Respected American to become new Swimming New Zealand head coach

American Jerry Olszewski will become Swimming New Zealand’s new national head coach, taking up the role in September.

He will take over from Clive Power, who has been the acting head coach for the past year.

Olszewski has been coaching at the top club level in the USA for more than 25 years, developing young swimmers to Olympics and national teams. He has also had considerable experience in the business of swim coaching, administration and organisation.

He is currently head coach and CEO of the Arizona Gold Swimming organisation he founded, and formerly head coach at Scottsdale Aquatic Club and King Aquatic Club near Seattle.  In each of Olszewski’s stops, he has brought the swimming programme into national recognition.

Olszewski has focussed primarily on the development of swimmers through to college level, and has been responsible for identifying and developing a significant number of swimmers to Olympic Trials, US and other national teams and to Olympic medals.

There were five swimmers from his club in the recent US Olympic Trials, one on the American team and two others on foreign national teams.

“We believe Jerry’s credentials ideally fit the needs for high performance swimming in New Zealand,” said CEO Christian Renford, who added that they had received more than 30 applications for the position from around the globe and New Zealand.

“Jerry has significant success creating and building programmes, and implementing a performance culture where they have prospered to international level.

“He also has a great understanding of the high performance environment needed to make this happen, and is hugely passionate about swimming and nurturing young people to reach their full potential.”

Olszewski said he is excited to take on the role and move to New Zealand.

“It’s a real honour but I am under no illusions that it is a significant challenge and I hope to bring some of the things that have been successful for me into the New Zealand environment,” he said.

His five key mantras are team culture, expectation, consistency, work ethic and attention to detail.

“I want to set the expectation of what the group brings to each individual and what each individual brings to the group. I will be setting expectations and not settling for anything less than their best.

“Obviously I am looking forward to working with some great staff and also with swim clubs and coaches around New Zealand to help create an environment where we can develop successful swimmers and good young people for years and Olympiads to come.”

Renford said Swimming New Zealand is indebted to the efforts of Power in guiding the High Performance Programme over the past 12 months.

The arrival of a new head coach has also signalled realignment within the high performance team at Swimming New Zealand.

Gary Hurring, after returning from his role as head coach at the Rio Olympics, will provide a single point of accountability for the Integrated Athlete Development pathway focus area as the High Performance Athlete Development Coach. Hurring will ensure that there is a steady flow of well-prepared athletes achieving clear individual performance standards at different levels of development.

Donna Bouzaid will focus on her role as Director of Coaching, leading the high performance coaching strategy aimed at creating an environment that enables talented coaches to demand excellence of themselves and their swimmers lifting the standard of competitive swimming throughout New Zealand.

Renford said that with five potential 2020 Olympic swimmers qualified for the current team to Rio and some world-leading junior swimmers coming through the ranks, that the new high performance leadership team is well placed to move the sport forward.