2021 SWAMMY AWARD: BEN TITLEY, CANADIAN COACH OF THE YEAR
After a two-year break, Ben Titley is once again the winner of the Canadian Coach of the Year Swammy. The head coach of the High Performance Centre in Ontario and one of the coaches for Canada’s Olympic Team, Titley has coached Canada’s best through every major championship this year, including Canadian Male Swimmer of the Year Joshua Liendo.
Titley’s training group includes some of the country’s best swimmers, from veterans Penny Oleksiak and Kylie Masse to Tennessee commit Regan Rathwell and USC commit Ashley McMillan. His coaching was especially important this year, as 14 of Canada’s 26 Olympic swimmers came from the two High Performance Centres in Ontario and Vancouver, and Titley even trained Summer McIntosh, the youngest member of Canada’s Olympic team.
2020 Olympic Medals Won by Titley’s Club Swimmers
- Penny Oleksiak: 200 free bronze, 4×100 free relay silver, 4×100 medley relay silver
- Kylie Masse: 100 back silver, 200 back silver, 4×100 medley relay silver
- Kayla Sanchez: 4×100 free relay silver, 4×100 medley relay silver
- Sydney Pickrem: 4×100 medley relay silver
In addition to the swimmers who train regularly with him, Maggie MacNeil, who won Canada’s only Olympic gold in the 100 fly, also trained with Titley leading up to the Games. Many of Canada’s top names in swimming trained under Titley this year when pools were closed and practices canceled because of COVID-19.
Over the years, Titley’s swimmers have included teen phenom Taylor Ruck, Audrey Lacroix, Rebecca Smith, and Mack Darragh.
Over the past six years, Titley has won the Canadian Coach of the Year Swammy four times. In that time, he coached seven athletes for the 2019 FINA World Championships team, five of which brought home medals. He was also on the coaching staff of the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships, and he was the head coach for the 2016 Olympic Games.
HONORABLE MENTION
- Martyn Wilby: Wilby was the head coach of Canada’s 24-person Olympic pool team, which took home six medals for the country. He joined Swimming Canada as a head coach at international meets after almost two decades at the University of Florida.
PAST WINNERS
- 2020 Swammy: Tom Johnson
- 2019 Swammy: Tom Johnson
- 2018 Swammy: Ben Titley
- 2017 Swammy: Ben Titley
- 2016 Swammy: Ben Titley
- 2015 Swammy: Ryan Mallette
- 2014 Swammy: Tom Johnson
- 2013 Swammy: Randy Bennett
Easy call! Well deserved!
Coach Ben and his staff seem to improve pretty well every swimmer in their program.Recently watched Regan Rathwell and Ashley Macmillan in their latest meet.Now appear to be blue chip prospects for the national team.I hope they can expand this program to other young Canadian prospects….oh yeah and Josh Liendo looks great too, keep up the great work!
HPC Can only expand to younger swimmers if club coaches get them to a certain level first. We need everyone doing their part to keep this thing rolling for Canadian Swimming. It’s not one coach, its everyone working together to help out.