With New Zealand’s 8-member Olympic swimming squad having been named announced last week, Swimming New Zealand has now formalized its coaching staff for the 2016 Games in Rio.
Gary Hurring, Graeme Laing and Thomas Ansorg will be the trio of coaches headed to this summer’s Games for the New Zealand squad, the latter two of whom have ties to specific athletes on the roster.
Laing is a member of Lauren Boyle and Matthew Stanley’s team based out of the Gold Coast, Australia, while Ansorg is the coach of Olympic roster members Helena Gasson and Glenn Snyders from Auckland’s North Shore. Ansorg was also a member of staff back at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
For his part, Hurring was hired as the Talent Identification and Development Coach in February of 2015, but previously served as a coach for the New Zealand line-up back in London 2012.
Swimming New Zealand is still active in its quest to fill its High Performance head role, with the vacancy being temporarily filled by Clive Power. The former man in the position, Luis Villanueva, had resigned in April 2015 and the search for his replacement has been ongoing ever since.