australian swimming 93rd annual report 2001/2002

06 president’s report
The 2001–2002 swimming calendar has seen
world records broken, milestones reached,
progress made and also major changes made
throughout Australian Swimming.
It has been a time which has created a
platform for what I believe will be a very sound
future for our sport. It gives me great pride
and satisfaction to re-cap the past 12 months
and it is even more exciting to look forward to
what we at a board level believe will be an
even brighter future.
The 2001 World Championships and the
Goodwill Games campaigns produced one of
the fastest periods in the history of swimming,
where Australia’s elite swimmers re-wrote
history and gave our country plenty to cheer
about and to be proud of.
I was privileged to be part of the ‘Golden Era’
of Australian swimming in 1950s and 1960s
and it was not only a time of greatness and a
time of milestones on the international scene
but a time of camaraderie and spirit which only
people in swimming can understand.
The 2001–2002 season itself was probably
the closest yet to those magnificent times
and it began with the Telstra Australian
Championships in Hobart, which led to the
selection of World Championship team—
a team which went on to create history—our
most successful world championship team.
Our Telstra Dolphins National team topped
the gold medal tally at the World
Championships in Fukuoka before our
Australian men’s and women’s teams won the
Goodwill Games competitions in Brisbane.
‘The Talbot era is one which Australian
Swimming can be proud of and one which
I know we can only build on.’
The success of our swimming teams also saw
Australians back home excited about our sport
with record ratings for Channel Nine’s Wide
World of Sport and Fox Sports.
In between, our swimmers re-wrote the
record books at the most successful Telstra
Australian Short Course Championships on
record, in Perth.
The performances of the Dolphins and in
particular our individual 2001 world champions
from Fukuoka , Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett,
Petria Thomas, Giaan Rooney, Matt Welsh and
Geo≈ Huegill and our four gold medal winning
relay teams provided the kind of performances
which can only help build what will be one of
our greatest Olympic teams for 2004.
But the Fukuoka-Brisbane campaigns also saw
the end of an era in Australian swimming.
Our National head coach Don Talbot had been
in charge of our elite program since 1989 until
his retirement at the end of 2001 and it is
fitting that I pay tribute to Don and thank him
for his leadership and his loyalty in what will
go down in history as one of the most
successful decades in our sport.
He was the driving force behind that success
and a man passionate about swimming and
passionate about being the absolute best he
could be and ensuring the team were driven
to be the best they could be. The Talbot era is
one which Australian Swimming can be proud
of and one which I know we can only build on
to be just as good and just as passionate.
Don’s departure prompted a re-organisation of
the coaching structure which Don himself
played a major part in setting up and which
has already been successfully implemented
throughout the 2002 competitive year.
This re-structure saw the appointment of Greg
Hodge as the High Performance Director and
Alan Thompson and Ken Wood as the head
men’s and women’s coaches for 2002—a
system which has already undergone review as
we prepare for the 2003 and 2004 campaigns.
The 2002 competitive season saw the Dolphins
again top the medal tally under di÷cult
circumstances at the World Short Course
Championships in Moscow where Grant
Hackett, Ashley Callus, Geo≈ Huegill, Matt
Welsh, Jim Piper and Petria Thomas all won
individual world titles.
Australian Swimming also supported the
Oceania Championships in Noumea, where our
National Youth Coach, Leigh Nugent and our
team provided outstanding competition for
countries in our region. It also gave me the
opportunity to host a special function for FINA
president Mustapha Larafoui and provide him
with a first-hand look at the level of support
Australia Swimming is endeavouring to show
to the Oceania countries.