Australia’s Paralympic swimmers see opportunity rather than pressure in the wake of the record performance from their Olympic colleagues.
Paralympic swim team leader Adam Pine said Australia’s record nine Olympic gold medals in the pool show that his athletes can be optimistic about more success, given they have had much the same buildup.
Pine has had several conversations with Olympic head coach Rohan Taylor in the last few days and the pair work closely with Swimming Australian performance manager Tamara Sheppard.
“I don’t think it puts any more pressure (on us) – it provides more hope and it provides more opportunity,” Pine told AAP.
“We’ve done the same preparation. We’ve done the same approach.
“There are a lot of athletes who are stars in our team. We work really closely with Rohan and Tamara on the Olympic side to ensure we’re sharing and learning from each other, pushing each other.
“So it’s more a great opportunity than great pressure.”
Pine said the advice from Taylor since the Olympics had boiled down to “being ready”.
“We’ve maximised the same processes as the Olympic team … we can build from the same momentum,” he said.
Pine also joked that Taylor has it easy – a seven-day Olympic competition, compared to 10 days for the Paralympic swimming program.
“It’s the longest and most tiring swim meet in the world,” Pine said.
“We’re ready, we’re prepared.
“I say that to Rohan all the time – he’s got an easy job.
“Yes, there’s a lot more media attention, a lot more distraction, but I do jokingly give him a hard time.”
As with the Olympics, the Paralympic swim team will have many of Australia’s headline athletes at their Games, including Ellie Cole, Brenden Hall and Matt Levy.
Pine said there has been no discussion about a medal goal.
“Those numbers normally sit in a drawer – there were numbers sitting in a drawer leading up to Rio, then afterwards we pulled that number out and we go against it,” he said.
“It’s never a part of how you structure and plan for performance in swimming.”
Australia’s swimmers won 29 medals, including 10 gold, in the pool at the Rio Paralympics.
AAP