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Swimming chief's sweet success | |
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Around the Academy: |
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BBC Sport Academy grabs an exclusive chat with British swimming chief Bill Sweetenham.
What is your role in British swimming? My official title is Performance Director - that means my job is to improve the performance of the British swimming team over the next ten or fifteen years. The only way to does this is to work hard with our young talent - after all the kids of today are the gold medal winners of tomorrow.
The standard of British swimming was at an all time low when I took over. At the Olympics in 2000 we failed to win a single medal. Our performances at the Commonwealth Games proved we are taking a step in the right direction but there is still a long way to go.
How did you get involved in swimming? I grew up in the outback in Australia which is very hot and the only sports played there are swimming and football. I started swimming and got pretty good at it. But I enjoyed the coaching side of things immensely so I moved into that area and it all snowballed from there.
What jobs did you do before you arrived in Britain as National performance director? I spent the last six years as national youth coach in Australia. My job was to identify talented swimmers and fast track them onto the national team. I helped them to develop self-management skills and prepare them for the international arena and for Olympic Games.
You can't afford to lose swimmers to experience and my job was to make sure they were fully prepared. Competitions are there to be a positive experience not a learning one. Before that I was Head Coach of the Australian national team.
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