Forgive me for being premature, but methinks that Swimming Australia has already begun to find the solutions to some of the woes that seam to be plaguing the country’s swimming federation right now. They’ve gone global, and hired easily one of the 5-hottest non-American coaches in the world right now, Denmark’s Paulus Wildeboer, to head training in Queensland through 2016.
Wildeboer had previously been both the Danish National Team Director and the head of their National Training Center, where a majority of their small, but super-elite, senior team trained. After London, he relinquished the former of those roles to focus on the latter, but has apparently been very quickly lured away by what was surely a very generous offer from the Aussies.
The timing comes as much of his former training group was leaving his site; his son Aschwin, a Spanish national, returned to train there, while Lotte Friis went to France to train with Camille Muffat.
With this move, the Danes actually lose two of their top coaches, as his wife worked with the nearby Sigma club: one of Denmark’s best.
No Australians have publicly committed to train with Wildeboer yet, but one would presume that many, especially the female freestylers that he had such success with in Denmark, will flock to his camp for at least a trial.
With so much young talent, and a burgeoning national interest in swimming, one hopes that Wildeboer’s departure doesn’t stifle the explosive growth and success that the Danish program has been having. This will require a carefully-selected replacement, though perhaps there are not a ton of equitable options floating around who would view the job in such a small country as a step-up
It may take some time to stabilise but this is exactly what we need here in Oz. Would be better to have him outside Queensland as this will just lure more swimmers there from other states but beggers can’t be choosers.Better there than not at all.
I had the opportunity to exchanged some training ideas with Paul at the European Championships several years ago and I can tell you, this guy knows his stuff and can really coach.
Whoever swims with him will get faster.
Only if they do the work required.
I can’t see anyone in the nation taking on Lotte Friis’s load.
Still it would be cool to say ..Good Morning .Mr Wildboer every day at 5am.
What club is he coaching at?