‘Work to do’: No female coaches in Australia’s Olympic pool team

Australia will have no shortage of medal contenders in the pool at the Paris Olympics. But there is one element of the squad in which we are clearly lagging behind the rest of the world, writes JULIAN LINDEN.

Riding off the success of Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and the team’s other female swim stars, the Australian squad that’s heading to the Paris Olympics prides itself for pioneering girl power.

For over a century, Australia’s female swimmers have been leading the way in a sport that advocates gender equality.

But despite promising to implement changes from a scathing review into how female participants in the sport are treated, there’s still one area that Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world.

While half the squad - and the majority of gold medal contenders - that has been picked for Paris are female, all eight coaches that have been selected for the pool events are men.

The only female coaches who were picked for Paris - Kate Sparks and Kareena Lee - were assigned to look after the open-water team, which comprises just four swimmers, but all the coaches for the 41-member pool team are blokes.

“We have two female coaches on the Olympic staff,” Swimming Australia’s head coach Rohan Taylor said. “And I will say this, we’re committed to continuing to improve the depth of female coaching in Australia.”

Chef de Mission Anna Meares and swimming coach Dean Boxall shake hands during the Australian 2024 Paris Olympic Games swimming squad announcement

While most of the leading swimming countries, including the United States, Britain and even China all have female coaches on their national teams, Australia hasn’t picked a single female on the coaching staff at an Olympics since Tracey Menzies was Ian Thorpe’s mentor at Athens in 2004.

Rejecting any suggestion the national coaching set-up is a boy’s club, Swimming Australia has openly recognised there’s a major imbalance after a leaked report into how female participants in the sport are treated identified the lack of female coaches as a major issue.

Swimming Australia took note and has already implemented development and pathway programs to fast-track more females into the elite ranks.

Janelle Pallister, who swam for Australia at the 1988 Olympics, is already regarded as one of the best and most popular female coaches in Australia with her talented daughter Lani making the team for Paris.

But not Janelle. She was not considered for the coaching staff because Michael Bohl is Lani’s primary coach.

“As an athlete, I’d love to have Bohly and Janelle going,” Lani said.

“I know the influence that she has on a lot of the squad. I think she often ends up being everyone’s mum as well but at the same time, we all have to respect Swimming Australia’s decision.”

Lani Pallister and her mother Janelle

Swimming Australia has started picking more female coaches for its national junior teams and the Paralympics but not yet for the Olympics.

Taylor said it will eventually happen but the current criteria for selection is that coaches have to be a primary coach, although some exceptions will be made for head coaches who have more than seven swimmers on the team.

Dean Boxall has 10 so will be allowed to bring an assistant.

“We’re looking to give opportunities to the coaches where we can, but we’re picking a team for performance,” Taylor said. “So we look at that and we go through the criteria.”

Swimming Australia’s newly appointed CEO Rob Woodhouse said there was a firm commitment from everyone in the sport to get more female coaches on teams but he urged patience.

“We’ve got work to do on it but I think the plans are in place,” he said.

“It’s incredibly important we do it because we want male and female role models in all areas of the sport, both from the athletes and from the coaches.

“I’ve spoken to some of the other coaches who were very much on board with the development of female coaches, but one of the things they’ve stressed to me is these things can’t happen instantly. You don’t want token appointments or anything like that.”

Super coach Michael Bohl

This masthead understands that one idea that has been floated is for Swimming Australia to consider bringing in a high-profile international female coach, such as Britain’s Melanie Marshall, who has overseen English double Olympic champion Adam Peaty.

No appointments have been made yet but Woodhouse confirmed Australia’s high performance unit was looking at different options.

“And they know the best coaches in the world,” he said.

“Having a high profile female coach in Australia would make a significant difference from an aspirational point of view for young female coaches coming through, I’m sure that’s a priority.”