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I am no magician, says Lopez

SINGAPORE — As Spaniard Sergio Lopez donned a red T-shirt bearing the Singapore flag for the first time yesterday, he knows that there are high expectations on him to deliver on his track record of developing top swimmers.

Besides working closely with the swimmers, Lopez hopes to conduct seminars and workshops to raise the standard of the coaching community here.
Photo: DON WONG

Besides working closely with the swimmers, Lopez hopes to conduct seminars and workshops to raise the standard of the coaching community here.
Photo: DON WONG

SINGAPORE — As Spaniard Sergio Lopez donned a red T-shirt bearing the Singapore flag for the first time yesterday, he knows that there are high expectations on him to deliver on his track record of developing top swimmers.

As he was unveiled by the Singapore Swimming Association (SSA) as the new national swimming head coach, the 46-year-old, who sports a moustache and beard, said he is not a “magic man”, nor does he have a magic wand to develop “100 Joseph Schoolings” for Singapore.

But he has plans to take Singapore swimming to world standard in the next five years, plans that he outlined at a separate meeting yesterday evening in a session with swimmers, parents and coaches.

Having been the swimming head coach and aquatics director for the past seven years at The Bolles School in Florida — where Schooling was based — Lopez will begin a swimmer-by-swimmer assessment of the national team and invite swimmers for a national training programme, when he officially assumes his role on Jan 2.

To do this, Lopez — who has travelled with the national swimming team to major meets such as the 2011 and 2013 South-east Asian (SEA) Games, the 2012 London Olympics and the recent Asian Games — will work closely with coaches from SSA’s 34 affiliate clubs and conduct seminars and workshops to impart his knowledge to the clubs’ local coaches, so the entire standard of the coaching community will be raised, the SSA said.

“My job is to make you believe how good you are,” he said. “Joseph is an amazing swimmer — you don’t have many of those. I am aware of that and the only thing I need is people who are willing to work hard with me and believe in themselves.

“For the first few months, I have to understand the culture, how people live here and how people think. I think I understand a little now because I have dealt quite a few times with Singapore. Coaches need to understand I am a friend and we can share what all each of us think.”

A bronze medallist at the 1988 Olympics, Lopez is aware he will have the luxury of working with swimmers in a state-of-the-art environment. “The (OCBC) Aquatic Centre is world class and we want to utilise it. We already have swimmers here training, so we want to expand this,” he said.

“The interests of clubs are two-fold — that is money and high performance — so why don’t we get both? I am not here to steal swimmers from their clubs for them to train under me, but to work together to raise the level of swimming nationally, so we can aim to win medals together.”

In 2008, the SSA shut down its four-year Centre of Excellence (COE) programme and SSA Secretary-General Oon Jin Teik said the national training programme would be different from the COE, which faced resistance from clubs then.

“COE was a threat to many of the clubs, but what we are doing now is centralising all our resources to make this programme effective,” said Oon. “Swimmers will still continue to belong to their clubs, and clubs will not lose their income stream. To achieve (things) beyond the SEA Games level, I was quite frank with the coaches that for national interest, we put on the national hat and see how we can hit an Asian Games medal or an Olympic medal.”

TODAY understands the SSA has opened its search for an assistant national coach. The successful candidate will be a Singaporean, with Lopez deciding on the appointment.

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