Scholarship swimmers and divers
residing and training at six locations across four continents are thriving,
seizing opportunities along their quest to compete in Doha and Paris in 2024.
You might call it the ‘United
Nations’ of Aquatics.
From Cuba to India, Sri Lanka to
Serbia, a vastly diverse group of swimmers and divers are benefiting from the
tutelage of elite coaches and honing their abilities at six World Aquatics
Training Centres. The elite-level training centres provide top-notch facilities
for athletes in the World Aquatics Scholarship Programme, now in its 10th year.
https://www.worldaquatics.com/development/programmes/scholarships
The highly-esteemed French coach
Frédéric Vergnoux – who has coached swimmers at five Olympics as head of the
British, Spanish and Belgian national teams – recently took the helm as
Executive Director at the Cercle des Nageurs d’Antibes (CN Antibes), helping to
launch the programme’s newest training centre.
Vergnoux says the international
diversity provides for an entirely new challenge, unlike any previous over his
numerous years of coaching elite-level swimming.
“Every single day, every single
practice when I come poolside, I’m like this is just amazing – the culture we
have here around the pool is so unique, the value of the program and the experience
of each of the swimmers, it’s all pretty special,” says Vergnoux.
In the elite program at CN Antibes,
there are 12 scholarship athletes among the group of 16 international swimmers,
spanning 15 countries.
“It is demanding because I coach in
four languages – English, French, Spanish and a little bit of Russian,”
Vergnoux says. “It’s not easy covering the needs of all the swimmers.”
While the program’s mission is
ambitious and demanding, the end goal is rather straightforward – preparing
athletes to prosper at the upcoming World Aquatics Championships - Doha 2024
and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“No matter what country they come
from, whatever they race, for every single swimmer it’s the same – to represent
their countries at the highest level, whether it be at the worlds in Doha or
Olympics in France,” Vergnoux says. “They all get along together and it’s
really just beautiful.”
The World Aquatics Scholarship
Program targets athletes who have displayed strong international potential,
providing financial support and expert technical knowledge to those lacking
sufficient training opportunities in their home countries.
Vergnoux says coaching athletes from
less developed swimming nations is especially rewarding. The veteran French
coach expresses his excitement having witnessed 19-year-old Gabriel Martinez of
Honduras swimming to national records at the World Aquatics Championships in
Fukuoka, Japan and CAC Games last summer.
Rising young talents like Martinez
are also benefiting from interaction with top world-class swimmers training in
Antibes, notably French Olympic champion Florent Manaudou, among others.
“The level of the programme is so
high because it’s not just these 12 from World Aquatics training here,”
Vergnoux says. “It is a powerful situation and everyone embraces it.”
122 athlete scholarships are part of
the one-year scholarship programme implemented across six designated World
Aquatics Training Centers in Antibes, Budapest, Toronto; Davie; Phuket; and at
Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast, and some are training under the
supervision of the National Federations.
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