In response to some criticisms of Canada’s High Performance Centre – Ontario, Javier Acevedo, set to compete in his 3rd Olympics for Canada in Paris this summer, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share his thoughts and experiences on training in Ontario with coach Ryan Mallette.
Explaining why he decided to comment publicly, Acevedo said, “Along with the negative comments I have seen in articles, at Trials I was asked by swimmers and coaches if everything was good with HPC-ON and I always said ‘of course it is.’ So I felt like I needed to say something as someone on the inside.”
I’ve been reading and seeing a lot of comments made regarding the swimming High-Performance Centre Ontario and I wanted to give my insight as an athlete that trains there. I want to preface what I’m about to say by stating that these are solely my opinions.
— Javier Acevedo (@JavAcevedo98) May 28, 2024
Acevedo echoes sentiments from other HPC – Ontario teammates such as Madison Kryger that the environment at HPC – Ontario has always been welcoming.
From the moment I joined HPC-ON, I have felt welcomed with open arms into a world class environment. The coaching staff and IST go above and beyond my expectations because they truly care about me as an athlete and more importantly me as a person.
— Javier Acevedo (@JavAcevedo98) May 28, 2024
Ryan Mallette became head coach of HPC – Ontario in 2022 after taking over for Ben Titley. On head coach Ryan Mallette, Acevedo had this to say:
As far as coaching goes, Ryan is a fantastic coach and leader within our group. Since working with Ryan, my performances in the pool have continued on an upward trajectory and have surpassed goals that I have set for myself.
— Javier Acevedo (@JavAcevedo98) May 28, 2024
Furthermore, he understands my needs to balance being an athlete with my personal life outside the pool, providing me the ability to build my future beyond swimming. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
— Javier Acevedo (@JavAcevedo98) May 28, 2024
In a sport that can be extremely unforgiving as athletes work for years to shave off tenths of a second, having someone remind you of your merit beyond the lanes is invaluable. While some criticisms of HPC – Ontario have claimed that development of top swimmers has stagnated, there are metrics that go beyond the scoreboard that measure a program’s success.
Overall, the athletes that are most intimately involved in a program are the ones that are best qualified to speak to its success. And while there has been criticism over Mallette’s performance as head coach of HPC – Ontario so far, Acevedo believes that the environment that is being cultivated is a great stepping stone to lasting success.
Success isn’t only driven by performance and the medal count and that’s why I will continue to support HPC-ON, knowing that the values this group has in place will lead to long term success.
— Javier Acevedo (@JavAcevedo98) May 28, 2024
Acevedo was a 2-time SEC champion in the 100 backstroke, the youngest male named to the 2016 Olympic team for Canada, and a 2-time Canadian national champion in the 100 backstroke, and a 2-time bronze medalist at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest before moving to HPC – Ontario in April 2022.
Since beginning his training under Mallette and the HPC – Ontario staff, he has represented Canada at 7 international meets earning 11 relay medals at LC and SC World Championships in 2022, the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Pan American Games in 2023, as well as an individual silver in the 100 IM at the 2022 SC World Championships in Melbourne. He has also set best times in the 50, 100, 200 free as well as the 50, 100 back LCM since training in Ontario, the time in the 100 back from Trials, 53.55, earning him his 3rd Olympic berth.
Ryan Mallette has been on Team Canada’s coaching staff for each major championship since 2014. He was named head coach of the 2023 World Championship team in Fukuoka, head coach of the women’s team at the World Championships in Doha in February of this year, and will be the head coach for the Canadian team this summer in Paris.
Current HPC – Ontario standouts include Olympians Javier Acevedo, Sophie Angus, Apollo Hess, Ella Jansen, and Lorne Wigginton.
I’m curious for how long the real story behind Ben Titley’s exit from HPC-Ontario wouldn’t be discussed? For how long he’ll be portraited as a victim of Swimming Canada, while in reality it was vice versa? The exit was very well planned in advance and no amount of money would prevent it. Swimmers were the real victims as they were abandoned by their coach in the middle of the season, right before Trials and Worlds.
The same way, should there be no covid situation, 2/3 of athletes that were training under Titley during that period wouldn’t even show up in Toronto. Meanwhile Mack Darragh, who was training with Ben for quite a while, was only 1:58.10 at 2021… Read more »
They need to gut Swim Canada and start over.
