Swimming Australia

yeah definitely so what are some of the achievements you've you've had with swimming you're obviously coaching some state champions in there too

yes um I was recently selected to be in the Swimming Australia W32 program, which was quite exciting.

And then also the Women in Sport and TIS scholarship.

They were both two really big highlights.

It's just feedback to help you progress for the next thing.

Yeah.

Can you tell us a bit more about the W32 program? Because I know Swimming Australia is doing some really great things to get more females coaching.

They are, yes.

Because it, it's just not sustainable.

It's, when I did a review for Swimming Australia a few years ago, that I talked to a, a coach in Western Australia said something I'd never forgotten.

He said, "I love this sport.

I give my life to it, but the fact is it's the least desirable sport for children and families that I know of." And it's, no one has ever put it better than that.

So what does a Swimming South Africa that is functional look like?

I think if you look at Swimming Australia, the way they work, somebody like, uh, Rohan that's, that's their head of, um, head of performance.

I, I think what needs to happen is you sit down with every single coach in the country, you sit down with this, with the, the elite swimmers, and say, "What do we need? What haven't you had that's gonna help you better?" We need a high-performance director that travels to various high-performance centers or top coaches in the country and says, "What do you need to get better? Do you need arena? You don't need arena? Okay.

What c- if we gave you some arena suits and you had a chance to practice with those and feel more confidence and comfortable in those, would that be an option?" "No, it wouldn't." "Okay.

No problem with that at all.

My wife, my wife was a CEO of Swimming Australia.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah

... uh, Rob Woodhouse, who's an, an Australian, he's an Olympian, he's the CEO of Swimming Australia, and he's, he's a really good guy.

Gets it.

He's, he, he sees swimming through the lens of an elite, and, um-

And that's your trials for Beijing?

Yeah, I think Swimming Aus is taking a relatively small team to short course.

I think it's 24 instead of the typical 48.

So-

I, uh, at-

Okay

... it's based on the q- there's call times on the Swimming Australia website.

I think the women's 2 free to 15 free is, like, 1:54.1, 4:02, 8:18, and 15:48.

I'll just push my teeth back in.

It's a story that I've told the sports science groups around the world for a long time that when I was working for Swimming Australia, which was a long time ago now, that I had the best physiologists in the room and, you know, Bob Trefine and Dr. David Pine, Dr. Graham Moore, very, very people who were... postgraduate trained, incredible brains in physiology.

I mean, very, very smart guys.

And we were asked by the national head coach to come up with some physiological tests.

This is probably even worse.

He came out and publicly claimed that Swimming Australia had gagged him and threatened to sack him if he spoke openly about the incident.

And that's what happened.

That's the last time they'll be representing

and also for girls and women with disability for managing their periods when playing sport.

Other websites, the Australian Sport Commission on menstrual cycle has education and also Swimming Australia is another example and what they have about the menstrual cycle and when swimming and managing your period during that time.

And then if you want to look global, Golf England has a great site as well to have a look at it and see what they've got.

So from a practical hands-on perspective of the education hub from Share the Dignity through to sport-based sites, it's there.

And while we'd like to say that would fix all the problems, it won't.

It will fix only the fact that.

nobody should stop menstruation shouldn't be a barrier to playing sport whether you're um differently abled or not right so it's how does every sporting code federally um because it's it's unless you know diving australia and swimming australia and netball australia come on board it'll be the young girl who's in roma who'll miss out if we have one club at a time come on board so i that is our goal is to make sure that the provision of period products are in every training bag, that every coach has to undertake menstruation training.

And then that will remove the shame and stigma because now in every state in Australia, excluding Northern Territory and Tasmania, sorry, that there is now provision of period products in every bathroom, in every primary and secondary school.

You can...

You're more than welcome to jump on the phone with Swimming Australia and complain about that.

Mm-hmm.

But, uh, yeah, unfortunately I'm gonna have to qualify again.