Organised swimming as we know it nowadays was shown the light of the day in the 1980s by Bertie Muscat and Caesar Scerri, and then put on a firm footing by Michael Gialanze and his colleagues, Alex Stellini, Alfred Cachia, Charles Chetcuti and Ernest Balzan, under successive ASA presidents Gino Camilleri and Robert Ebejer.
Recently, Mark Galea stepped into the shoes of Dr Gialanze as chairman of the Swimming Board, and being aware of the onerous task that lies ahead, the new top man spoke to Alex Vella about the challenges that the sport in Malta confronts.
How did your contact with swimming start?
I have been in the sport since my teen days when I competed for my club Sliema ASC. About five years ago, I was asked to represent the club on the ASA Swimming Board.
Would you agree that there is room for more progress in all areas of swimming?
In any sector there is always room for improvement, including the management of swimming. We need to promote this sport further so that more children begin to participate.
Schools need to become involved. We have to tap all the possible resources. Other areas need to be introduced, such as Masters swimming and Open Water swimming. These are just a few of the challenges.
Records have been broken regularly in recent years. What brought this about?
I believe that this is a mix of improved coaching techniques, both at national and club level, and the determination of the swimmers to reach higher goals. The influence of national coach Andy Colbourn has been instrumental in this regard.
Age-group records as distinct from national ones have been more numerous in the last couple of years. Why?
Over the last two years we have seen a new crop of young swimmers who, after having received good coaching in their clubs, were promoted to the national squad, and thanks to the long-term training programme prepared by Colbourn, they have been continuously breaking age-group records over this period.
Do you think the gap in standards between our swimmers and those of other countries, especially the small nations, is widening?
Unfortunately it is. Whilst other small nations are investing in swimming this is practically negligible in Malta. We are struggling to keep the sport alive.
Why have our girls made more inroads than the boys in trying to limit this widening gap?
In swimming, girls tend to mature earlier and faster than boys. This means that at a young age, girls manage to reach better performance levels than boys.
Moreover, many boys tend to opt for waterpolo before reaching the age to match this performance.
How do you rate the contribution club coaches are giving to swimming?
These are the pillars of this sport.
Their determination and sacrifice are immeasurable. They are up very early every day to conduct training and are again with the swimmers until late in the evening. They also give up weekends to coaching and time-trials. Coaches have to contend with changes in pool and lane availability, many of them even having to deal with team management. Some go overseas, usually at their own expense, to improve their qualifications.
What do you think about the policy of engaging foreign-based swimmers of Maltese stock to represent Malta?
If we can raise the standards of locally-bred swimmers this policy is positive. But if this policy is adopted for just increasing the medal tally the Swimming Board does not agree as it could demoralise locally-groomed athletes and be detrimental to all sport disciplines by a further depletion of the available funding for sports.
As for swimming, FINA have recently introduced a new rule whereby such swimmers must reside in the country for at least 12 months prior to representing that country.
Will we have Ryan Gambin and Madeleine Scerri flying our colours again?
I doubt it. Ryan is on a long-term rest due to health reasons, while Madeleine has not trained for the past few months.
We still have to see if they have any more motivation to carry on after having succeeded in their dream to participate in the Olympics.
Does the ASA Swimming Board have new plans for further developing this sport in our islands?
The ASA Swimming Board has prepared action plans. We are working on trying to increase the funding from both official bodies and sponsorship. This will also help to increase the number of competitions for our national team swimmers overseas.
We shall be working to bring the Easter Meet back to the high level that it was some years back. The Swimming Board is contemplating organising another international meet towards the end of the year.
Furthermore, we intend to approach schools to try and have their active participation in this sport. We also want to provide the availability of coaching courses.
These are just a few of our goals.