Swanston takes team from unknown to an Olympic qualifier

Ever wonder what a head coach tells his athletes in order to get the best performance out of them on a day where winning can mean the world?

For former Rockwood resi­dent and Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club coach Alan Swan­ston, the answer, maybe sur­prisingly, was not very much.

The result was that Lindsay Seemann, just 15 and com­pet­ing against women ten years her senior, won a place on Canada’s Olympic swimming team and she will be competing in China later this summer.

Not that Swanston doesn’t care about his charges. He has built the team over the past 22 years. It was in poor condition when he arrived, but, “I came here because I wanted to build something of my own.”

That construction project is now completed, with Swanston sending his team’s first swim­mer to the Olympics. But, just as important to him, “Now, clubs across Canada know who we are.”

Coaching someone into an Olympic competition involves a huge number of variables, Swanston said in an interview.

“It only happens every four years, and you have to swim that [qualifying] time at a special meet. You have to per­form at a very high level on a given day,” he said.

He noted that Seemann was quite young, and most of her Olympic teammates are over 20, and in the women’s 200-metre back­stroke at the Canadian Olympic trials in Montreal she hit her peak.

She showed big improvements in her times in the events leading up to that final race.

Winning a place on the Olympic team can take years, as Swanston knows. Seemann has been a member of his club for ten years, since she was five.

The ingredients in creating an Olympian are numerous – and require just the right amounts.

“You have to have a certain amount of talent,” Swanston said. “A certain amount of will. You have to manage your time well to get your homework done. The best, for years, get to the highest level.”

He said Seemann, like all his 240 club members, works on conditioning, which takes hours and hours in the pool, and then on tactics.

Once the swimmer is in peak condition, preferably well before an important meet, there is a tapering off of train­ing, and then “an appropriate amount of intensity in the last three weeks.

“Lindsay knew she was in great shape,” he said.

The final ingredients for elite athletes are to “eat well, get a good amount of sleep, stay focused, and stay calm.”

If all that sounds like a lot, Swanston added, “The people who have the most fun will make the team. Lindsay was enjoying the moment.” He said he later saw films of her before and during the com­petition, and “it was quite obvious” she was enjoying her­self.

Her stiffest competition to make the team was a pair of veteran, 25-year-old swim­mers. Seemann “got out in front of them” and they never caught her.

Swanston said, “I don’t speak to athletes that much about what they do in com­parison to the other swimmers. We talk about technique, and tactical issues. Over the years, we’ve discussed ‘ahead or behind.’ And that day, we did not talk about her being ahead.”

Swanston said it is the swim­mer’s choice, because “If it doesn’t work, it may have a negative effect. Others may have the same tactic.”

Seeded eighth entering the event, the grade 10 student rode her early lead to victory in a per­sonal best time of two minutes, 12.06 seconds. She had wanted that Olympic qualify­ing time, so she increas­ed her training and knocked three seconds off her previous personal best.

Her goal for Beijing is to nail down the Canadian record at 2:11.16, which is now not that far away from her personal best. The world record cur­rently stands at 2:06.39.

Swanston said he was confi­dent before the race that Seemann would take the hon­ours.

Been there, done that

It is no surprise, though, that Swanston can turn out win­ners, because he has paid his dues since, as a 16-year-old, he began swimming competiti­vely in Guelph. In the competitive swim­ming world, that is almost old, but he quickly moved up the ranks.

He swam for the Guelph Marlins in the late 1970s, and won a place on the Canadian national team. He won a medal at the Pan-Am games in 1979, and won another medal for Canada at the World University Games, while he was a member of ROW, the Region of Waterloo swim club. He was on the University of Waterloo team for those games.

Canadians had no oppor­tunity to compete in the 1980 Olympics in the old USSR, because of a boycott.

“There was a good chance I would have been on the team,” he said.

At the 1982 Winter Nation­als held in Brantford, he medal­led in freestyle, breast­stroke and was instrumental in his team winning the national title.

He received a degree in eco­nomics from the University of Waterloo in 1984. As a uni­versity swimmer, he won several CIAU titles. He still holds six records at the Uni­versity of Waterloo. In 1996, he was inducted into that uni­ver­sity’s Sports Hall of Fame.

For the son of Walter and Virena Swanston, the swim­ming story is continuing with his son, Matthew, who recently turned 17. He placed fifth in the men’s 200 backstroke in Montreal.

Matthew Swanston will be among those competing in the World Youth Championships in Monterey, Mexico.

Alan Swanston has been married since 1984 to Avril, also a former national level swim­mer. Their other son, Jef­frey, 13, is also a top swimmer with the Sting­rays.

They come by their swim­ming talent on both sides of the family. Their mother was a swimmer with the Guelph Mar­lins, and she, too, won a medal at the World University Games.

“She’s a very good swim­mer,” said her husband.

Travelling time

With all the events, includ­ing the National Swimming Championships coming up in Van­couver prior to the Olym­pics, and the World Youth Games, Alan Swanston can expect to be doing quite a bit of travelling in the near future.

He noted that personal coaches are en­couraged to con­ti­nue with their charges as long as possible, but he is unsure if he will be going to China with Seemann. Her future now in­cludes a training camp in Van­couver with her Olympic team­mates and Summer Nationals in Winnipeg in July.

Then, the Canadian team will go to Singapore for final pre-games preparations. She also might swim with Canada’s world youth team in Mexico.

Likes the country

Swanston said he really enjoyed growing up in Era­mosa township and living in the countryside just outside of Guelph. His career is taking him all over the place, but, “I like the Guelph area. I like being on the farm.”

Asked if he would ever return, he said, “Maybe. I’d like to move to the country – not necessarily as a farmer.”

Meanwhile, he will continue to focus on the immediate goal, which is to help his swimmers, and particularly Seemann.

“We’re going to do our best to get her ready to swim against the world now,” he said.

 

 

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