Yesterday it was reported that James Magnussen had made a decision on his new training environment and today Swimming Australia released a statement saying that they were not in support of the World Champion’s decision.
Swimming Australia Ltd (SAL) Performance Director Michael Scott was very direct in his comments, “We do not support the training environment James has chosen going forward and there are a range of factors that have led us to that decision and we are not about to go into them.”
Magnussen will be putting his trust in two young coaches Mitch and Lach Falvey. Mitch, 28 and Lach, 25 do not have experience guiding an athlete of Magnussen’s level, which appears to be Swimming Australia’s main concern.
Scott made it clear that Swimming Australia did not have anything against the young coaches, “But in saying that we have nothing against the young coaches Mitch and Lach Falvey – at the end of the day we respect James’ right to make his own decision – although we haven’t got to agree with it.”
Both Swimming Australia and Magnussen acknowledge that there was a thorough process that involved a great deal of discussion between the governing body and Magnussen’s support team, but in the end the two sides did not agree on the same course of action.
“Having been through a very thorough and rigorous process with my extended support team over the past six weeks, we have reached what I believe is a very positive outcome for my future,” Magnussen said in a statement to the press.
“I am very excited at the prospect of taking my swimming career forward under the guidance and energy of Mitch and Lach Falvey. My experience with them so far is that there is a very strong fit in our approach towards swimming and in our work ethic and goal congruence for my training and racing moving forward.”
“I feel really invigorated and excited about my new training set up, and am looking forward to resuming my racing career and pursuing the significant goals we have set for 2015 and beyond.”
The young coaches know the challenge ahead of them and understand that they will have to prove themselves, “I think every coach is inexperienced until they have a great athlete such as James walk through the door,” Mitch Falvey told ABC Mid North Coast.
“Lach and I are both young, up and coming coaches and we’re very excited to work with James.”
“We can provide an environment where he’s happy and enjoying his swimming.”
“We’re also flexible; we don’t have family commitments so we can travel with James to support his endeavours when need be,” Mitch said.
Although Swimming Australia does not support Magnussen’s decision they will still continue to provide him with funding, “However we will still provide financial support to James. This support will need to be targeted at specific gaps that Jacco as Head Coach has identified,” said Scott.
In the same press release from Swimming Australia Vehaeren made it very clear that he and Swimming Australia are there to assist the athletes in their decision making process and are not in the business of making their decisions for them, “I sat with James and we talked through all of the options available to him in Australia, where he could train in the lead up to next year’s World Championships and onwards to the 2016 Rio Olympics,” said Verhaeren.
“After our meeting I left it with James to go away and think about his future and make a final decision, letting him know my door was always open for future discussion.”
“It is not for Swimming Australia to push athletes into specific programs. I see our role to advise athletes about opportunities and possibilities throughout Australia.”
“But ultimately it is up to the athlete to make the final decision.”
Both Magnussen and the Falvey brothers are confident that their partnership will be a success, “I think this change that he’s had has reinvigorated and motivated him,” Mitch Falvey told ABC Mid North Coast.
“I have very little doubt that James will be swimming extremely fast in the next twelve to eighteen months in the lead up to 2016 Olympic Games.”
Brain, I wonder if you would be death riding James with your negative comments if he had been forced to join the podium program at SU, that you seem to be involved in. Maybe your time would be better spent helping this under performing program succeed. Please let us know what contribution the coach has made to swimming in the state of NSW since joining it.
Dear Brain, what JM needed was guidence and this was clearly lacking at SOPAC under Best. With a bit of luck Lachlan and Mitch will provide the leadership and guidence he needs. As you would be fully aware Brain as a former coach is that swimmers create coaches, coaches don’t create swimmers!
“there are a range of factors that have led us to that decision and we are not about to go into them”
If they are going to say something like this, why not go into it?
Either say nothing or give some generic congratulation response and move on. This is a character trait of all of the best organizations in sports. Take a look at the New England Patriots and San Antonio Spurs. They deny everything, make generic none answers, keep everything in house, and fly under the radar.
On the other hand there are organization like the Dallas Cowboys who seemingly like being in the spot light. They bring so much negativity onto them self’s by their… Read more »
I Bet Jacco will have a significant amount of input into Magnussen’s training. 2014 was the 4th straight year James has gone 47.5 or better, I hope this change will finally provide him with the breakthrough he needs to be 46 in the 100 free.
The rest of the sprinting world must be rejoicing when they see Magnussen self-destructing… its just a shame he has placed 2 good guys in a no-win situation… he calls them friends, but he obviously doesn’t give a shit about their careers, he just wants to call the shots! Can’t help but feel sorry for his parents that are watching their son’s career unravel before their eyes, they are “salt of the earth” people and don’t deserve to watch their son publicly make a fool of himself! Who knows, one day he might wake up to himself and realize that he is not Jesus Christ!!!
He’s swimming, not killing puppies. You need to breathe.
Very funny, obviously who haven’t seen how he treats people! His 2 so-called friends are good guys and unfortunately, they are about to find out as well!
I feel sorry for you Brian , JM is just concentrating on swimming and swimming training ….who do you think you are to doom-say the training methods used by these two young coaches.
Try to wish them well as they clearly will surprise you when they succeed , and past culture and training methods used by the former coach have proved to be ineffective.
Most Australians will wish this young fellow from Port Macquarie well when we see this athlete embrace exactly the sort of person he is ,,,, he just needed to be reminded by Swimming people from the same place.
Your rudeness and negativity is the biggest problem with coaches attitudes and culture in Australian… Read more »
If the Brian Sutton on this thread is who I suspect this may be then he IS most certainly qualified to speak having been a previous head coach of the AUS men’s team and currently heading up the High Perf unit at Sydney University.
Whilst JM is most certainly free to make whatever choice he sees fit, I can understand SA’s view. For non-Australians, his choice of quad is located at a prestigious private girl’s school on Sydney’s north shore. He will be the only elite level swimmer in the squad and will essentially be training alongside schoolgirls training and competing several levels below. Neither of this nominated coaches have any experience with elite level coaching. Not saying that the… Read more »
COMMONWOMBAT,
I think you are right that the Brian Sutton commenting is the former mens coach as to the HP Head at Syd Uni ,,,,,,well he does have a web site that can tell you all about that Brian Sutton from his point of view ……. I hope his possible future customers read all his negativity before they decide to employ him.
As to your knowledge about who James will and wont be training with , it is fine to be ignorant as long as you don’t profess to know the facts .
Whatever Brant Best did or didn’t do does not give Brian any firm footing to doom-say the Falvey’s program…he is entitled to his opinion… Read more »
You obviously don’t get the point… i know the coaches involved and they are certainly up-&-coming coaches with good futures… but “JM” doesn’t want them to coach him, he just wants someone to hold a stopwatch! They will get on well as long as they don’t try to tell “JM” anything. If they were going to coach him, I would have no problem, but as they will find out, you can’t give advice to someone who thinks he knows it all!!! PS: If you haven’t got the gonads to put your name to your comments, well… that just about says it all…
Thanks Brian ,
I think I do get the point , that being that you have little time or respect for JM .
Mitch and Lach you seem to have some for.
You don’t think they can succeed nor do you think James will be anything but self absorbed.
I need little in the way of bravery (Gonads ) to feel sorry for you.
My name is in fact G.Lee
I hope you can get over being bitter and twisted and just give this program the time required to succeed or fail.
You might find that this , in fact ……..just about says it all.
Out of their right to critique his coaching change…weird
Jeff,
What happened to Brant Best, James’ former coach?
Personally, I find it strange they even feel the need to opine on the matter.