australian swimming 93rd annual report 2001/2002

14 chief executive’s report
In 2001–2002, Australian Swimming sent
development teams to the FINA World Cups
in the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Europe.
Although only small in size, the teams did
manage to win six gold, seven silver and
eleven bronze medals across the series. In June
2002, a small team was sent to the annual
Mare Nostrum Series. These four events in
Canet, Barcelona, Monaco and Rome are
always keenly contested with many of Europe’s
best competing. Our team of eight women
brought home a matched set of three gold,
three silver and three bronze medals.
National Age and
Youth Programs
The National Youth Coach, Leigh Nugent,
continued his busy schedule with regular
visits to all states to provide advice on their
development programs; to attend state
camps and visit the home programs of
athletes in the National Age Squad. The
National Youth Program included several
successful camps. The largest camp was
the National Age Camp, which was held in July
2001. The camp culminated in the National
Youth Squad competing at the Telstra Grand
Prix meet in Brisbane.
The Program also included specialised training
camps for our best young swimmers in the
male breaststroke, female sprint freestyle and
male and female distance/medley areas.
These camps are used to promote the selfmanagement
skills necessary to succeed as
elite athletes. They also give the athletes and
coaches involved the opportunity to train in
a more intense environment than may be
available to them in their home programs.
One of the specialist areas targeted during
these camps was the nutrition area.
Aprogram developed by Karen Inge and the
Sports Dietitians Australia was delivered
during the camp.
This issue of nutrition was also introduced
to parents at an open forum conducted at the
Australian Age Championships in Sydney.
Feedback from the parents attending was all
very positive and ASI will be looking at making
similar styles of presentation on various issues
at future Championships.
During 2001–2002, Australian Swimming has
continued to build on the success of previous
years in the High Performance area while
working through a number of major structural
and philosophical changes within the
organisation. HPU sta≈ members Bernadette
Evans and Roxanne Pickering deserve credit for
their contribution to this success.
Event Management Unit
gary barclay manager
2001 Telstra Swimming Grand Prix 3
7–8 July 2001, Brisbane
The final Telstra Grand Prix in 2001 was the
send o≈ for the Telstra Dolphins competing at
the FINA World Championships in Fukuoka
Japan. With prize money of $50,000 to
swimmers and coaches, the competition was
strong and the racing keen.
The event was also used as a lead up for event
sta≈ and volunteers for the Goodwill Games and
provided ASI and Telstra with a number of leads
for good volunteers to work on future ASI events
in Brisbane. ASI is grateful to Queensland
Swimming for its assistance with this event.
2001 Telstra Australian
Short Course Championships
3–7 August 2001, Perth
The Telstra Dolphins returned from a
successful FINA World Championships into
Perth where capacity crowds of over 2000
people greeted them each night of the Telstra
Australian Short Course Championships.
With five World Records during the meet and
the added spice of competition with the Great
Britain team, the event was an outstanding
success. ASI happily acknowledges the
support of Western Australian Swimming and
Challenge Stadium.
2001 Goodwill Games
29 August–3 September 2001, Brisbane
The Goodwill Games came to Brisbane
and provided the city with many great
international stars in a variety of sports.
The swimming competition was conducted
under a dual meet format with teams from
Australia, USA, the World All-Stars and
European All-Stars competing.
The swimming program was televised by the
Nine Network in Australia and by the Turner
Broadcasting System Inc internationally. This
provided worldwide exposure of Australian
Swimming across 450 million households
through the international syndication of the
Games coverage. The swimming events all
rated well.
The swimming events attracted close to sellout
crowds each session of the event. This was
the first time such large crowds had been
attracted to a swimming event in Queensland
since the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
The Australian Swimming Team won both the
men’s and women’s team events, sustaining
Australia’s reputation as the best swimming
nation in the world. Australian Swimming
event sta≈ managed the swimming
competition and teams leading up to and
throughout the meet.