World champion and Olympic silver medallist James “the Missile” Magnussen hails from Port Macquarie and will be returning home to spend some time working with his former coach as well as helping to open the doors to Tim’s Waterhole.
The Port Macquaire News is reporting that Magnussen will be returning home to train with Michael Mullens for a two week period at the Port Macquarie Olympic Pool, “James is really looking to do some massive kilometres and a huge amount of aerobic training to set the platform for the rest of the year,” Mr Mullens told the Port Macquaire News. He also stated told the paper that it is a great honour to have the champion swimmer come back to his stomping ground.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Mr Mullens said. “He’s a great guy and he’s really given back to the sport.”
Magnussen will be giving back again by helping to open Tim’s Waterhole a brand new learn to swim facility which will replace the learn to swim shed where Magnussen got his start while training under Michael Mullens from 2002-2009, “A part of his training program was actually in that shed,” Mr Mullens told the Macquarie Port News. “He knew every crack on the bottom of that pool very well.”
Mullens who is the one that got the pool built did so because of the need for a larger space to accomodate for the incredible growth in swim school numbers. In 2003 the facility saw 50 swimmers per week and has grown to 800 swimmers per week in February of this year, “I wanted every child to have the right to learn to swim, and when you have to start knocking people back it’s never a good thing,” the acclaimed swimming coach said.
Sorry, you are a little bit crazy. James Magnussen was last week in Holland Eindhoven tot train with the Dutch Olympic champion 100 free style Ranomi Kromowidjojo. Watch the news and see the video
http://www.hollandswimming.nl/index.php/component/content/article/1-laatste-nieuws/5393-video-james-magnussen-in-eindhoven-voor-fotoshoot-en-om-mee-te-trainen
There has been a big increase In families moving to Port whereas before it was retirees & those struggling with Sydney costs of living.
Hence the competition for the waves is exponential . Many locals are having regrets that they did not train swimming & are getting beat & pushed out to the fringes of the action. The guys with a swim background ( Port has always produced butterfliers ) are also able to handle the rockier shore further south with less fear of being shredded.
Whereas good swimmers in the US aim for college most swimmers in Australia aim for the surf.