Chugh returns from down under

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

He wasn’t there long enough to acquire an accent, but a year spent in Australia was certainly enough time to enrich Jason Chugh’s knowledge of the sport of swimming.

The 28-year-old Dollard des Ormeaux resident recently spent 12 months as an assistant to renowned high-performance Aussie swim coach Stefan Widmer at the Queensland Academy of Sport in Brisbane. He returned to his previous employer, the Pointe Claire Swim Club (PCSC), in September, and is currently an assistant head coach.

Chugh, who learned how to swim at the Dollard des Ormeaux Swim Club, was able to acquire the position in the state of Queensland through a relationship he had struck up a couple of years ago with former Canadian Olympic medal swimmer Alex Baumann while vacationing in Australia. Baumann, who was working with the Australian swimming program at the time, referred him to Widmer, whose athletes include Libby Lentin, a former world recorder holder in the long course 100-metre freestyle and current world record holder in the short course 100- and 200-metre freestyle events and Leisal Jones, current 100- and 200-metre breaststroke world record holder.

“I’ve always felt that it’s best to do what you feel is right at the time, and if you do, usually, good things will happen after that,‿ said Chugh, a former head coach at Elm Park Pool in Dollard. “I was looking for an opportunity to expand what I already knew about swimming. It allowed me to pick up a lot of new ideas.‿

PCSC head coach Peter Carpenter hopes Chugh can now bounce some of those ideas off his swimmers.

“We lost two solid coaches last year in Justin Finney and Jason Bowes,‿ said Carpenter. “We replaced one with Ryan Mallette, and after picking up all that experience in Australia, we felt Jason was a good choice to fill the other. I believe he came back with a clearer picture of what he wants to do as far as coaching goes.‿

That picture for Chugh includes his swimmers not focusing or working on one task. Instead, he would like them to improve all aspects of their approach in the water. The other is for all his swimmers, particularly the elite ones, to maintain a high standard, expect a lot of themselves, and not compromise for anybody or anything.

“On the surface, for somebody to say ‘this is what you must do and if you don’t like it, you cannot participate,’ may seem kind of harsh to some,‿ Chugh said. “But the reality is the Australians do that. Their coaches teach their swimmers, particularly the elite ones, that there are 100 other swimmers trying to knock them off their podium. If they drop their standards for one second, that might happen.‿

Chugh said the reason Australia has become a world swimming power despite having a smaller population than Canada is twofold. First off, it’s far more committed not only to funding its swimmers, usually based on performance, but of taking care of them through physiotherapy, massage, doctor care, etc. Secondly, it has managed to work around bureaucratic bickering, establishing centres of excellence in different parts of the country which allow swimmers to improve their skills while still maintaining ties with their home clubs and most importantly, receive funding from the government.

“Pierre Lafontaine, CEO of Swimming Canada, who also spent time in Australia, has started to implement that kind of system here in Canada,‿ said Chugh. “But it’s going to take time.‿