Ever wonder what a head coach tells his athletes in order to get the best performance out of them on a day where winning can mean the world?
For former Rockwood resident and Newmarket Stingrays Swim Club coach Alan Swanston, the answer, maybe surprisingly, was not very much.
The result was that Lindsay Seemann, just 15 and competing against women ten years her senior, won a place on Canada’s Olympic swimming team and she will be competing in China later this summer.
Not that Swanston doesn’t care about his charges. He has built the team over the past 22 years. It was in poor condition when he arrived, but, “I came here because I wanted to build something of my own.”
That construction project is now completed, with Swanston sending his team’s first swimmer to the Olympics. But, just as important to him, “Now, clubs across Canada know who we are.”
Coaching someone into an Olympic competition involves a huge number of variables, Swanston said in an interview.
“It only happens every four years, and you have to swim that [qualifying] time at a special meet. You have to perform at a very high level on a given day,” he said.
He noted that Seemann was quite young, and most of her Olympic teammates are over 20, and in the women’s 200-metre backstroke at the Canadian Olympic trials in Montreal she hit her peak.
She showed big improvements in her times in the events leading up to that final race.
Winning a place on the Olympic team can take years, as Swanston knows. Seemann has been a member of his club for ten years, since she was five.
The ingredients in creating an Olympian are numerous – and require just the right amounts.
“You have to have a certain amount of talent,” Swanston said. “A certain amount of will. You have to manage your time well to get your homework done. The best, for years, get to the highest level.”
He said Seemann, like all his 240 club members, works on conditioning, which takes hours and hours in the pool, and then on tactics.
Once the swimmer is in peak condition, preferably well before an important meet, there is a tapering off of training, and then “an appropriate amount of intensity in the last three weeks.
“Lindsay knew she was in great shape,” he said.
The final ingredients for elite athletes are to “eat well, get a good amount of sleep, stay focused, and stay calm.”
If all that sounds like a lot, Swanston added, “The people who have the most fun will make the team. Lindsay was enjoying the moment.” He said he later saw films of her before and during the competition, and “it was quite obvious” she was enjoying herself.
Her stiffest competition to make the team was a pair of veteran, 25-year-old swimmers. Seemann “got out in front of them” and they never caught her.
Swanston said, “I don’t speak to athletes that much about what they do in comparison to the other swimmers. We talk about technique, and tactical issues. Over the years, we’ve discussed ‘ahead or behind.’ And that day, we did not talk about her being ahead.”
Swanston said it is the swimmer’s choice, because “If it doesn’t work, it may have a negative effect. Others may have the same tactic.”
Seeded eighth entering the event, the grade 10 student rode her early lead to victory in a personal best time of two minutes, 12.06 seconds. She had wanted that Olympic qualifying time, so she increased her training and knocked three seconds off her previous personal best.
Her goal for Beijing is to nail down the Canadian record at 2:11.16, which is now not that far away from her personal best. The world record currently stands at 2:06.39.
Swanston said he was confident before the race that Seemann would take the honours.
Been there, done that
It is no surprise, though, that Swanston can turn out winners, because he has paid his dues since, as a 16-year-old, he began swimming competitively in Guelph. In the competitive swimming world, that is almost old, but he quickly moved up the ranks.
He swam for the Guelph Marlins in the late 1970s, and won a place on the Canadian national team. He won a medal at the Pan-Am games in 1979, and won another medal for Canada at the World University Games, while he was a member of ROW, the Region of Waterloo swim club. He was on the University of Waterloo team for those games.
Canadians had no opportunity to compete in the 1980 Olympics in the old USSR, because of a boycott.
“There was a good chance I would have been on the team,” he said.
At the 1982 Winter Nationals held in Brantford, he medalled in freestyle, breaststroke and was instrumental in his team winning the national title.
He received a degree in economics from the University of Waterloo in 1984. As a university swimmer, he won several CIAU titles. He still holds six records at the University of Waterloo. In 1996, he was inducted into that university’s Sports Hall of Fame.
For the son of Walter and Virena Swanston, the swimming story is continuing with his son, Matthew, who recently turned 17. He placed fifth in the men’s 200 backstroke in Montreal.
Matthew Swanston will be among those competing in the World Youth Championships in Monterey, Mexico.
Alan Swanston has been married since 1984 to Avril, also a former national level swimmer. Their other son, Jeffrey, 13, is also a top swimmer with the Stingrays.
They come by their swimming talent on both sides of the family. Their mother was a swimmer with the Guelph Marlins, and she, too, won a medal at the World University Games.
“She’s a very good swimmer,” said her husband.
Travelling time
With all the events, including the National Swimming Championships coming up in Vancouver prior to the Olympics, and the World Youth Games, Alan Swanston can expect to be doing quite a bit of travelling in the near future.
He noted that personal coaches are encouraged to continue with their charges as long as possible, but he is unsure if he will be going to China with Seemann. Her future now includes a training camp in Vancouver with her Olympic teammates and Summer Nationals in Winnipeg in July.
Then, the Canadian team will go to Singapore for final pre-games preparations. She also might swim with Canada’s world youth team in Mexico.
Likes the country
Swanston said he really enjoyed growing up in Eramosa township and living in the countryside just outside of Guelph. His career is taking him all over the place, but, “I like the Guelph area. I like being on the farm.”
Asked if he would ever return, he said, “Maybe. I’d like to move to the country – not necessarily as a farmer.”
Meanwhile, he will continue to focus on the immediate goal, which is to help his swimmers, and particularly Seemann.
“We’re going to do our best to get her ready to swim against the world now,” he said.
