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DAN'S THE MAN

 

When the Amateur Swimming Association’s North West Beacon Programme in Manchester announces the 24 swimmers invited to its elite training sessions from next month (September), one name is certain to be among them – Dan Sliwinski.
Six months ago the 19-year-old from Preston was training at Indiana University in the US, where he was the first student to be awarded a full swimming scholarship since the legendary Mark Spitz nearly 40 years ago.
Today he’s back in Lancashire and showing the kind of form which has convinced many in swimming that he will be one of Britain’s most serious medal contenders at the London 2012 Olympics.
In fact the ripples made by the 6ft 5in tall breaststroker have already been felt well beyond British shores.
At the end of July, when Britain’s top 40 swimmers were competing at the World Championships in Rome, Sliwinksi was keeping one eye on the results from a hotel room in Sheffield.
Those results included a British record of 59.68sec for former world champion James Gibson in the heats of the 100m breaststroke.
Undaunted, Sliwinski took to the water himself at the ASA National Championships two days later – and recorded a winning time of 59.55.
It was a time that not only consigned Gibson’s national record to history after just 55 hours but elevated the 2008 world youth champion to 13th place in the 2009 world rankings.
It would also have earned Sliwinski a place in the final in Rome – something no other British breaststroker, male or female, achieved.
Not that there was ever a realistic chance of him competing in Rome.
“I’ve had a very up and down year with different programmes and coaches and an injury which stopped me from coming back from America for the world championship trials in March,” he said.
“It didn’t work out for me in Indiana. The training wasn’t suitable for a breaststroker so I left after three months and came home.
“That was a disappointment but in a way I’m glad I wasn’t in Rome. I’ve got that swim out of the way now – I’ve gone under the minute, I’ve got the British record.
“I also think I will benefit more from the ban on high-tech swimsuits when it comes into effect in January.
“A lot of those guys in the World Championships are very big whereas I weigh nothing for my height – about ten-and-a-half stone.
“The big guys benefit more from the suits.”
After returning from Indiana at the beginning of May, former Bolton School pupil Dan looked at coaching programmes across Britain before deciding to return to his old club, Preston, and Lancashire’s Gallica squad and to live with his highly supportive parents.
He was also accepted on to the new Beacon Programme at Manchester Aquatics Centre, one of several that the ASA is setting up across England to provide training opportunities and back-up services for the best swimmers in each region.
“Daniel just came on to the poolside one night, said he was back from America and could he join us,” said the programme’s North West regional talent development officer for the ASA, Dave Evitts.
“I’m quite proud that I made the decision to take him.
“I don’t think his recent success is all down to the Beacon Programme but I’m sure we have helped him.”
The Beacon Programme has given Sliwinski access to two additional long-course (50m pool) training sessions a week as well as the two long-course and several short-course sessions he already gets with Gallica at Preston, Blackburn and Manchester.
The programme’s nutritionist is tailoring a dietary plan suitable for his individual training programme and monitoring his hydration levels.
He will also soon have access to the Beacon Programme’s weights programme and physiotherapy.
“I will be doing a weights programme for the first time in my life,” he said.
“The Beacon Programme has been a help. You are training with the best swimmers in the area, you get a lot more one-to-one time with coaches and a lot of quality work in a long-course pool.”
Gallica’s new coach, Louise Graham, who coincidentally began her duties on the very day in May that Daniel rejoined the programme following his return from the US, is in no doubt about his potential – mental as well as physical.
“The work so far has been about developing good race plans and the self-belief that he can do it,” she said.
“Confidence is so important. In the lead-up to the nationals he convinced himself he was going to swim 59sec and break the British record.
“When James Gibson lowered Chris Cook’s record from 59.88 to 59.68 in Rome, he decided he would swim a bit quicker and break that.
“He was really switched on and ready for this special swim in the 100m breaststroke and he just got up and did it.
“A lot of the time Dan is a typical 19-year-old but when he steps on to the block something happens.
“He believes it is going to happen. He has just got it. He won three gold medals at the World Youth Championships last year which shows some kind of ability.
“He is now ranked 13th in the world and has put himself right in the ballpark.
“He has a lot of development still to do and in the next year we need to build his strength and endurance.
“We are really happy with what he achieved at the nationals and now we are looking forward to the Commonwealth Games and European Championships in 2010.”
She added: “I wouldn’t want to put a ceiling on Dan’s potential because he just eats up everything you throw at him.
“He is one of those fearless competitors who is prepared to do what it takes.
“Whatever he sets his mind on, he goes on and does. He wants it badly enough to do whatever it takes so the sky’s the limit really.”
Sliwinski, who last year spent an inspirational day in London with the world’s greatest-ever swimmer Michael Phelps, is in no doubt about his main target for 2010.
“I’m aiming to win the Commonwealth Games,” he said.
And that’s quite an ambition given that his opponents in Delhi are likely to include Brenton Rickard of Australia and Cameron Van Der Burgh of South Africa, who respectively won the 100m and 50m breaststroke in Rome, both in world record times.

written by Roger Gutteridge for the Swimming Times