Olympians Take Time Out to Mentor Young Swim Stars

18 April 2016

Olympians Take Time Out to Mentor Young Swim Stars

Thirty six young swim stars will be heading to Auckland later this month for a national weekend swim camp led by a coaching team which includes past and present Olympians.

Jetstar has today announced a stellar coaching team line-up for the Jetstar Super Swim Squad camp being held in Auckland 23-25 April. The 36 youngsters aged 9-13 years have qualified for the squad by winning their age group at one of six events in the NZ Ocean Swim Series 2015-2016 season.

The coaching team will be captained by; Dean Kent who is Head of Swimming at Northern Arena and has been part of New Zealand’s Olympic swimming squad three times.

Making his first appearance at the camp will be double Olympic gold medallist, Danyon Loader, who is looking forward to meeting and inspiring what he hopes will be the next wave of Olympians.

Also poolside to mentor the youngsters will be Rio 2016 Olympic qualifier, Emma Robinson. She will be joined for the second time at the camp by recently crowned winners of the 2015/2016 New Zealand Ocean Swim Series, Olympic hopefuls Charlotte Webby and Nathan Capp.

Making his debut as a camp Coach will be elite Australian Open Water Swimmer, Michael Shiel.

Winners and a caregiver will be flown to Auckland by Jetstar for the training camp, which will include coaching sessions in both a pool and ocean environment over the three days.

This is the fourth year of the Jetstar Super Swim Squad, which at the conclusion of this camp, will have seen 127 Kiwi kids mentored by top swimming stars.

For the first time ever, three families have sibling groups who have qualified for the Squad; three children from the Collins family and two children from the Kilduff family, all of whom are from Lower Hutt. They will be joined by two Bay of Plenty siblings from the Shanahan family.

Head of Jetstar New Zealand, Grant Kerr says: “We were surprised and delighted to discover that an unprecedented number of siblings have made the cut for the 2016 Squad. This reflects a real family commitment to the sport!”

“Our team is looking forward to welcoming back some familiar faces to the camp and also to welcoming the new members of the Squad in the hope that they come away with both inspiration and some great memories.”

NZ Ocean Swim Series, Event Director, Scott Rice, said of Jetstar’s sponsorship involvement over the past four seasons; “Jetstar’s ongoing support of the next generation of swimmers, by way of the Jetstar Super Swim Squad, speaks volumes about their commitment to New Zealand communities. It is support like this that will make the difference between New Zealand excelling on the world stage rather than simply turning up to compete over the next decade.” Rice should know; he is a fomer National Representative Swimmer.

Elite swimmer Emma Robinson, says: “This is my second year at the camp. I really enjoy working with the kids and seeing them grow over the three days in both confidence and skills. I wish there had been a camp like this available when I was younger.”

For more about the Jetstar Super Swim Squad, visit www.jetstar.com/nz/en/state-oceankids

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