As British Swimming transforms its vision of an Intensive Training Centre (ITC) network across the UK into a reality, it has announced its intention to discontinue an Offshore Centre in Australia.
British Swimming will not renew a relationship with The Southport School (TSS) on the Gold Coast once male athletes currently based at the Offshore Centre have completed their academic studies and swimming development in December 2009.
A focus for British Swimming moving forward will be to grow high performance swimming and competition in Britain and a greater UK-based presence will assist in this direction.
The national governing body is working towards the creation of a network of training centres which will provide a world-class daily training environment where athletes will be offered services such as elite coaching, quality pool time, access to strength and conditioning and cross training facilities, on-site sport science and medicine support and nutrition.
And these centres will be based at 50m facilities throughout the country while offering the nation’s most talented swimmers with the best services in Britain.
“The efforts of those involved in the Offshore Centre must be praised. They had an outstanding Olympic trials but this decision wasn’t a performance issue,” explained National Performance Director Michael Scott.
“This is about building a long-term, sustainable structure for British Swimming that will lead to performance improvements for male and female swimmers.
“We have to take the opportunity that presents itself now by securing a presence in modern 50m pools in Britain and have a far greater on-shore presence.
“Our commitment to the programme and swimmers at the Offshore Centre will remain until they’ve finished but the future of British Swimming belongs in Britain.”
The decision came about as part of a contextual review into how the Offshore Centre would feature as part of the ITC network and it highlighted a number of areas that included the need for increased investment in order to build on the work undertaken in Australia.
When the initiative was set up many international competitions were being held in Australia, such as the Commonwealth Games (06) and World Championships (07), and therefore the centre also carried a dual role as a venue for training and camps leading into these events. This need no longer remains.
The Offshore Centre is also a male only programme whereas ITCs will offer opportunities to both males and females both on podium and development programmes.
“It was a good decision to introduce the centre at the time but our focus now needs to return to the UK where we can provide increased opportunities within our network of ITCs,” explained Scott.
“This network provides a more cost effective system where we can support greater numbers of athletes and coaches going forward.
“We need to build on the quality and quantity of athletes, coaches and support staff in Britain.
This will see talent confirmation, podium and development working alongside each other more closely while interacting with grass roots swimming. We have to grasp this opportunity if we are to maximise the legacy of 2012.”
The Offshore Centre was launched in 2003 and provided an opportunity for young, male athletes to continue their education while developing as elite swimmers.
