Swim Ireland today announce their Performance team and centralised National Centre structure, which will support and enable an exciting crop of identified athletes into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Additionally, they also announce a
group of 35 athletes who will form their National Programme for swimming in the
2021-2022 season, just as the clock ticks inside the 1,000 day mark to the
Paris Games.
Performance Team
The Performance Team will continue to
be headed up by National Performance Director for Swimming & Diving, Jon
Rudd, with Rudd leading a six-person Performance Senior Leadership Team through
the cycle:
Ben Higson, National Head Coach
(Swimming)
Damian Ball, National Head Coach
(Diving)
Andrew Reid, National Performance
Pathway Manager
Paul Talty, Head of Physical
Preparation
Kevin McGuigan, Head of Performance
Analysis (a new appointment)
Rudd and the Performance Senior
Leadership team will be ably supported by Performance Manager Niamh McDonnell
and Performance Research Manager Shane Keane. McGuigan was appointed from his
Performance Analysis role with the Sport Northern Ireland Sport Institute
(SNISI) and has commenced his new Swim Ireland role in recent days.
New National Centre in Ulster
A three-strong National Centre
approach to Performance swimming across the course of the cycle will be the
primary focus of delivery into Paris 2024.
This is made possible by the addition
of National Centre (Ulster), based at the Bangor Aurora Aquatic & Leisure
Complex in Northern Ireland, with Swim Ireland and Swim Ulster working in
partnership to deliver a world-class coaching environment.
Kevin Anderson, formerly the Head
Coach of the Mississauga swimming programme in Ontario, Canada has been
appointed as Head Coach of this new Centre, with Ards Swimming Club Head Coach
Davy Johnston moving on from his club role to become the Centre’s Assistant
Head Coach.
Johnston has been working as interim
Head Coach for National Centre (Ulster), with Anderson set to take the reins in
early December, bringing with him an impressive list of coaching achievements
in a highly successful swimming coaching career thus far.
SNISI’s Ryan Keating is in position
to deliver Strength & Conditioning for the Centre.
Dublin Hub
National Hub (Dublin), based at the
National Aquatic Centre and at the Sport Ireland Institute on the highly lauded
Sport Ireland Campus, will once again be led by Ben Higson.
Steven Beckerleg continues in his
role as Assistant Head Coach under Higson, alongside Paul Talty as the Lead
Strength & Conditioning Coach for the National Centre athletes within the
Hub. Matt Coward will head-up the newly-created ‘Project 28’ Programme within
the Hub, designed to provide an amplified coaching environment for Dublin-based
athletes with 2028 prospects.
Beth Carson will provide coaching
support in this area and the newly-appointed Tim Franzmann will cover Strength
& Conditioning duties for what is already an impressive group of young
athletes.
The Diving element of the National
Centre (Dublin) will be operated on a part-time basis, with Damian Ball’s role
also taking on an element of widening the reach of the sport on the island,
with Limerick and Bangor being two key focus points for Ball, alongside that
already operating in Dublin.
Limerick Team
The University of Limerick-based
National Centre (Limerick) once again sees Centre Head Coach John Szaranek lead
the programme into Paris.
Assistant Head Coach Michael McCarthy
will provide Szaranek with essential support in what is an increasingly popular
option for Irish athletes, with the Centre being based on one of the island’s
premier third level/higher education campuses.
Lorna Barry will continue in her
crucial role as Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Centre.
Development Pathway
With the Swim Ireland Development
Pathway already looking at Olympic hopefuls for Melbourne 2028, Mark Lappin
will continue in his role as Regional Pathway Development Coach for Leinster,
with Mark Craig continuing to undertake a similar role for Ulster.
Sarah Fellner having returned to her
native Canada to undertake a university coaching position, Swim Ireland will
soon seek a replacement for her role within the regions of Munster and
Connacht.
National Programme 2021-22
Swim Ireland’s National Programme for
identified swimming athletes has also been announced for the 2021-2022 season.
The FINA World Championships (50m),
LEN European Championships (50m) and Commonwealth Games for Northern Irish
athletes are the three key meets in 2022.
Athletes are split into three
distinct cohorts:
·Performance (for those with a
primary focus on Paris 2024)
·Performance Transition (for those
with an even focus on Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028)
·Performance Pathway (for those with
a primary focus on Los Angeles 2028).
Of the 41 athletes identified, 35
were accepted onto the programme, with three unable to accept their position on
this occasion, and three Performance Pathway athletes residing outside of
Europe for their training base.
All nine of Ireland’s 2021 swimming
Olympians feature within the Performance cohort, whilst the Performance
Transition and Performance Pathway groups feature some up and coming names of
the future.
National Performance Director Jon
Rudd said: “We are delighted to be able to announce our Performance team for
this cycle and particularly pleased to be able to retain a highly-talented
staff, one that helped deliver Ireland’s best ever aquatics outcome at an
Olympic Games, most recently in Tokyo.
"To have the two Kevin’s join us
alongside Davy joining the team makes us even stronger in what we can deliver
for our athletes.
"This National Programme cohort
is also a very exciting list of names and we have already held our first camp
for these athletes to bring them together and set the values, culture and
expectation for the days ahead into Paris.
"It continues to be an exciting
time working in and for Swim Ireland Performance."
Please note: Swim Ireland’s team for
the FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Abu Dhabi in December has
already been announced and will include 8 of our Tokyo 2020 Olympians: Abu
Dhabi 2021 Team Announcement
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