Dutchman Jacco Verhaeren has been at the helm of the Australian National Swimming Team since October 2013, helping the squad weather the post-London Olympic scandal storm and pointing the nation back towards its traditionally talent-heavy, powerhouse path.
In another initiative as leader of the storied swimming nation, Verhaeren just announced yesterday that the Aussie swimmers set to compete at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 will be pre-selected. This is a radical change from the traditional process in place for 40 years, where swimmers earn the Games’ roster spots via specific trials, akin to qualifying for the Olympics via trials.
Verhaeren sees the new, experimental selection process is simply an alternative, saying “it’s worth considering if this is ultimately the best system to select a team.”
In considering the traditional trials system, Verhaeren tells The Australian that format’s “advantage is that it’s close to the reality of racing at the Games. There’s high pressure and you see if the swimmers have the resilience necessary to perform in that situation.”
However, he conversely identifies that the disadvantage is that “you want to go with your best soldiers to the Olympics and that almost didn’t happen with Ian Thorpe,” referring to the fact that Thorpe fell off the blocks in the 400m freestyle trial which almost rendered him out of Olympic contention if it weren’t for the fact a teammate gave up his spot.
Verhaeren explains in the piece, “If we want to adopt another approach we need to test it in the next Olympic cycle. It’s a no-go to suddenly change it in the Olympic season.’’
With the 2018 Commonwealth Games taking place on the Gold Coast in April of the same year as the next Pan Pacific Championships, Verhaeren says Swimming Australia will preselect swimmers for both competitions based on who wins individual medals at the 2017 World Championships. The remainder of the contenders will proceed with trials as normal to fill in the rest of the roster.
“That will be the first trial to see how it works out with preselection,’’ Verhaeren said. “If we do try a different approach for the Olympics we have to be able to explain that decision and it has to be fair. Fairness is a key part of our sport because if you touch the wall first you win. So fairness in selection and logic in selection will be a key priority.’’
“Anything can happen there and we are looking at some very close races,’’ he said.
So if a swimmer improves enough to be the fastest in the country / world after the team is selected is there some wiggle room to bend the rules ?
SAL A Qual times already leave out some who make Olympic A qual times .