COMMONWEALTH GAMES PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS $ 4.95 USA NUMBER 272 www.swimnews.com JULY-AUGUST 2002 $ 4.95 CAN NATALIENATALIE COUGHLINCOUGHLIN BRIGHTESTBRIGHTEST STARSTAR ININ WOMEN’SWOMEN’S EVENTSEVENTS NORTHNORTH BALTIMOREBALTIMORE SHOWSSHOWS THETHE WAYWAY VVANAN ALMSICKALMSICK LEADSLEADS GERMANSGERMANS TOTO EUROPEANEUROPEAN SUCCESSSUCCESS 2 SWIMNEWS / JULY-AUGUST 2002 Contents July-August 2002 CONSECUTIVE NUMBER 272 VOLUME 29, NUMBER 4 N. J. Thierry, Editor & Publisher Marco Chiesa, Business Manager FEATURES Karin Helmstaedt, International Editor Russ Ewald, USA Editor 4 Reality Check Nikki Dryden Paul Quinlan, Australian Editor Canada Bottoms Out at Commonwealth Games Cecil Colwin, Features Editor 6-13 The Commonwealth Games Nikki Dryden Anita Smale, Copy Editor Feature Writers Australia Wins Most Medals With 49 Nikki Dryden, New York Much Improved England Wins 32 With 10 Gold Wayne Goldsmith, Australia Anita Lonsbrough, England No Golds for Canada on the Way to 18 Medals International Statistical Support Group: 7 Personality: Ian Thorpe Nikki Dryden Rumen Atanasov, Bulgaria In or Out of the Water, A Legend at 19 Chaker Belhadj, Tunisia Szabolcs Fodor, Hungary 8 Zimbabwe’s First Gold Nikki Dryden Gerd Heydn, Germany 9 Natalie Du Toit Makes History Nikki Dryden Franck Jensen, Denmark Berth Johansson, Sweden 10 Making A Daily Difference Nikki Dryden Daniel Pichon / Michel Salles, France Changing the Direction of a Nation Juan Antonio Sierra, Spain 11 Personality: Graeme Smith Ben Lafferty Neville Smith, South Africa Fratisek Stochl, Czech Republic The Braveheart of Swimming Nelson Vargas, Mexico 13 Winning Is the Only Option Nikki Dryden Janusz Wasko, Poland Sumire Watanabe, Japan Bill Sweetenham Takes British Swimming to the Edge of Success 14 Canadian Summer Nationals Nikki Dryden SWIMNEWS established in 1974 Young and Old Have Their Turn Published ten times yearly (January to October) Contents copyright © No portion of this magazine 25 Colwin On Coaching Cecil Colwin may be reprinted without permission of the All Roads Lead to Baltimore publisher. 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For details call: IMS at 5 About This Issue, Calendar 33-40 TAG (Top Age Group Times) 1 (800) 428-3003 Editorial Offices: 17-19 Commonwealth Games Results 10&Under, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17&older SWIMNEWS, 356 Sumach St., Toronto, Ontario, 20-21 Canadian Summer Nationals Results 46-47 European Championships Results M4X 1V4, CANADA Tel: (416) 963-5599 Fax: (416) 963-5545 22-23 Canadian Youth and Junior Results 52-53 Pan Pacific Championships Results E-mail: [email protected] http://www.swimnews.com 24 European Junior Championships Results 54 Making Waves SWIMNEWS / JULY-AUGUST 2002 3 REALITY CHECK take some of the responsibility for the way their athletes performed. The athletes, as well, need to take accountability for their swims, and so does SNC.” Johnson went on to explain that a lack of funding has CANADA BOTTOMS OUT AT COMMONWEALTH GAMES contributed to the way Canadian swimming has been functioning in the past four years, and that the job he was Nikki Dryden exhausted, and disillusioned. All the while the pressure hired to do had been supplanted by administrative jobs began to grow inside the team over who would save that kept him off the pool deck where he is needed. It has been 44 years since Canada failed to win a gold Canada and win that elusive gold. Swimmer after swimmer However, he did not use poor finances as a crutch. “We medal in swimming at the Commonwealth Games, but would walk through the media zone apologizing for not can’t make excuses (about lack of funding), we have to that is not the worst statistic. Even with an additional 30 bringing home gold after being asked if they felt pressure find a way. We have to create a situation where everyone medals up for grabs in the pool, Canada’s medal total went to win one for the team. takes responsibility for swimming fast.” from 20 in 1998 to 18 in 2002. Six of those 18 medals were Johnson explained that on April 8, 2002, SNC in events for