Download the 2005-06 Annual Report - Swimming Canada

Technical report
High Performance Sport Review process
Sport Canada continues to progress the High Performance Sport Review Process towards the summer sport version of the winter sport
“Own the Podium” program. Dr. Roger Jackson, retained as a consultant to fashion the “Podium Program” for summer sports tabled his
report at the end of the summer. Swimming Canada is looking to progress its status within the program and move to access key funding
dollars targeting Olympic potential medalists, their coaches and programs.
The national Performance Enhancement Team (PET) has been formed and will receive their funding through PacificSport, under the jurisdiction
of Dr. Gord Slievert and Pierre Lafontaine. This initiative is consolidated under the Podium Program.
National Training Centres
TĐ
or given the opportunity to run out the course of the season. The two new centres were identified (Montreal and Vancouver) and staffed.
The staff for the Vancouver centre is: Tom Johnson, Head Coach; Josef Nagy, Assistant Coach. The Montreal Centre sees the return of
Paul Bergen to Canada as the centre Head Coach; and the appointment of Benoit Lebrun as Coach. Athlete intake processes will be finalized
by the end of September.
National Team Development Strategy
SNC was able to progress the National Team Development Program to incorporate funding and activities for all four levels of the program;
Age Group; Prospects; Youth and Junior squads. The Youth and Junior teams continued to be exposed to the rigors of travel, training and
competition by participating in the Victoria State Age Group and Open Championships in Melbourne. The tour effectively presented the
swimmers (16 Junior and 16 Youth) with a training opportunity followed by 10 full days of competition. The experience was designed to
presentĐ .
ThisĐ
successful and seamless transition to the Senior National Team. The success of this ‘strategy’ can be measured in the graduation rate to
the Senior National Team; the 2006 Pan Pacific Championship team had 34 National Team Development program swimmers on a team
of 64.
SWIMMING CANADA - ANNUAL REPORT 2005-06
As is the caseĐ
the inaugural FINA World Youth Swimming Championships, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Canada supported this competition by selecting
8 swimmers (4 male and 4 female) based on performances from the Senior Nationals and Pan Pacific Trials. Our key strategy of sending
Youth and Junior squads ‘into battle’ facing adversity and ‘bare bones’ preparation was extended to this competition. Several of the
selected athletes competed at Pan Pacific Championships through to Saturday and then promptly jumped on a flight to Rio and with
one day preparation were into the competition. The swimmers were able to experience travel and environmental rigors not unfamiliar to
any swĐ
international performances in the future.
Carding
This has been the first year under the re-focussed carding program wherein world rankings as opposed to ‘points charts’ were used to
determine carding recipients. While there have been challenges in securing reliable world rankings this is seen as a temporary situation
and should be resolved this year. After one year our experience tells us that the ‘right’ swimmers are being selected based on quality of
performance and no speculation regarding a skewed points chart has clouded carding selection. We will continue to monitor the Youth
and Junior card selections carefully. Our concern here mainly lies with the amount of resources being afforded to very young swimmers.
Our thoughts are that perhaps we need to lobby Sport Canada to re-establish a third level of carding funding.
Incentive Programs
Swimming Canada manages three core incentive programs; the SNC Club Grant, Speedo/SNC Swimmers Incentive Program and the SNC
Coaches International High Performance Support program. The Club Grant distributes $150,000.00; the Swimmers Incentive Program
$30,000.00; and the Coaches Support Program $20,000.00 for a total of $200,000.00 focused directly back into the club system to
assist in the progression of high performance swimming. All programs are ‘scored’ on a results based system of both domestic and international
performances.
IĐ
understanding of how they were generating funds for their club. The scoring mechanism was shifted form a points threshold performance
to rewarding absolute placings, both domestically and internationally. These changes proved positive and have resulted in allocating
funds to more clubs whilst ensuring that the totals to key performing clubs were not watered down so substantially that the programs
impact was neutralized.
SNC Club Grant – funding to 20 swim clubs
Speedo / SNC Swimmers Incentive Program – funding to 21 swimmers
SNC Coaches International High Performance Support Program – funding to 15 coaches
9