Triathlon Australia has today unveiled a ‘ground-breaking re-structure of its High Performance program’, aimed at maximising its coaching and athlete talent in the build-up to 2020 and beyond.
Just one month into his new role, newly appointed Performance Director Ben Gathercole, has wasted no time implementing the appointments of Jamie Tuner, Dan Atkins, Chris Lang and Darren Smith to capitalise on what he says is an exciting new era for the sport.
The man who coached Simon Thompson to the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games has based his changes on what he states is a simple philosophy: “Having the best coaches possible, coaching Australia’s best athletes in world class daily training environments.”
Triathlon Australia CEO Miles Stewart, said he is both delighted and excited with the progress and appointments made, which is a major part of TA’s strategic HP pathway plans.
Stewart said “We have made it quite clear that we will strive to enhance coach development pathways which integrate with the whole of life pathway through the sport alongside an exclusive high performance pathway for athletes as we continue to strive for the world’s best daily performance environments.
“These appointments are the first steps towards setting up these pathways as we look towards 2018, 2020 and beyond.”
Triathlon Australia will now have…
An International Performance Centre, Wollongong (IPCW): Under the direction of respected New Zealand-born Australian coach Jaime Turner.
Turner coached American Gwen Jorgensen to this year’s Olympic gold in Rio and put both Aaron Royle and Ryan Bailie onto their first Australian Olympic team. He will be at the helm of Triathlon Australia’s flagship program in Wollongong and Vitoria in Spain, where he will continue to build on the performances of his Rio and World Triathlon Series campaigns.
His international program has seen success over the last few years – consisting of eight Australian and four international athletes, and that philosophy will continue with the support of the AIS and the NSW Institute of Sport. Jaime Turner will be based in Wollongong which has been a successful base in Australia.
The first National Performance Centre in Brisbane (NPCB) has respected coach Chris Lang appointed to head up the new role that incorporates the previous QAS program.
Lang will be joining Triathlon Australia from his successful Sheldon College program in South East Queensland after a seven-year post as Triathlon Australia’s High Performance coach on the Gold Coast between 2004 and 2011 and a 12-month stint in Western Australia as National Talent Coach.
Lang’s main focus will be on U23 athletes at the ITU level but he will also incorporate paratriathletes into his program and will be based in and around the Brisbane area, still with the support of the QAS, helping to develop U23 athletes to world class levels with the ability to feed into the IPC program.
Following the success of Australia’s Paratriathlete Program, Triathlon Australia is again aiming to forge best practice with a new integrated National Paratriathlon and Elite U23 Development Program to be led by the previous National Training Centre head coach Dan Atkins, on the Gold Coast.
It will bring Australia’s leading paratriathletes and U23 athletes together in the one training environment. Atkins will become Head Coach of the National Para Triathlon program while also developing Australia’s Elite U23 athletes in the one daily training environment.
And in another major bonus for the HP program is the appointment of another respected Australian international coach in Darren Smith as Triathlon Australia’s HP Special Advisor. Darren Smith has agreed to provide his time for some short periods while he takes a sabbatical year from his day-to-day coaching regime.
Darren will be available to mentor and help TA’s coaches and also provide some long-term planning and advice to the HP program.
Gathercole said “To have Jaime Turner as our lead coach and in charge of our flagship program is a great position for Triathlon Australia to be in.
“In partnership with the AIS and support from NSWIS, we have been able to secure Jaime’s coaching services through to Tokyo 2020 which provides our athletes with stability and the knowledge we have the worlds best coach.
“And in a move clearly aimed at developing our coaching stocks, in partnership with the QAS, we are proud to have Chris Lang as our new coach for the NPC Brisbane.
“Chris has been building towards a senior coaching job after first starting as an assistant coach to former National Head Coach Bill Davoren in the early 2000s and has had numerous roles building to this appointment. It is great to see we have a pathway for young coaches who have the ability to build a career from coaching.
“And in one of the most exciting announcements we are incorporating our elite paratri program with our elite able body program – one of the few fully integrated national programs in world triathlon. We have named Dan Atkins in this role and he is excited about the opportunity to combine both programs and create a daily training environment second to none.
“With Atkins’ leadership in this space we believe we can build on our Gold medal performance from Rio and continue to provide the very best for all of our athletes in this HP integrated program.
“This is an exciting step into the future for our sport, with an exceptional coach bringing two training environments together as one. We believe it will encourage an even higher level of training and racing than an individual program provides. This program will be based on the Gold Coast with the hub of training occurring out of Bond University.
“While Darren Smith is an incredibly gifted coach who has an eye for detail that very few have. It’s very exciting to have him available to work with our group.”
