking forward to the next three years. There is no pressure on yet, but we’ll start applying that pressure come January.”

Mooney famously helped Kaylee McKeown become one of the golden girls of the Tokyo Olympics, as she claimed three gold medals.

He said while he expected the squad to put down some good swims this weekend, there was no pressure on results just yet.

“This facility is special but the opportunity to have new challenges, to influence and empower new athletes is important,” he said.

“We’ll take a pretty good team to the state championships. We’ve got some quality athletes that will do some pretty good things and I’m looking forward to those performances. “It’s a three-year journey. “We have some juniors who have been working hard but due to the nature of Covid, they haven’t really had a chance to race. This will be a good chance for them to put some swims down.”