The Danish Swimming Federation has gone outside of its borders and tabbed Nick Juba as its new National Team Head Coach. He will join new National Training Center head coach Shannon Rollason (Australian) in replacing Paulus Wildeboer, who had held both positions but took a job in the Gold Coast, Australia after the Olympics.
Juba’s best known athlete is former Auburn University standout Adam Brown, who was a 2012 Olympian. He also coached British international-level open water Lucy Charles, and English Commonwealth Youth Games swimmer Shauna Lee.
Hatfield is also the home club of former USC All-American Richard Charlesworth.
Juba’s specific expertise in training Brown, a sprinter, will play well in Denmark, where the sprinters are a huge core of the program.
In the 90’s, the 60-year old Juba was the coach of the British National Junior team, and has held several other administrative roles, including on the British Olympic evaluation committee.
Denmark is coming off of one of their most successful years in recent history; especially their women’s team, who had 8 finals swims in London. Breaststroker Rikke Moeller-Pedersen just last week at the Danish Open broke the European Record in the 200 long course breaststroke.
There is still some development to be done on the men’s side, however; the Danish men didn’t have a single finalist at the Olympics. Most of their talent is focused on distance races (Pal Joensen, Mads Glaesner, Anders Lie), but they will really have some work to do in developing more depth.