Former world champion James Magnussen of Australia continues to make his opinion known regarding the standing of his nation’s swimming in light of an overall disappointing result in both Rio and Budapest. Most recently at the 2017 World Championships, Australia nearly completed its competition without a single individual gold medal, save for Emily Seebohm’s heroic win in the women’s 200m backstroke.
‘Maggie’, who was one of several high-profile Aussies to have opted out of competing at the event in Budapest, had previously taken to the press to question why Australia hasn’t been leading off the 4×100 free relay with its fastest swimmers. Now, Maggie is also putting Swimming Australia on the defensive regarding attention, both monetarily and coaching-wise, being direction away from his home state of New South Wales (NSW).
Speaking about his birthplace within NSW, Maggie told The Sunday Telegraph, “I have no doubt that if I was swimming as a 16-year-old now in Port Macquarie, I wouldn’t be talent scouted the way that I was back when NSW swimming was a lot more predominant in the scheme of things.
“It’s just identifying those talents, grooming those swimmers to come through and get the best out of their abilities and not lose them to other sports.”
The 26-year-old Olympic medalist continued, “I think the thing I struggled the most with was the neglect of country NSW. They’re falling by the wayside because there are not the structures in place to keep those swimmers coming through.
“There are James Magnussen‘s at every second pool in NSW right up and down the coast. I have no doubt there are hundreds of swimmers in country NSW, and NSW as a whole, who have just as much talent as I ever did but sadly we lose a lot of those.”
In response, a Swimming Australia spokeswoman said, “Swimming Australia is committed to increasing the number of swimmers in New South Wales as well as across the country. Coaches are a vital part of the sport’s success and to help invest in the future generations, Swimming Australia has partnered with the NSW Institute of Sport and Swimming NSW to employ Ron McKeon as the state head coach who is part of a nation-wide coaching leadership team that works closely with Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren.”
According to Swimming NSW’s annual report for the 2016/17 season, its membership figure experienced a 5.8% increase, which translates to 1846 new members. That brings NSW’s total to 33,714, with the report noting particularly strong growth in the regional areas of NSW.
Australian Swimming and its swimmers have so much to
Learn and until they grow sadly we won’t reach the great heights we used to!
James Magnussen is absolutely correct. Traditionally NSW has been the powerhouse of Australian swimming but now it is far behind Queensland and on a par with Victoria which historically has been quite weak. There’s a certain poster who has an irrational hatred of JM but that doesn’t invalidate JM’s comments.
Yes agreed the Victorians and lately the West Australians are doing some really positive things with the juniors and building a base of good foundations . Not many parents, coaches etc from Sydney seem happy with much about what’s happening in NSW. They may go alright in a State of Origin style carnival. Still Qld for the win!
And to make the situation worse for Swimming NSW, so many young talented swimmers have been moving up to QLD these days to pursue their dream and the number is constantly growing. There are so many swimmers from QLD clubs especially SPW alone in the World Junior Team, who are originally from NSW. There are three more boys who I personally know moved up and joined SPW last couple of months. It’s very annoying to see the elite junior swimmers from NSW clubs consistently outswum by kids from QLD, VIC and even Perth clubs like UWA West Coast whilst NSW has bigger population, more facilities and money. It seems like Swimming NSW is either losing all the talented swimmers to… Read more »
Quite a few of NSW stars have moved to Queensland to train, Jess Ashwood and the McKeons come to mind.
Nsw swimming it’s time to think outside the box. Stop employing staff and start investing in coaching and programs. Try setting up programs in Wollongong Newcastle central coast mid north coast where swimmers and coaches can afford to live and have access to studying. The money is there you just need a new mind set. Sack the boys club and stop thinking that entry fees are a measure of performance.
Novocastrian, Hunter and Mingara used to be three powerhouse clubs from newcastle/central coast. Not to mention west Illawarra aquatic in Wollongong. All seem to have been on a steady decline in the last 6-7 years. Says it all really
Up the Red Devils!
James you are right on the money again mate.
Spot on with this and the relay selections.
Now with that…..
Leave it to the team leaders or captains.
James is right & brickbats to those attacking the messenger because they have a grudhe against James .
I posted prior that 3/4 of Australia’s top sprinters have been country boys who relocated to Sydney , Brisbane , Adelaide ( Maggie , Cartwright, Chalmers ) . On the level just behind at 48.2 relay member is Zac Incerti who uprooted from Broome to Perth a distance almost across Europe .
What Australian swimming could do would be , as James points out , talent scout likely 16 year olds in regional areas & assist them financially when they need to relocate to cities . They can work with quite a few Private schools who would be happy to assist… Read more »
Actually it was London that was the subject of comments re “bloat”; still some present in Rio. To address some of your points:
– there is ZERO centralisation of training centres ……. and there never has been in AUS swimming. There are a certain number of peak squads in ALL the 5 major cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane/Gold Coast, Perth & Adelaide. Due to having the warmest year round climate; SE Qld (Brisbane) has the most. Whilst many national team members are members of these programs; they have far from a monopoly with many others part of other squads.
Corporate $$$ in AUS sport tends to gravitate to those with the biggest potential exposure in their peak markets and these… Read more »
Cal and Stanford are both overrated academically. You can get a great 4 year degree from Texas, NC State, Michigan, and Virginia just to name a few.
We might want to jump on Magnussen for always being on the attack. But Australia has been struggling for years now, and we have been hoping for a rebuilding which doesn’t appear to be happening. Instead, they are continuing on a decline. I’ll say for that reason, there’s a problem, and like any organization, management has to take the blame. The old swimmers are a shadow of themselves, and were long before it should have happened, especially if compared with their counterparts from other swimming nations. While they seem to have new up and coming blood, those are few, and if those are badly managed, it will be even worse than it already is.
It’s important for swim Australia… Read more »
Yes, the adminstration of the sport has some significant “cases to answer” and arguably became extremely complacent during the last years of “plenty” … but they are far from alone in AUS Olympic sport.
However, I do think many people have a rather inflated and somewhat inaccurate impression on AUS’s historical, and overall, place in the international “scheme of things”. Whilst AUS DOES lie 2nd on the Olympic swimming medals table; the actual reality is that nigh 70% of those gold and overall medals were harvested in 2 periods of maybe 10-15 years each, both being hinged around AUS hosting the Olympics. The first from mid 50s to early 70s; the second from late 90s to end of the 00s.… Read more »