Olympic swimmer inspires youngsters at Norwich club

Forty excited youngsters from Norwich Swan Swimming Club met one of their sporting heroes, double Olympic medallist Nick Gillingham, at a the Club's Easter Swim Camp this year.

Double Olympic medallist swimmer and former World, European and Commonwealth Champion, Nick Gillingham MBE put the young hopefuls through their paces during a lecture and coaching session at the Hewett School.

Nick had been European Champion on three successive occasions rewriting the history books in doing so. He ranks as one of the most consistent championship performers British Swimming has ever produced. He was winner of a total of 17 Championship Medals gaining 3 World Records, 9 Commonwealth, 11 European and 17 British Records for his individual events. Nick represented Great Britain for 13 years and was until quite recently the National Record Holder for England in the mens 200 metres breaststroke. Nick received the M.B.E. in the New Years Honours list 1993 for ‘Services to Swimming’.

An inspirational speaker, Nick specialises in mentoring and coaching swimming focusing in particular on psychology as an important aspect of achieving success in sport. Wearing his Team GB Olympic tracksuit, Nick talked to to the swimmers at length about commitment to training, visulisation techniques, diet, the importance of sleep, self confidence etc and delighted the children by allowing them to hold his 1988 Soeul Games 200m breaststroke silver medal and his Bronze from Barcelona.

The highlight of the visit was a coaching session in the pool where Nick held his audience transfixed as he explained and then demontrated various drills in the pool. Nick then remained in the pool guiding and encouraging the youngsters as they put into practice what they had learned.

The swimmers left the masterclass loaded with autographed hats, t-shirts and kickboards and enough inspiration to last for many hard training sessions to come!