National coach signals change for swimming to succeed

Swimming New Zealand’s new national head coach Jerry Olszewski wants to build a new culture, new habits and new competition cycle for the sport in this country.

Olszewski, who took up his role in September, outlined his initial philosophy for the high performance environment when he staged the first training camp for swimmers who form part of the Tokyo Olympic 2020 Squad.

He wants a more collaborative approach with coaches throughout the country, sharing information and experience to develop swimming skills and develop a more consistent and sustainable high performance programme as a result.

He also proposes a simplified and progressive pathway for swimmers; a clear and challenging international time-based qualifying standard and wants to bring in a change to the timeframes for trials leading to pinnacle meets.

Olszewski said he has spent his first six weeks in the country evaluating the needs and establishing a plan to move the sport forward.

He said he has arrived with a clean sheet and strong desire for New Zealand swimmers to continually improve their international rankings.

Olszewski said while positive about the opportunities in New Zealand, that it is important to be realistic about the measurement of success in the sport.

“It seems that the general public in New Zealand only measure success in Olympic sports by the colour of medals. Swimming is a truly global sport, perhaps the hardest of all Olympic sports in which a New Zealander can succeed.

“There were 140 nations competing at Rio in the pool and at times more than 100 swimmers in some events. There are no other Olympic sports with this depth and breadth of talent, and so in swimming we understand what a top-16 and a top-8 performance means.

“Our aim will be to continue to improve our international ranking and look towards developing finalists at the Olympics.”

He said that the likes of superpowers like Australia only won five individual medals in Rio, and this needs to be understood.

Olszewski, with national development coach Gary Hurring, national coaching manager Donna Bouzaid and high performance squad coach Mat Woofe, are also reviewing the competition structure, squad systems and speaking with coaches to establish a more comprehensive, inclusive plan and approach.

Note: Olszewski – phonetic spelling Ol-Shev-Ski

ABOUT JERRY OLSZEWSKI:

Jerry Olszewski has been coaching at the top club level in USA for more than 25 years, developing young swimmers to Olympics and national teams. He has also had considerable experience in the business of swim coaching, administration and organisation.

He was previously head coach and CEO of the Arizona Gold Swimming organisation that he developed from scratch, and formerly head coach at Scottsdale Aquatic Club and King Aquatic Club near Seattle.

Of his recent squad, he had five swimmers qualify for the US Olympic Trials, one on the USA team and two others on foreign national teams.

His key supporters for the role included USA Hall of Fame coaches Jon Urbanchek and Dr Dave Salo.