Swimming Australia Paralympic Program Coach Jan Cameron has become just the third Australian woman to gain her Platinum Coaching Licence following on from her swimmers’ outstanding results at the 2015 IPC World Championships in Glasgow.
With only 23 Platinum level coaches nation-wide, Jan will join an elite group, including both Ursula Carlile and Tracey Menzies as the only three Australian female coaches that have achieved this level of recognition.
The Platinum Coaching Licence is acknowledgement that an individual has coached athletes to medal winning performances at the Olympics or World Championships and is the highest level of recognition coaches can gain under the Swimming Australia coaching pathway.
“This is so important to me. It makes me proud to be a coach in Australia and especially humbled to be only one of three female coaches accorded this honour. To lead other women to become involved in Paralympic coaching is so important,” Jan said.
An Olympic and Commonwealth Games representative, Jan won a silver medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for her part in the 4x100m freestyle relay, and began her coaching career shortly after in 1968 at a small New South Wales club in Port Kembla.
Jan then moved between Australia, Canada, the USA and New Zealand gaining knowledge and experience from all over the world.
Her first Games experience came in 1972 as a Paralympic team coach and she then made a significant contribution to team New Zealand as an Olympic coach at the Sydney Games in 2000 and as the Head Coach at the Olympic Games in Athens, 2004 and Beijing in 2008.
Just three years ago Jan moved back to Australia and has since represented Australia as a coach at the 2014 Para Pan Pacific Championships, the 2014 Brazil Open, the 2015 Berlin Open and the 2015 IPC World Championships.
At the most recent IPC World Championships Jan had six swimmers and managed to walk away from the competition in Glasgow with an impressive 10 medals to her squad.
“Hopefully this acknowledgment will inspire others to follow the coaching pathway because it is so worthwhile, so giving and so rewarding at the same time. I am very humbled to receive this recognition.
I would like to say thank you to ASCTA for the honour, it is so precious to me and if it helps inspire other coaches then that is amazing. I would also like to thank Swimming Australia for having the vision to have two Performances Centres for our top Paralympic swimmers to access the outstanding services available at the University of the Sunshine Coast,” Jan said.
Swimming Australia General Manager Performance Wayne Lomas said, “Jan’s knowledge, passion and experience is a true asset to our team and it is great to see her hard work recognised as a coach and also as a leader in our sport. We are extremely fortunate at Swimming Australia that Jan is sharing her skills and enthusiasm with our Para & Olympic program swimmers and their coaches. She is an inspiration not just to women in sport and female coaches, but to all coaches and the wider swimming community. On behalf of Swimming Australia I would like to extend my congratulations to Jan on this outstanding achievement.”
Jan currently coaches eight swimmers at the University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland; Lakeisha Patterson, Blake Cochrane, Michael Anderson, Rick Pendleton, Guy Harrison-Murray, Logan Powell, Jacob Templeton and Braedon Jason.
For more information on how to become a coach or the coaching pathway, visit our website here: http://swimming.org.au/become-a-coach.html
Swimming news courtesy of Swimming Australia.
What happens to Camerons Platinum Coach award Swimming Australia if Patterson, who individualy won half of her squads medals at IPC World Championships, is subsequently proven to be a fraud by the IPC?
Geez, No brainer – Nothing.
The IPC will never admit that their classifiers are wrong or more importantly that athletes have got the better of them during classification.
In my honest opinion, Paralympic swimming is a big joke with the winners being coaches and sponsors.
Shame on you Mr Gonzalez for not standing strong against cheating.
I don’t wish to detract from the coaches achievements, which are clearly outstanding, but surely a coach to Paralympic and or Paralympic hopefuls bestowed with platinum level recognition has had to undergo some form of disability health education as part of that award? A basic level covering well known aquired and congenital health diseases perhaps. Parkinsons is not an unknown disease within our society and therefor surely it’s common knowledge that it is not congenital?
The rewards of Paralympic coaching may indeed be substantial but any coachs’ reputation is also always on the line with his/her swimmers. I hope the matter of being ‘born with early onset Parkinsons Disease’ is addressed by the coach via the Australian Paralympic Committee as… Read more »
I don’t want to detract from the coaches achievements. which are outstanding but surely a coach to Paralympic and or Paralympic hopefuls awarded platinum level has had to undergo some form of health education as part of that award. A basic level covering well known aquired health diseases for example in order to help themselves recognise if something is a little out of order. Parkinsons is not an unknown disease.
The rewards of Paralympic coaching may be substantial but a coaches reputation is also always on the line with his/her swimmers I hope the matter of being ‘born with early onset Parkinsons Disease’ is addressed by the coach and also the video removed by AMP.
Goodness me Rob. I wonder if the IPC would find that video interesting viewing. From 22nd in the world to 2nd in twelve months is either very impressive coaching or something else entirely. Whilst I don’t wish to be personal and I apologise but what is it with that oddly clenched hand? Clenched tight for swimming but could hold on to her towel? I don’t know, just seems a peculiar impairment to have as it’s just the fingers not the knuckle joint (or wrist which is more typically noted in spastic hemiplegic CP patients). Is it a PD symptom? How do the IPC classifiers distinguish I wonder.
The same Lakeisha Patterson that has just announced to the world via a AMP 2015 Tomorrow Maker Grant recipient video that she was born with Early Onset Parkinsons Disease? Uh Oh!
It would be great if she put her grant towards helping find a cure for PD. Congrats to the coach though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_qir_vjE4Y&sns=em
Coaches Lakeisha Patterson, interesting. Wasn’t there a bit of a fuss about that swimmer from their Worlds campaign?
How many of those swimmers has she coached from junior age groups????
You get big noted in Australia for doing what she has done but, it’s like giving Eddie Reece a badge for having a swimmer make an Olympic Games 90% of his swimmers are top 15 in the world anyway as they have come from hard working age group coaches who go totally unrecognised.
none – except Lakeisha Patterson. She inherited her swimmers from Jon Shaw who was overlooked for the head position by Swimming Australia. Shaw is now coaching New Zealand’s top Paralympic Swimmers. Did Cameron really earn this award ?