‘I’m a traditionalist’
From the Olympics to the Wolfville Tritons, meet swim coach Moira Milward
At age 18, she represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in the 200-metre butterfly event.
At 20, she represented Great Britain at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
But accomplished swimmer Moira Milward easily recalls a time when, at age 13, the concept of a swimming pool seemed foreign to her as she was diving in to learn the basics of the sport for the first time.
Despite this, Milward says it didn’t take her long to get the hang of it.
“I started swimming at 13 because my younger sister wanted to learn to swim, but I didn’t even know what a swimming pool was, because we lived on our farm in Scotland,” she recalls in a recent interview. “But anyway, we went there, and I took to it, quite literally, just like a fish to water.”
After learning how to swim, Milward, who describes herself as being very shy by nature and prone to doing things her own way, spent roughly four and a half years coaching herself before competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games.
Looking back at it now, Milward says that while the experience of learning things on her own — through reading books and watching what others did — definitely helped to shape who she is today, she does regret having no one to keep pushing her forward.
“I coached myself, so I had nobody to mentor me or tell me what to do, or how it should be done. I was reading books, but there’s not a lot of communication from books — you can get what you read, then you have to take it and figure the rest out yourself,” says Milward. “So, I had nobody to push me, and I regret that — I regret that a lot.”
Passion for swimming
As for her love of swimming, Milward says she first realized that she had a real passion for the sport during an interview when she was asked whether or not she’d be com- Wolfville Tritons swim coach Moira Milward is pictured with swimmers after receiving a Development Coach of the Year Award last fall.
peting in the Olympics.
“I got the sports person of the year for the town and the local TV wanted to do a live interview with me. During the rehearsal they asked me questions and I was so shy I didn’t know how to answer them. One of the questions was whether I was planning to go to the Olympics and I just said, ‘I don’t know’,” says Milward.
“But when the live interview came, and he asked if I was planning to go to the Olympics, I said ‘yes, that would be a good idea’, and that was when I sort of knew that was what I really wanted to do.”
That moment was also what made her realize that, while she didn’t have a coach to push her to keep moving forward, she had a drive inside herself that made her want to keep getting better.
“It was kind of like somebody else was planting that seed of thought, and it was like, every time I work hard I get to move on, so… just keep working at it,” says Milward.
“And I had that attitude that if I missed a day’s practice I’d go behind, so I was driven to be at practice every time even though I was
doing it myself, I was still driven to be there.”
From athlete to mentor
After competing at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Milward went to college where she studied education, physical education and art to become a teacher.
While at college, Milward continued to compete in swimming. However, due to her missing her father, she was unable to do as well as she’d hoped.
“I didn’t swim particularly as well as I’d have liked to because I missed my dad,” says Milward. “I wanted to see him smile, and I wanted to see him be proud of me, and he wasn’t there to do that, so I really missed that. So I kind of quit after college.”
On top of missing her father, Milward says another large factor that contributed to her leaving the sport was that, working as a teacher, she was unable to support herself to continue competing.
“Back then there was no carding for athletes, so you had to come from a rich family or support yourself,” says Milward. “And teaching and swimming wasn’t quite going
to work, so I sort of had to quit.”
While Milward was unfortunately unable to continue swimming in competitions, she didn’t let that stop her from staying involved and, at 22, she began coaching as she started a new chapter — her teaching career.
“When I finished swimming, I knew I wanted and needed to stay involved somehow, so I started coaching when I started teaching,” says Milward.
Milward continued to coach and eventually set up a swim school where, on top of coaching, she would also teach swimming.
In 1990, Milward and her family moved to British Columbia, where she decided to make a career change and gained her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing.
Sticking with the sport
In 1992, Milward started coaching again to be involved as her children had began competing. Eventually, she had also decided to become an official in order to ensure she’d have a good seat when watching her children compete.
“I started coaching again to be involved. My kids were swimming at the club level and there was a need for a coach, and so I filled that gap,” says Milward.
“But then, I would take my kids to meets, and what you do is just sit on the bleachers and watch them, so I decided to become an official because then I can get the best seat in the house.”
In 1993, at age 40, Milward began training again and competed in age group swimming, then began swimming masters in 1994.
In 2007, Milward and her husband moved to Nova Scotia and she worked as a nurse until opening a bed and breakfast in Gilbert’s Cove in 2011 — The Barn at the Point.
Milward then coached for the Clare swim team, Les Aquadiens de Clare, for roughly four years before moving to Wolfville to coach the Tritons in 2015.
When it comes to her favourite part about coaching, Milward says there isn’t a part she doesn’t enjoy.
“I enjoy it all. I get to the pool and I feel energized and ready for it,” says Milward
Five decades and counting
Throughout her more than 50 years of being involved in the sport she loves, Milward has had the opportunity to be involved in several different capacities and still does more, whenever she can, to advance her knowledge.
“I’ve been in this sport for 50 years as a swimmer, as a parent, as a swim teacher, as a swim coach, as an official and now I’m a coach developer. And I’m still a student; I’m doing my Advanced Coaching Diploma,” says Milward.
“I like to learn all the time, NCCP courses are online, so I mean, I’ll sit there and if I see one I haven’t done, I sit and do it.”
She expects to have the diploma by next summer.
Milward hopes to instill her beliefs for advancement and progress into those she coaches.
“I’m a traditionalist. I believe that if you work for something, you’ll get it,” says Milward.
This year’s motto for the Wolfville Tritons Swim Club is: “If you keep doing the same thing, you’ll stay in the same place.”