WA Swimming Receives Significant Boost Through PPC
Swimming in Western Australia has received a significant boost following the announcement that a Challenge Stadium based consortium spearheaded by the Western Australian Institute of Sport will be awarded Podium Performance Centre status as part of Swimming Australia’s national direction towards achieving Australia’s Winning Edge.
The Podium Performance Centre program is central to Swimming Australia’s objective to provide the world’s best environment and support for swimmers and coaches as they push for international podium success in Rio (2016), Tokyo (2020) and beyond.
The Challenge Stadium Podium Performance Centre consortium includes WAIS, West Coast Swimming Club, VenuesWest and UWA Aquatics in partnership with the UWA-UniSwim Swimming Club.
Swimming Australia’s formal recognition of the Challenge Stadium based partnership reinforces the establishment of High Performance Training Centres (‘HPTC’) as part of a State-wide strategy to address the decline in performances of Open level swimmers from Western Australia over the last 10 years.
WAIS Executive Director, Mr Steven Lawrence said the Challenge Stadium Centre will be the central component of this strategy, which will officially commence on the 1st of January, 2014.
“The Partners are thrilled by Swimming Australia’s decision,” said Mr Lawrence.
“The Challenge HPTC will combine the athlete, coaching, sports science and operational strengths of all its partners to produce a unique high performance pathway for swimmers in Western Australia,” he said. “The collective financial benefit of the partnership is estimated at $1.2m per annum.”
Swimming WA CEO James Young said the announcement was an endorsement of the Challenge HPTC program and represented a significant investment in swimming in Western Australia by Swimming Australia.
“Swimming WA would like to congratulate the other applicants on the quality of their presentations,” Mr Young said.
“We look forward to bringing even greater investment to Western Australia by securing additional centres for the 2016-2020 cycle.”
There will be 15 Podium Performance Centres (12 Podium Performance Centres and three Podium Potential Centres) established nationally by Swimming Australia from the 1stof January 2014, with the Challenge Stadium ‘HPTC’ being the only SAL-endorsed Podium Performance Centre in Western Australia.