swimmers with a disability (SWAD), meaning Selection Controversy restructured itself, creating a technical operation the Canadian able-bodied team only won 12 medals: 5 in Also to be considered was the dark cloud that moved in department that would be focused on the administrative relays and 7 in individual events. over the country months before the meet began and hung and funding side of the job that he had been doing for the over the team for the entire competition. Still fresh in past few years. “We also made a clear decision that medals Perpetual Rebuilding everyone’s mind was the selection controversy that delayed matter.” There are some promising new swimmers; Laura Pomeroy the official team announcement for over three months. “There is a limited vision in Canada that coaches and Mike Brown are two of the latest stars to find success, Nadine Rolland (who qualified for the team on legal bring to the table. They need to motivate athletes to be but we say that every year. How many times can we hear technicalities rather than on performance) and Jennifer competitive at higher levels. The kids are soft, and the that this is a rebuilding phase or that there are some great Carroll openly disrespected and broke team rules responsibility lies in the coaching area.” This problem young swimmers with lots of potential? We have been throughout the course of the competition, causing much stems from our belief that winning a national title is the hearing the same story spun for almost a decade now and unrest and disruption for the coaching staff, management, end-all in this sport. “There is the overblown nature of the we have only gotten worse. and swimmers. Rolland, outside the athlete protocol, national title or quality performance. There is not enough In 1994, after the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, misrepresented herself to the media as a coach, a team of a comprehension of what is a quality performance. We Swim Magazine published an article about the manager, and a media attache, as well as broke curfew. have to be careful when we say someone did a really fast competition. The first paragraph quoted Dave Johnson, Carroll carried the Quebec flag onto the podium to receive time, because it wasn’t a fast time. We need to communicate Canadian head coach and coach of high performance her silver medal in the 50 back. While Carroll told team more realistically with our swimmers.” services: “We got buried by the Aussies, and if I don’t do officials it was merely an innocent gesture to thank the something about it very soon, I won’t be here for very people of Quebec, her behaviour was a slap in the face to Raising the Bar long.” her teammates. The incident was reported and will be Well, the reality check has been written and if we do not get Eight long years later, we have nothing to show for examined by the high performance committee for possible it now, then we never will. The Olympic standards have not our efforts. Any short-lived moments of success from Jen disciplinary action. yet been published but most likely swimmers will have to Button, Mike Mintenko, or Brian Johns were overshadowed While this kind of conduct is without excuse, the swim FINA “A” times to make the team in 2004. That means by the 14 fourth-place finishes and zero gold medals we mere fact that it occurred is evidence of a far greater no free ticket as a relay alternate, no token ride in the 50s had at the Commonwealth Games. problem. The rules keep changing and seem to be of stroke, and no Olympic rings for winners in weak events; convenient for each swimmer or each coach. Subjectivity only world-class swimmers will be going to Athens. SWAD Were the Stars of the Meet reigns supreme, and thus everyone falls into the party line “We are going to raise the bar. The selection criteria In 1000 words, we cannot attempt to answer the question, to avoid reprisal, but what has emerged is a nation of are going to be a lot more difficult, probably the FINA ‘A’ “What went wrong?” That story will be told in the future, swimmers and coaches creating themselves in the same times,” said Johnson.