Canadian Olympic head coach Ben Titley discussed the state of the Canadian team with SwimSwam as they prepare for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Titley was named the head coach of the Olympic squad in May following the 2016 Canadian Olympic Trials. There, Titley put several athletes on the team including all four girls who will swim on Canada’s 4×100 freestyle relay.
His most notable swimmers are Penny Oleksiak and Chantal Van Landeghem. Oleksiak broke two Canadian records at trials en route to earning herself three individual swims and three relay swims in Rio. Van Landeghem earned individual spots in both the 50 and 100 freestyles, and has been in several international finals thus far in her career.
Titley is leaded a staff of five other coaches made up of Tom Johnson, Linda Kiefer, Ryan Mallette, Steve Price, and Kevin Thorburn.
Titley has been to several Olympic Games before as a coach for the British team. In 2004, 2008, and 2012 he was part of the British staff before coming to Canada to coach the High Performance Centre – Ontario.
Last summer he was named the head coach of the Pan American Games team.
Titley is currently in Toronto with the remainder of the Canadian Olympic swim team where they’re taking place in a staging camp until they fly to Rio on Friday.
worst necklace ever
I have banged on about it so much already, but hiring Ben is the best thing Canadian swimming have done for a while. Huge loss to British swimming but continued (deserved) success in Canada.
I strongly disagree.. He isn’t the best and far from being the best.. Canadian swimming isn’t getting better because of him… In fact his contribution is rather minimal…
His contribution is minimal? Hmm
I do not usually comment on blogs however we felt this comment was really unfair. Talking for my daughter, there is no question Ben has had an impact on her results, and subsequently Canada’s world junior (and now senior) standings. Our hope is that for the next 4 years we will see other athletes benefit from Ben’s leadership. Ben originally started working with her 3 years ago after London 2012 – once a month – then gradually increasing their sessions until she moved to him full time the past year. Over the past 3 years I have witnessed how Ben adjusted her training working with her club coach Bill dealing with significant growth spurts, fractured limbs and other normal teenage… Read more »
I stand by my comments due to the following reasons:
Ben IS NOT the best thing Canadian Swimming has done in years… How is that FAIR to so many coaches that have been in canada WAY longer than BEn working so hard, dealing with clubs/families/board AND producing excellent swimmers that later on coaches like Ben and other center coaches get the benefit from?. So nothing personal against Ben, however is tremendously UNFAIR to say that he is the best thing Canada has done, when clearly history doesn’t support that…
Center coaches like Ben get a big paycheque (will say our taxes pay for it), all the money/facilities and support to produce results. They only coach 5-10 swimmers (and… Read more »
Ben’s position is not to take a swimmer from scratch and develop them, it’s to take a club swimmer or collegiate level athlete who has potential for international success and bring them to that next level so they can compete internationally. As Penny’s mom said above, Ben works with the club coaches. Most clubs don’t have the resources Ben has, so Ben takes a standout athlete and prepares them to compete internationally. To say hiring Ben is the best thing Swimming Canada has done doesn’t take away from the hard work most club coaches and other coaches have done. Numbers speak for themselves and he’s done a great job of developing already standout athletes into international competitors. It’s a team… Read more »
To say hiring Ben is the best thing Swim Canada has ever done does take away from other coaches! and by a lot! the current system in Canada does not benefit the majority of swimmers and coaches. To think that club coaches are doomed to do the same job year after year only to hand it over.. You know.. what a nice job is to receive all the talent and “take it to the next level”.. i bet thats hard..
Canadian swimming needs a shake.. and a shake from the bottom up, not the other way around thinking putting a band aid will fix a major bleeding. The problem is that it will take major work that most likely… Read more »
wow! this another coach swim coach is everywhere in negativity. did you changes your alias again? coach of club in durham?
Well then, if Canada doesn’t have a superstar performer, what would one call Ryan Cochrane?
Can SwimSwam start referring to women and not girls?
It doesn’t matter girls women same thing men boys same thing. Same gender, I don’t see why it bothers people?
Political correctness is literally killing us. Btw when my daughter stays with her mom and it is me with my two sons we called it “boys weekend”, not boys hanging out with their old man !
No mention of Penny Oleksiak’s World Junior Record at age 15?