australian swimming 93rd annual report 2001/2002

International
Competition Program
In 2001–2002 Australian Swimming selected
teams to compete in many international
competitions and series. Following is a
summary of our teams’ performances. A full
list of team members and their results for
all competitions can be found at the back of
this report.
2001 FINA World Championships—Fukuoka
Australian Swimming sent a large team of 44
athletes and 30 support sta≈ to the FINA World
Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan. The
team left these shores with great expectations
and returned having fulfilled them. Led by Ian
Thorpe’s three individual gold medals, the
team won an unprecedented thirteen events
making it the most successful Australian Team
ever at a FINA World Championships. Grant
Hackett, Matt Welsh, Geo≈ Huegill, Petria
Thomas and Giaan Rooney also emerged from
the meet as individual World Champions. The
Australian men won all three relays whilst the
women won the medley relay and were
desperately unlucky not to win the 4 x 200m
freestyle relay. The team also won three silver
and four bronze medals.
2001 Goodwill Games—Brisbane
The Goodwill Games a≈orded the Australian
Team the opportunity to take on the might of
the world on home soil. The team was split into
mens and womens groups, which competed
under the dual meet formula against USA and
the Rest of the World. Australia won both the
men’s and women’s overall titles and in doing
so won twelve individual gold medals and
three relay gold medals. All prizemoney won at
the event was distributed to the athletes and
their coaches.
2001 World University Games—Beijing
Australian Swimming sent a small team to the
World University Games in Beijing, China. The
team gained valuable knowledge regarding
Beijing, the host city for the 2008 Olympic
Games. This is a destination our teams need to
become very familiar with over the next six
years. These Games are always of a high
standard and on this occasion the team
returned home with a solitary medal—a gold
to Burl Reid in the 50m Butterfly.
2002 FINA World Short Course
Championships—Moscow
President John Devitt described the
performance of our team in Moscow as ‘the
gutsiest’ he had ever seen. This was high
praise from a dual Olympic gold medallist and
a man, who has been to every major swimming
championship for the past twenty years. Under
new High Performance Director, Greg Hodge,
thirty-three athletes and twenty-one support
sta≈ ventured to Moscow to defend Australia’s
uno÷cial title as world champions of the 25m
pool. Under extremely di÷cult circumstances,
the team overcame illness, poor hotel
conditions and food as well as the freezing
Moscow weather to win nine individual gold
medals and one relay gold. They also secured
six silver medals and one bronze medal.
13
There were many stories from the meet of
athletes performing after leaving sick beds and
others swimming relays in unfamiliar strokes
so the team would not be let down. But the
courage award of the tour definitely went to
team doctor Brian Sando. Doc was called upon
to treat many of the athletes and was available
literally twenty-four hours a day. His e≈orts
helped keep the team in ‘one piece’ and
Australian Swimming is most grateful to him
for his dedication and expertise.
2002 Oceania Championships—Noumea
The Oceania Swimming Association was
formed in 1991 and it is made up of the Pacific
rim nations, which are a÷liated to FINA.
Australian Swimming fully supports Oceania
and provides it with administrative support
through our o÷ce. In recognition that Oceania
is important to the FINA family, its President,
Mustapha Larfaoui attended the
Championships. Mr Larfaoui was the guest
of honour at a luncheon hosted by Australian
Swimming for the Oceania nations.
National Youth Coach, Leigh Nugent, led our
team of thirty-four athletes and twelve
support sta≈ to Noumea. The team won a
record thirty-one gold, thirty-five silver and
twenty bronze medals at the Championships.
The team received praise for its competitive
ability and its outstanding behaviour and
demeanour. Coach Nugent and his sta≈ also
ran a coach development clinic for the other
countries attending the Championships,
again reinforcing Australia’s leading role
within the region.