‘Thereisthegrave danger of a talent gap’ - Robins fears sporting cost of the pandemic

Grant Robins conceded Swim England could miss out on some ‘significant talent’ because of the pandemic.

But the Southsea-based head of talent for the country’s swimming organisation will be doing everything within his powers to make sure that is not the case for potential future Olympics and Commonwealth Games hopefuls.

Robins, 51, a lifelong member of Portsmouth Northsea Swimming Club, is worried how the progress of those within Swim England’s various talent pathways could be impacted with nearly a year passing since competitions were halted following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Usually, Swim England’s top spotter and his staff would be at pools across the country searching for leading prospects and monitoring those in the system.

Instead, Robins has been placed on furlough since November and some of his colleagues were put on the scheme for more than six months. What’s more, young guns within the pathway set up have been unable to compete while those looking to make the grade have been halted from potential progress.

And Robins raised his worries of a ‘talent gap’ forming the longer pools are closed in England and competition remains paused.

He said: ‘Competition has gone, training has gone.

‘We’ve done a lot of stuff trying to keep people engaged online which has been good and useful, but it’s not the real thing.

‘It’s difficult, a lot of the people on our pathway grow a lot at the age they’re at, they have significant best times when they race.

‘We’re looking at people really who we don’t know how well they’ve progressed because they haven’t had the opportunity.

‘There is the grave danger of a talent gap; if we’re selecting teams for Paris in 2024, there’s a bunch of 15 or 16 year olds thinking that could be their

Games.

‘Likewise, if you’re talking about the 2026 Commonwealth Games and the 2028 Olympics, there are kids at 12 or 13 years of age, they’ve still got time, but actually they’re missing something that they would have normally had. ‘There is the concern.

‘I know we’re all part of a bigger group in terms of how

Sport England operate and what Sport England operate with, we’re all trying to address that to make sure we don’t miss out on significant talent.’

There needs to be some perspective - it’s not life or death - but it is challenging Grant Robins

With swimming competition in England stopped since March, Robins has been restricted to what he can do in his role.

As a result, there has been a restructure within Swim England with a number of employees furloughed.

Although admitting it’s been a ‘challenging time’, Robins was quick to put some perspective on the current situation for the national organisation.

‘We’ve had a restructure at Swim England and staff are currently on furlough, myself included, so it’s been a challenging time for everybody,’ he remarked.

‘Luckily, it’s only sport so it’s not a matter of life or death.

‘There needs to be some perspective, but it is challenging.

‘Sometimes there are no pools open, so what we do we can’t actually do.’