Swimming NZ change approach
Not so much a U-turn as a ‘right angle’ as national body decentralises in bid to win medals on biggest stages
Swimming bosses are in full swing on a significant change in approach they hope will boost the standard at the top in New Zealand and ultimately lead to a stronger presence on the world’s biggest stages.
Swimming New Zealand have shifted away from a centralised model, where the leading athletes were based at the national aquatic centre on the North Shore. The problem was that some preferred to train overseas, primarily in the United States or Australia.
So now the elite swimmers are all round the country, in the US and Australia, with SNZ’s encouragement.
“There were a number of reasons it wasn’t working,” SNZ chief executive Steve Johns said. “But we haven’t been getting the results we’d hoped we would, and certainly from a High Performance Sport perspective what they had hoped and expected we would be getting. So to continue with the centralised model and expect to get different results is the definition of insanity.”
Swimming received a funding trim to the tune of $400,000 after the Rio Olympics.
Last year, the sport undertook a review in the wake of that financial hit and the impact on its business, and decided to decentralise and wrap support around them.
There are about 12 swimmers who sit in the senior group. The highestranked swimmer is Wellington-based Lewis Clareburt, who is 11th in the 400m individual medley, the event in which he won a bronze at the Commonwealth Games in
April.
Others include the likes of American-based
Corey Main in
Florida, Gabrielle Fa’amausili at the University of Georgia and rapidly rising teenager Alex Galyer at the University of Kentucky, along with Auckland-based Bradlee Ashby and Daniel Hunter.
Matt Stanley, Zac Reid and Mya Rasmussen are based in Queensland, while there’s highly promising South African Luan Grobbelaar, who swam at this year’s Commonwealth Games
To continue with the centralised model and expect to get different results is the definition of insanity.
for South Africa, is 16 but is standing down a year to become eligible for New Zealand.
“The swimmers not based in Auckland will also get some support. Under the old model, if they were based in the US or train in Queensland, basically they had no support from Swimming NZ,” Johns said. “We have freed up some funding and by October-November will have fully implemented the new programme.”
There is also an eye on the second and thirdtier athletes, and the idea is to bring in some leading overseas coaches periodically to offer a guiding hand and provide feedback.
“Ultimately, we want to get more swimmers on podiums, but first we need more in finals,” Johns added.
Expectations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are modest but the sights are set on 2024 and 2028.
“This is a huge change, not so much a U-turn, but a right angle in our approach,” said SNZ’s targeted athlete and approach manager Gary Francis.
“We’re looking at what is going to work best for individuals, where the best programme is for them, who is the best coach for them and what is the best environment.”
Francis acknowledged this is not an overnight fix but believes inroads are being made. Contact with coaches has been encouraging, those in the US and Australia have been supportive and “home-based coaches are itching to be more involved and feel they’ve been left out for a long time”.
As a parting catch-all line, Francis added: “We are very confident by 2024 of having not only really competitive swimmers but really strong coaches who know what they need to deliver.”