australian swimming 93rd annual report 2001/2002

22 high performance
The Committee’s focus throughout 2001–2002
has been on maintaining the successes of
2000 while implementing changes that will
complement our established strengths in the
lead up to Athens in 2004.
National Team
Coaching Structure
Critical to this process has been the succession
plan for the retirement of National Head Coach
of twelve years, Don Talbot. The first part of the
plan was to appoint a Women’s Head Coach
and Men’s Head Coach for the FINA World
Championships in Fukuoka. Having had success
at this meet, these two positions were continued
for the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, where the
Telstra Dolphins carried all before them.
The second part of the succession plan was
to create the new position of High Performance
Director. The position was widely advertised
and after an exhaustive selection process Greg
Hodge accepted the position. Greg came to
Australian Swimming from the NSW Institute
of Sport, where he was the inaugural
Swimming Head Coach. Greg hit the ground
running in 2002 and has consulted extensively
with coaches involved at the elite level.
The first team under Greg’s directorship was to
the FINA World Short Course Championships,
which were conducted in April. The team
performed remarkably well under very trying
circumstances and came home the number one
nation. This team had Mark Regan (Women)
and Alan Thompson (Men) as its Head
Coaches. The new structure will be in place for
all national teams in 2002 and will be reviewed
after all major competitions are completed.
greg hodge
Australian Swimming High Performance Director
Telstra Dolphins Program
In the second half of the year, the Committee,
in conjunction with the High Performance
Director, modified the Telstra Dolphins
domestic program. This was done to
incorporate the camp aspects of the program
with the competitive requirements. The first
camp, under the new regime, took place in
Cairns. This trip served as the orientation camp
for the Commonwealth Games Team. The final
activity of the camp was the first Telstra Grand
Prix of 2002. By combining the two activities,
both team coaches and the athletes were able
to spend a minimum amount of time away from
their home programs and families. This worked
particularly well and will be continued
throughout the 2002 competitive program.
National Youth Program
The National Youth Program continued in
2001–2002 despite the lost of its long term
sponsor. The ASI Board determined that both
the national program and the ASI funded state
programs would be funded out of ASI’s general
funds. National Youth Coach, Leigh Nugent ran
four camps in his program. In July, 2001, a sprint
camp for girls and a breaststroke camp for boys
were conducted on the Gold Coast. Those
athletes attending these camps then competed
in the Telstra Grand Prix. A distance individual
medley camp was held on the Gold Coast in
October, 2001. The final camp in the Program
was held in Melbourne for girl sprinters.