With under one year to go until the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, IM dynamo Lewis Clareburt of New Zealand has pulled up roots, parting with his Wellington community facility and longtime coach Gary Hollywood.
The 24-year-old Commonwealth Games champion has cited inconsistencies in pool time as a major factor for his move to the city of Auckland in his lead-up to the next Games.
“I decided in the last couple of weeks that, if I would like to keep that dream alive, I need to be in an environment that is really supportive of high-performance athletes and they understand the process of what it takes to get there.
“I’ve decided to head up to Auckland to finish that journey to Paris,” Clareburt told The New Zeland Herald recently.
Clareburt and Hollywood have been together as athlete and coach for more than 7 years, culminating in Clareburt’s 400m IM bronze at the 2019 World Championships. Clareburt followed that performance up with double gold in the 200m fly and 400m IM at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Clareburt has yet to name his new head coach, although Hollywood expressed via social media, “I thought we could create a model to retain our best and brightest Wellingtonians in Wellington, sadly I don’t believe that is now possible with the current environment. It’s telling when Lewis is the Wellington region’s only Olympian across all codes, making myself its only Olympic coach
“It’s been a tough life lesson. ‘So close, yet so far away’.”
For his part, Clareburt relayed, “I spent six years trying to build an environment that nurtures high performance. And it is a tough one, especially working out of a community facility. That was the main reason why I decided to step away. It is a community facility.
“The environment wasn’t positive.”
Per Stuff.Co.NZ, Swimming New Zealand confirmed Hollywood’s statement saying, “Words cannot fully express how sad I feel about Lewis feeling he has to leave Wellington now just nine months out from the Olympics knowing things could have been so different if we’d had access to a more positive training environment.”
There is a widespread problem in the pools run by Wellington City Council, and it affects swimmers of every level, juniors, age groupers, elite, and masters. While it is disappointing that Clareburt’s training has been disrupted, the problems affecting him are also compromising many others’ pool use and training. The management of the pools’ hireable lane space is poor and inconsistent, with ‘rules’ and procedures apparently being invented on the fly, according to the caprice of managers. Inconsistency reigns.
These inconsistencies are compromising swimmers’ abilities to improve, and will make it harder to develop the next generation of world-class swimmers.
The pool management constantly threatens clubs and squads that they’ll lose their lane space (you know, the space they… Read more »
I’’m a fan of Lewis and really would love to see him pull a podium spot in Paris. The situation is disappointing and it’s tough to see elite level Kiwis having to deal with these kinds of challenges when their focus should be on performance.
Kiwis seem to like the Gold Coast. Maybe he should’ve made the move over here.
My son’s met him when on a training camp in Spain last year. He was an absolute gentleman and we wish him all the best from Ireland.
He has to be a real fool to break up with his coach at tihs time of the year considering the Olympics are right around the corner. He should be in heavy distance workouts and here he is dealing with coaching changes. Very foolish of him. Especially considering this is the coach who brought him glory so far. He is definitely is an immature swimmer making a dumb and stupid decision.
Tell us how you feel.
Have you been to any of his wrac sessions? When you have make a comment.
You certainly didn’t read the article.
His coach is supporting him to move because the local facility is not conducive and not supportive.
Troll
Am I missing something or is he simply stating the obvious: he HAS to move because the local facilities are so weak that they cannot support a high-performance elite program, which he needs – now, more than ever?! I wish him well in the next 9 months and hope to see him in Paris 2024!
Yeah I heard the pool space was so limited that his squad was something like 10 people per lane. Not feasible for high performance training. Best of luck to him
That’s not true
the kid had his own lanes for years paid for by SNZ. Most articles here refer to Lewis leaving because the pool has rules against public photography and he’s just sad he can’t do his Instagram
That is not the case. He has been able to use lanes provided by Swimming New Zealand, generally with five swimmers or fewer.