WHEN Gary Vandermeulen moved from Canada to take up a new post as Tayside and Fife high-performance swimming coach, it was partly to help his wife, Commonwealth freestyle champion Alison Sheppard.
She believes a return to Scotland will benefit her campaign to win Olympic gold in Athens. Accordingly, the couple sold their home in British Columbia and have bought a house at Greenloaning, in Perthshire. Their three cats are in quarantine, receiving weekly visits, as Sheppard enters the 23rd and final year of her career.
Yet it has been made clear to Vandermeulen that helping his wife challenge for the 50 metres title next August must be done entirely in his own time, and under new rules which mean he will even be excluded from the British Olympic set-up in Athens.
Nor can he be included in the GB coaching squad when his wife contests the world short-course title in December.
In Sydney, where she was Britain's only finalist, her husband was part of the British team, but since then the British Swimming Coaches and Teachers' Association have introduced rules which mean that any coach must have worked in Britain for two years before being attached to any UK team.
''All our preparations are for Alison to be alone in Athens,'' said Gary yesterday. ''Some athletes are high-maintenance. Ali is not, and she is experienced. It's very unlikely I'll be there. How could I afford it?''
Vandermeulen declines to be drawn further. It is inadvisable to rattle cages as he settles in, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that domestic coaches have orchestrated this for their own protection, and it can only result in the best foreign coaches declining to work in Britain.
It says much for Vandermeulen's commitment that he has not been distracted.
''I made an assumption that I'd have some time to coach Alison, but I've had to fight to put something in place for her here in Scotland,'' he said.
''Chris Martin, the national swimming coach, has been completely supportive of us. We are working together. He's given us a lane, and I am on the deck at sessions, but I'm not part of Scotland's high-performance squad. I'm a volunteer. My job has nothing to do with coaching Alison. I do that in my own time.''
This means a minimum of 12-hour days for Gary, but it has its benefits. ''In Victoria, I was club coach, and Alison was part of the club, but I had the whole group to oversee. Now it's one on one.''
After the disappointment of Barcelona, where she was world long-course favourite yet failed to reach the 50m final, Sheppard is remotivated after identifying a number of factors for improvement. One of these has been addressed by training at Stirling. ''She's working with the guys, and the guys don't like it much. She's going 55 seconds for 100 freestyle, and you could not do that without male competition.''
Vandermeulen is in the second week of his new post, in a package put together by Tayside Institute of Sport, Scottish Swimming, and Sportscotland. He was at the Olympia pool on Tayside yesterday to meet Heather Albin, City of Dundee's head coach, and the institute's swimmers for the first time.
Building bridges with coaches is central to his role. ''Because it's a new post, the job's a little open,'' he says. ''I'm looking at how I can make the biggest impact. It's about working with coaches, not poaching their swimmers. Coaches need to reach a higher level themselves, and coach education is geared to helping them achieve that. Initially, the goal is getting more local swimmers into British championships.
''I'll tread lightly, and not step on toes. The last thing I want is part-time and volunteer coaches quitting. Small details can make a big difference. Lack of core strength can cause an otherwise good stroke to wobble all over the place. Exercises can correct that, and half an hour's gym work a day, if none is being done, can make a big difference in other areas.
''I'll also overlap into a development officer role, and try to help clubs who have difficulty recruiting.
''Hopefully, there are some blatant errors out there, otherwise I'll have to take a magnifying glass to the job. Judging by results, I'd expect to find some areas where improvement can be made.
''I'm not going to prejudge before I've talked to people, but the general message is that the more you swim, the faster you go. You have to get the mileage in, but there is also a case for higher quality. That's what has changed Alison.''
l Greg Hodge, the highest-ranked Australian swim coach, has been banned from contact with the national and Olympic training squads pending a court hearing in Sydney next week. A 20-year-old competitor, Emma Fuller, alleges that Hodge has been stalking her.
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