Aside from swimswam, anyone have other links to these articles?
Sorry guy but HPC Ontario underperformed massively at Olympic Trials when compared to HPC Vancouver. Also, how many elite swimmers would still be at the HPC Ontario if Ben Titley never left?
Just because Van was good doesn’t mean Ont was bad.
massively? What were the expectations?
How many elite swimmers would have been at HPC Ontario with Ben Titley if not for Covid and travel restrictions ?
Compared to hpc Vancouver? Hpc van only put 3 swimmers on the team (one of which was a previous toronto swimmer).
“Success isn’t only driven by performance and the medal count… “
It kinda is at the “High Performance Centre”.
My first thoughts in reaction to his comments are these:
- I haven’t heard anyone accusing the Ontario HPC of being a ‘negative’ environment broadly, more so one that has underperformed this Olympic cycle. As a tax-payer funded program, we have the right to criticize poor performance, particularly when contrasting it to the excellent performance the last coach leading HPC-ON was able to get out of the same resources. So it’s nice that Javier is having a good time there, but as a taxpayer my opinion aligns with that of Own the Podium: investment should be inline with high-performance outcomes, not whether the coach is friendly.
- To say Javier’s swimming has been on an “upward trajectory” and “surpassed” his own
… Read more »Javier has also improved his 100m free by .82 sec., and his 200m free by 1.3 sec. since moving to the HPC-ON.
I wonder if Linda Kiefer would consider the position? Lives in Toronto, Kylie attributed her WR-form ascent mostly to her. Also would be kinda nice to see a woman head-coaching a centre, would be the first time in SNC history, or at least in the 30 years I’ve been involved in the sport.
That is a super interesting pick. The question is would she want to leave the cushy job at u of T?
If you want to talk about taxpayer money let’s discuss carding $ to people who haven’t paid a cent in tax dollars.
Examples please
US residents who hold Canadian citizenship on the list of carded athletes on the SNC website.
So I guess you would be ok with the parents of these US residents who themselves are resident in Canada and paying CAD taxes not pay Cad taxes. Pretty much most of the us residents you are referring to are ncaa residents whose cad resident parents are funding a percentage if not all of their education costs etc in USA. I’m sure summers parents would be happy to stop paying Canadian taxes to forgive their carding monies.
No I am only speaking about families who are US residents of high school kids receiving the carding $. In fact the families of the NCAA athletes only receive 4 months of carding while in my opinion should receive the entire amount as their families are paying taxes.
I think that Canadian swimmers who train in the US do not get carding money. That used to be the rule, at least. I’m too lazy to check into the current rules. Is anyone up-to-date on this?
Incorrect
I think there are some really important points above. I have heard lots of positive things about Ryan as a coach from some swimmers and yes some of had big improvements with him. If he was a club coach that would be the end of this story but the issue is HPC-O is not just Ryan, there is also Rob and other resources and supports. Website seems to be more up-to-date than it had been but it is still unclear how many people swim there full time in comparison to the resources there. Sounds like some are leaving for school or retiring at end of this season so seems like a lot of $ going towards training a small number… Read more »
You brought a very good point about taxpayer money! Did you make you analysis for all years of center’s existence, obviously, excluding the 2 covid year? Do you have a table of, let’s say how many athletes was Titley training each year and how many of them qualified for Worlds, Olympics, PanPac/PanAm, etc. and medaled? The guy didn’t a single male swimmer in Rio, as far as I remember!
The famous story about Ben says that he would rather have 1-2 athletes in the program if he don’t see any other applicant worthy? You’d prefer this type of taxpayer money spending over giving chance to 7-9 young and upcoming people, as we see right now? Did people in SwimSwam… Read more »
Not every coach works well with every athlete. Ryan is a great person and a fantastic coach, that being said his style would not fit all athletes. Athletes have to do what is best for them and if that means switching centers so be it. Really not a big deal at all
I don’t know how you can be so quick to jump to the defense of the centre given in the last 3 years they’ve lost their best coach and about 11 of their country’s best swimmers who have all gone on to achieve better things lol
What? Just because talent left doesn’t mean he can’t defend his coach. Acevedo has clearly improved as well under Mallete. Just because there’s no flashy names anymore doesn’t mean he’s doing a good job, that’s just kudos to whoever is coaching those other elite athletes as well.
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