Swimming Australia confirms Jacco Verhaeren as new National Head Coach

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Swimming Australia President John Bertrand AM and CEO Mark Anderson have today announced Jacco Verhaeren as the new National Head Coach to work under Director of High Performance Michael Scott.

Born in the Netherlands, the 44-year-old Verhaeren will officially start in the role in January ahead of the 2014 BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series in Perth, with the Australian Swim Team also set to compete at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs on the Gold Coast next year.

Having coached seven Olympic medallists, including Pieter van den Hoogenband to dual gold in Sydney 2000 and the 100m freestyle gold in Athens 2004, Verhaeren is currently the Technical Director of the Dutch Swimming Federation.

At the London Olympics Verhaeren coached Ranomi Kromowidjojo to gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle and the Dutch women to silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay behind Australia while Kromowidjojo went on to win gold in the 50m freestyle at this year’s world championships in Spain.

Swimming Australia President John Bertrand said the appointment of Verhaeren as the new National Head Coach is another step in enhancing a world’s best approach for the sport.

“To become the best in the world requires four key links in a chain. World class administration of the sport, world class technology, world class athletes – both as individuals and as a team – and world class coaching,” said Bertrand.

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Image courtesy of Miho NL, CC BY 3.0