Of the success, High Performance Manager for Swimming NZ, Amanda White, says it is one of those times where you look back and know all has gone according to plan although arguably it came earlier than expected.
You can’t take the smile off Amanda White’s face as she shares her reflections on the swim team’s performance in Birmingham.
As the High Performance Manager for Swimming NZ for almost eight years, Amanda and CEO Steve Johns have seen the sport transformed and really starting to hum.
“The success we saw in Birmingham is the result of a long term plan that followed a string of bad reviews and poor performances in the mid-2010s.
“A comprehensive and at times painful review resulted in a number of significant changes for the sport and the organisation which have been fundamental to our current successful high performance programme.”
In 2017 Swimming NZ moved to a decentralised model and introduced the Targeted Athlete Programme which sits alongside the High Performance Pathway programme, two initiatives which provided the opportunity to implement a highly individualised approach for its elite swimmers.
“These two initiatives enabled us to wrap athlete performance support around swimmers’ daily training environments and allow them to train in their hometown.”
A third important factor has seen the integration of para swimming into Swimming NZ’s structure, a process which began in 2021 and became official from 1 January this year. “The integration was the result of a lot of hard work, with Graeme Maw, now the Performance Support Lead with Swimming NZ, heading the process on behalf of para swimming and Amanda leading from the Olympic side.
The Olympic Targeted Athlete Programme led by Gary Francis and the Paralympic Programme led by Simon Mayne sit alongside each other and intertwine camps and activities where it is appropriate. Newly employed Diversity & Inclusion Manager Cheri Harris is now leading the way to ensure the whole organisation is truly integrated.
“Birmingham was the first time the swim team included both able bodied and para swimmers and I think Dame Sophie Pascoe summed it up well when she said the culture of the team was the best ever – she said everyone was there to provide support allowing the team to have the best pinnacle event ever,” says Amanda.
Swimming NZ has some big goals for Paris and for the 2026 Commonwealth Games and Amanda says that they now have the right people in the right places and a commitment to a continuous cycle of improvement.
“Our people know their athletes as individuals and not just as swimmers, the culture has improved beyond recognition and the results are coming, all of which reflects so well on the whole swimming community.”
