At this year’s World Aquatics Championships, the Chinese team is leading in the medal count as the Championships are coming to a close.
China has earned 32 overall medals including 23 gold, 7 silver, and 2 bronze. Australia is second overall with 22 medals (5 gold + 12 silver + 5 bronze) with the USA third with 20 medals (8 gold + 4 silver + 8 bronze). Italy and Great Britain follow up with 16 overall medals each.
In pool swimming, USA dominates with 17 overall medals, but China has equaled the Americans with 7 gold medals.
In the open water swimming events, France led with 3 overall medals while the Netherlands, Australia, Hungary, and Italy all earned 2 medals with Spain, Brazil, Great Britain, and Portugal each earned 1 medal.
China’s prowess in the pool has been spotlighted by some powerful swimmers and strong deep relays. Behind that success are three familiar coaching names who have also seen success in the open water swimming world:
- Canadian Pierre Lafontaine [shown above on left]
- American Mark Schubert [shown above in middle]
- Australian Denis Cotterell [shown above on right]
Coach Lafontaine was a long-time supporter of open water swimming, bringing the 2012 World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships to Ontario as well as the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Championships to Roberval, Quebec while serving on the UANA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee. Coach Lafontaine was nominated for the 2012 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year award. His nomination reads, “He saw the future and helped make it happen. Not only did he corral the resources and utilize them appropriately, but he also very importantly, created the winning mindset and a world-class ambiance that has helped kick-start a resurgence in open water swimming in Canada. His belief in his coaches, his support for his athletes and professional marathon swims, and his high-energy excitement has made an entire generation of athletes and coaches believe international success and reaching their maximum potential is at hand. His leadership resulted in a bronze medal finish in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim by Richard Weinberger at the 2012 Olympics, a silver medal by Ryan Cochrane in the 1500m, and a marvelously organized World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships held in Ontario. For being the most supportive administrator of open water swimming in the FINA Family, for his boundless enthusiasm that uplifts an entire generation of young swimmers, for his leadership in hosting the World Junior Championships, Pierre Lafontaine is a worthy nominee for the 2012 WOWSA Open Water Swimming Man of the Year.“
Coach Cotterell has guided dozens of Olympic, Commonwealth, World Championship, Pan Pacific Games swimmers from Australia over decades. He has also coached open water swimmers including Grant Hackett, Ky Hurst, and Benjamin Schulte.
Coach Schubert has coached 8 different American Olympic swim teams and long coached marathon swimmers from Paul Asmuth and William Schmidt to Ous Mellouli and Kalyn Keller. He used to train his Mission Viejo Nadadores pool swimmers in Lake Mission Viejo as an adjunct to their long pool swimming sessions.
While the Chinese success at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar is undeniable, all the world’s pool swimming talent is either not present or peaked. The proof in the pudding will be for Coaches Lafontaine, Cotterell, and Schubert to equate or surpass that success in Paris at the 2024 Paris Games.
You can see how the Chinese men are as tough as nails and fast(er than others).
Five months to go.
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