Energising Swimming: Coach James Gibson Takes The Helm At Energy Standard Squad

Before the dawn of a new era in swimming, dreams and plans are starting to take shape in the real world. Take the International Swimming Club Energy Standard. It was just being born when British 2003 World champion-turned-champion’s-coach James Gibson was cheering his charge Florent Manaudou on to Olympic gold in the 50m freestyle at London 2012.

There’s a first for everything and the French fury’s victory joined Laure’s 2004 triumph over 400m freestyle (a first for French women) to grant the Olympics its first ever swimming gold-medal siblings in the pool.

Gibson’s appointment as the head coach of the Energy team is something of a first, too. Let’s face it, how many billionaires do you know backing world-class swimming?

For those new to the Energy project, best start with the man investing in the pool. Ukrainian-born Konstantin Grigorishin is estimated by Forbes to be worth a billion dollars. He made his fortune selling metallurgy products from Ukraine to Russia in the late 1980s, became a big trader in the metals market of the former USSR and later joined business partners to buy assets in Ukraine during the era of privatisation. Some of the assets have made they way back to other Ukrainian tycoons of late through sales. Today, Grigorishin is a leading shareholder of the Energy Standard Group, an electric energy equipment outfit in Ukraine.

Leap out of the office and Grigorishin is to be found in the pool: he loves to swim, his son trains under the guidance of USA coach of the year Dave Durden in California – and dad has an art collection estimated by Lloyd’s to be worth $300 million.

Paint the picture for swimming: the pool Grigorishin is sinking good money into will be clean ambition stems from the roots of a crisis swimmers and coaches were crying out to rid their realm of in Rio and stretches all the way to the branches of a professional network of folk, boardroom to deck to water, who buy into a winning culture. Gibson and the squad he develops will energise swimming: the model of an international team of elite athletes following a professional pathway to performance took to the runway with coach Andrea Di Nino‘s eponymous ADN Swim Project in Italy and is about to take wing with a promise of “zero-tolerance” for doping.

Think elite swimming plus. Holistic is the word Gibson reaches for in his first interview since the second big shift in British Swimming this week, another coach with a London 2012 Olympic champion to his name, Jon Rudd, on his way to Ireland as Performance Director.

Who will Gibson be coaching? Watch for some big announcements in the months after the coach takes up his post on January 2 at the Gloria Sports Arena in Turkey’s glorious Med-coast resort of Belek in Antalya.

Evgeny Rylov, courtesy of Arena

Daryna Zevina

Here’s the list of current members of the Energy squad: Leading Russian juniors on the cusp of senior success, Evgeny Rylov and Dmitry Popov, and Ukraine team members Darina Zevina, Sergey Frolov, Sergey Shevtsov, Mikhailo Romanchuk, Andrey Kloptsov and siblings Kliment and Marina Koleshnikov(a). A world-class list.

The events of 2015 and this most woeful of Olympic years have made it all too easy to link anyone with an “ov(a)” at the end of their names with the poison on the pool and many others sports that left the likes of Evgeny Korotyshkin, ADN’s captain of Russia when he claimed Olympic silver in the 100m butterfly at London 2012, reaching out to Russian children and telling them words to the effect of “you can do this without doping; and we have to make sure we show you the way”.

Against that backdrop, important to get the burning question up front and dealt with. In an interview with SwimVortex today, doping/anti-doping first. Gibson and Di Nino speak from the Energy base in Turkey of the “critical need for credibility of performance”, of a “zero-tolerance” policy that will not be words that merely ape those so often heard tumbling from the mouths of blazers who then fail to follow up with real intent and deed. The answer: contracts and controls.

Says Gibson:

“I am happy to answer that question head on: we recognise the fact that there have been a lot of issues, so we’re looking to install a strict anti-doping protocol: any member of team, swimmer, coach and other staff who does not sign up to it will not be part of the team.”

The best of European physiologists, psychologists, biomechanics experts, nutritionists, strength and conditioning experts will be engaged to work with the team – all will be subject to the same club culture and rules.

Fran Halsall and coach James Gibson by Patrick B. Kraemer

Peter Mankoc pops in to ADN to visit Evgeny Korotyshkin (left) coach Andrea Di Nino (right) and team at an international squad that committed itself to drug-free sport

Gibson and Di Nino are in the process of formulating the contract that all must sign up to. It will include submitting any …

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