By Nathan White

Photo: Rick Pelletier

OTTAWA – Swimming Canada is pleased to announce the hiring of Mark Perry as its first ever Distance/Open Water Coach

Perry has been the Provincial Mentor Coach for Swim Alberta since 2014 and will be moving to Ottawa to take on the new leadership position. He will work in a team environment to support High Performance Director John Atkinson to develop the Olympic distance and open water swimming programs.

The 49-year-old from Northampton, England, served as Lead Open Water Coach for the senior national team at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

Prior to moving to Canada he worked eight years for British Swimming, beginning as a performance consultant in 2006. By the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games he was Open Water Performance Manager, and later served as Development Coach and Open Water Lead, then National Coach and Technical Lead. Team GB won three medals at the 2008 Games, with David Davies and Keri-Anne Payne capturing silver in the men’s and women’s 10-km marathon, and Cassandra Patten taking bronze. Payne went on to win FINA World Championship gold in 2009 and 2011.

“I think experience is the big thing I can bring to the role and I’ve had a lot of success at the world level. I’m really proud that I took Great Britain from being a kind of also-ran in open water to being a world leader,” Perry said.

Perry will be responsible for building a true open water program in the country, as well as for developing the longer-distance events in the pool. This will include organizing camps, visiting and evaluating programs, and creating short-term and long-term plans. He will also lead open water teams at major Games and championships.

“The appointment of Mark into a key position with Swimming Canada shows the commitment to the direction that we have been heading in the last quad with a targeted approach to Olympic success that will continue,” Atkinson said. “He will contribute to the overall plan and work with both swimmers and coaches in developing distance and open water events, while we also continue to support the 200-metre and shorter events.”

“A large part of this role is going to be getting around and helping to educate our coaches in the kind of work they need to do with their swimmers to be successful in that area,” said Perry.

He’s excited to be joining the organization on the heels of Canada’s success at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where swimmers won six medals in the pool.

“Obviously 2016 was hugely successful in the shorter distances. Now we’re going to try to consolidate that with the kids swimming longer distances and in particular open water swimming. We’ve got a massive culture of open water swimming, particularly in Quebec. We just need to take that participation, tradition and history and make it more performance-focused if we’re going to be successful on the world stage,” Perry says. “I’m really keen to try and help build on the success after Rio through to Tokyo.”

During his two years in Alberta, Perry has grown to love Canada. He and his wife Victoria, who is completing a PhD in Classics from King’s College London, will be moving to Ottawa for the new role.

“I’ve enjoyed my time in Swim Alberta and obviously through this role I want to maintain the good relationships I’ve developed within the province, keep working with the province in the new role, and with all the provinces,” he said.

“Although we are disappointed to see Mark leave, we appreciate the work he has done in Alberta to advance the sport of swimming,” said Swim Alberta Executive Director Cheryl Humphrey. “The skills and leadership that Mark brought to his role with Swim Alberta allowed us to successfully review and implement new athlete technical and funding programs. We also implemented sweeping changes to our competitions that ensured our athletes benefitted from alignment with both the long-term athlete development model and the Swimming Canada National Competition framework.

“We wish Mark all the best in his new role with Swimming Canada and look forward to continued work with our national partner.”