It was announced today that Triathlon Canada has hired Eugene Liang as its new High Performance Director. Liang will be replacing Dr. Peter Davis who was in the position for less than a year.
Liang has been a huge part of Swimming Canada’s high performance program for over a decade. He was part of the Olympic team staff in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and was a member of the World Championship team staff in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015. For the last five years he has been the health sciences lead at the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific in Victoria, BC.
Liang has worked closely with Canadian Olympic medalists Ryan Cochrane, Brent Hayden and Hilary Caldwell. He will now take on the task of leading Triathlon Canada towards the goal of placing athletes on the podium by 2024.
“Working with our sport and funding partners, we need to rebuild the culture and regain our international reputation as leaders, with Canadian-based coaches, that has made this program so successful in the past,” said Liang, whose first order of business will be to assess the lay of the land and develop a 2024 and 2028 plan with a focus on investing in young athletes. “There is no doubt we have challenging days ahead of us, but I’m here for the long haul. Together with my coaches and staff, we will be relentless in our collaborative pursuit of developing this program from the ground up, and making Canadian triathlon a winner.”
Canada has a read tradition in the sport with the country’s most successful triathlete being Simon Whitfield who won the Olympic gold in the event at the 2000 Olympics, which was the first time the event was part of the Games. Whitfield also won a silver at the 2008 Olympics.
Congrats to Eugene …. A well deserving position … and will be missed by all whom have had the honor of working with him ..