Perhaps as a final piece of the national talent development process reshuffling that has been taking place in the Netherlands, the Royal Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB) has announced that responsibilities in the field of recreational swimming have been turned over to Guust Jutte.
The move of this role away from Director of Top Sport Andre Cats will enable him to more optimally support the performance of national athletes on the way to the postponed Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“This adaptation creates the space to follow and influence the processes more closely and thus make a more important contribution to current performance, as well as the performance of future stars of swimming,” said Cats.
Cats’ domain rests with performance and talent development in swimming, para-swimming, water polo, diving, and artistic swimming.
Over the past two years, Jutte has served as the Competition and Recreational Sports Manager in Nieuwegeid, while also managing the water polo program there.
This past May the KNZB announced that it would extend all National Team coaches through the 2021 Olympic Games, including Marcel Wouda, who leads the Eindhoven Training Center, and Mark Faber, who leads the Amsterdam Training Center.
Then earlier this month Job van Duijnhoven, Harm Rozenga, and Robin van Aggele joined the upper echelons of the coaching hierarchy, with the former leading the Swimming Training Center in Amsterdam as a coach for high-performing junior swimmers, while the latter pair will be coaching junior athletes in the Hague.