Identified Talent

Swimming Victoria
Published: Jun 20, 2012 04:49:06 PM Updated: Jul 24, 2012 03:09:52 PM

Nine Victorian swimmers have been included in Swimming Australia’s inaugural Talent ID program which seeks to increase performance at future events. 

Celeste Astorino (Melbourne Vicentre), Hayley Baker (Melbourne Vicentre), Lily Collins (Traralgon), Emma Handley (Maribyrnong), Isaac Jones (Warrnambool), Hamish McDougall (Surrey Park), Emily Nicol (North-West Aquatic), Sian Whittaker (Surrey Park) and Emily Zukic (Melbourne Vicentre) have been invited to attend a Talent ID camp in October at the Australian Institute of Sport to further develop their swimming potential. 

Swimming Australia (SAL) in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has initiated this program to help identify athletes who fall outside the traditional talent selection models swimming currently adopts.   

The aim is to identify junior athletes who have displayed a level of talent and skill but haven’t reached the physical development to compete against others in their age group.   Historically these athletes miss out on National Junior teams and have limited opportunities to specialised training, thus limiting their swimming development.     

As part of this program Swimming Australia recruited a group of experienced internationally recognised coaches to identify talented athletes at the recent Australian Age Championships.  It is hoped that by expanding the junior talent pool and providing increased opportunities, all of Australia’s identified talent can go on to become successful athletes. 

A number of the sport’s top athletes including Chris Fydler, Brenton Rickard, James Magnussen, Matt Welsh, Libby Trickett and Stephanie Rice have been late developing athletes that have gone on to achieve incredible success at the highest level.  It is hoped that this next batch of swimmers can emulate their heroes and achieve international success.