CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Former Canadian Olympic team swimming coach Pierre Lafontaine asked a simple question of his athletes at a recent meeting in Charlottetown after being introduced as the new high performance coach at Swim P.E.I.
It retained Lafontaine for a two-and-a-half year mission to ramp up the profile of P.E.I. swimmers on the national stage leading into the 2021 Canada Summer Games.
“I said ‘why not us?’. Opportunity happens when people look at the big picture. Greatness can happen in a special pool. The environment is here for greatness,” Lafontaine said. “(And we want to) be dangerously competitive at the Canada Games.”
Lafontaine’s focus is hinged on the many Island-born athletes who’ve earned national and international attention and rewards. They’ve left the Island for better coaching, facilities and training and it’s paid off.
Hartsville’s Mark Arendz, Summerside’s Heather Moyse and Charlottetown’s Dave (Eli) MacEachern have reached Paralympic and Olympic heights, winning gold medals along the way. And NHL’ers like Cornwall’s Adam McQuaid and Murray Harbour’s Brad Richards have tasted pro hockey’s highest award, the Stanley Cup.
Lafontaine wants that kind of success for swimming and said because of the Bell Aliant Centre’s encompassing facilities and personnel at the Charlottetown Bluephins and Summerside Dolphin swim clubs it can be done here.
Though, he’s quick to remind swimmers it doesn’t happen overnight.
“We have to set some measuring sticks, attainable goals. We set (doable) targets and help kids celebrate small victories. I tell them ‘you can’t break world records without breaking club records.”
One goal, he said, is building partnerships with UPEI, Holland College and private sports schools like The Mount Academy with a idea of retaining top-end Island swimmers, training them here and working toward achieving high success via the tools available.
To do that, he said, it’s getting organizations on the same page, working together and then results will come.
“It’s not always about swimming fast, it’s about getting people as excited as possible. To help kids dream as big and make things happen.”
The gig’s part-time for the ex-chief executive officer and head coach of Swimming Canada as he lives and runs a sport consulting business in Ottawa. But he expects to land on the Island for a week at a time every couple of months for face-to-face time and judge the progress as the 2021 Games approach
“A lot of things can happen in 140 weeks if we work together.”
On the web at www.swimpei.com.
