Libby Burrell was standing near the finish line in London the day Paula Findlay made her slow, anguished approach. One of Canada’s marquee athletes, Findlay was in tears as she ended her Olympic debut, 52nd among the 52 competitors to complete the triathlon: “I’m really sorry to everybody,” she said. “To Canada.”

It was, for me, a very hard thing to watch,” Burrell said.

On Tuesday, when she was announced as the new high-performance director of Triathlon Canada, Burrell moved from spectator to active participant. Part of her job will be to help elite Canadian triathletes avoid the kind of difficulty that conspired to end Findlay’s hope for a medal in London.

Burrell, an experienced South African coach and executive who moved to Whistler, B.C., almost three years ago, will begin her new job on Monday. She has been director of sport development for the International Triathlon Union since 2006, which is why she was near the finish line in London.

Findlay won five major ITU events in the two years leading up to the Olympics, including one on the Olympic course. But a hip injury and a split with her coach just weeks before the Games ultimately left her unprepared for the big moment.

It was a tough call for a young lady to go and race in an international race, her first one in 12 months, at the Olympic Games,” Burrell said. “It would be tough for Usain Bolt to have done that.”

Burrell was careful not to assign blame for what happened to Findlay in London. She said she will spend part of her first few weeks and months gathering information and listening to the sport’s Canadian stakeholders — and not just about Findlay, though her struggle in London remains an obvious talking point.

“If you have to think of a real layman’s phrase for ‘what does the high-performance director do?’ — that’s to set the coaches and the athletes up to be successful, and to help the athletes be bullet-proof on the day,” she said. “I think one could see that wasn’t there. I think they were good coaches, and I think there were probably very good plans in place. I’ll have to have a good look at why it didn’t work.”

Alan Trivett, executive director of Triathlon Canada, said he interviewed Burrell twice in person before the London Olympics, and said they talked once more over the phone after the Games. Burrell was South Africa’s triathlon coach in 2000, when the sport made its Olympic debut in Sydney, and she spent five years working with United States Triathlon until moving to the ITU.

“I’m the first to tell you that I think it was a crisis in leadership that we had in London, and that I was the ultimate leader of that team,” Trivett said. “I take a lot of that responsibility on my shoulders.”

A full-time high-performance director will not have to be distracted by the day-to-day organizational operations, he said, which could only help if a situation like Findlay’s arose again.

Trivett said Findlay is preparing for next month’s world championships at a training base in Guelph, Ont.

“She still has to address her hip issue,” he said. “She was absolutely healthy leading into the Games — and at the Games, for that matter — but that’s not to say that there isn’t some maintenance required there, or some continued work to be done.”
https://nationalpost.com/sports/triathlon-canada-calls-on-libby-burrell-for-leadership-fix

An interview with Thys Lombard - September 2020

Click here to see more video interviews of South African swimming by Thys Lombard in his Lets dive Straight in series.

Libby Burrell
Yeah well I'm the youngest of four children, and probably the least illustrious of all of them as far as swimming prowess goes, but probably just carried on and persisted for longer. My dad was a great athlete. He was actually the South African Junior record holder for the Mile and he also swam. They were in the days when kids did everything at school. He did highboard living, he played hockey - field hockey, he played rugby and he was a great runner, a mile runner. The other day I sent Kobus a whole lot of the programs from his school swimming days. He was a hoarder so he collected everything, unlike me that collects nothing. My mom was a hockey player and she played a mean game of tennis she was pretty athletic in her own sense but, um, my eldest sister Wendy was a great swimmer, unfortunately, also swim in the bad times where you couldn't go to the Olympic Games. She was a South African record holder. I'm a terrible historian, but from what I know she broke South African records - 11 times. She was just a tiny little girl they used to call her the pocket battleship in the water. And she swam great.

And, and my second eldest sister, Joy was a breaststroke swimmer, my brother was a great swimmer was a breaststroke and I just followed them and it was just a long line. I think my parents decided from a young age, throw us in the water, make us tired from swimming twice a day and we have less problems at home with kids and we all just fell in love with it and that's what we did. So that's part and parcel of the Burrel family and I believe my dad's two sisters, he was the only boy in the family, were also swimmers. So there's a long line of Burrel swimmers.

TL
So at what age did you start getting professional coaching and who was your first professional coach?

Libby Burrell
I think I was just a little bitty girl that I used to sit alongside the swimming pool. When my, my siblings are swimming. I believe I swam, I started swimming with a professional coach, probably one of the legends of South African coaching, Peter Elliot. I believe I was maybe just five. When I started swimming. We were, he had the great group, Peter Elliott used to be in the textile industry and, and he was, he showed himself as being a fantastic coach and a group of people, I think my dad was part of that group, encouraged him to go all out. He built his own pool in Walmer, Port Elizabeth, and eventually a second pool and then a third teaching pool. And so I was very fortunate to be part of that group. I swam with him right up until standard nine, and then I moved over to another legendary coach, Tom Connell. He was the Grey High School coach and he bowed down and allowed a girl to join the group. I was the only girl in the group and the likes of the late Andre Kotze, Richard Maybery, and people like Andrew Dean and Kobus Scheepers, they were all part of the group and I was just the lone girl. He was a really specialist breaststroke coach as well as being a sprint coach, and I decided to experience the change before I ventured off to Stellenbosch University.

And I had always dreamt of the crazy Dutch woman from Cape Town being my coach, and I dreamt of being in Clara Aurik's squad and so I went there and got used to her prior to logging in or clocking in for my first day at Stellenbosch University, which was a culture shock for an English girl from the pukka English school going to Stellenbosch University in those days. So that's really the history and you know, Thys, one of the things that I will say is that everything that I've done in my life was a step ladder to somewhere else. I often hear now, because I think we'll speak about that later but what I do now professionally but of people who've experienced coaches that were harsh or didn't treat them well or something. I was really blessed between Peter Elliot, Tom Connell, and Clara Aurik, and then later on when I was a triathlete I just jumped into the pool with Santa van Jaarsveld. I experienced the best. And they were really my education into coaching. They taught me what I wanted to be, and what I didn't want to be as a coach and, so, even though I knew I wasn't a great swimmer, I always knew that the path was leading to something. I think I was in standard three when I decided that go to Stellenbosch and study Phys.ed and I would one day be an Olympic coach, and everybody laughed at me and said, South Africa doesn't go to the Olympics so you're wasting your time. So that was really the pathway for me.

TL
So, so, I met you in 1980 and, one of the only reasons I went to Paarl Gymnasium, which gave me so much joy, was because there was a coach in Paarl called Libby Burrell, and she had Libby's Squad with the green tracksuits. I will never forget that. So as a standard seven boy from Windhoek, myself and my sister joined your club, which I think was established about a year or two before that, from what I can remember it was already an established club.

Libby Burrell
Yeah, it was an established club actually another one and I'm not sure if you have had the opportunity to connect with Kees Jonker, who was the coach of the Paarl club - he left, and I went to teach. I was a high school teacher at Paarl Girls High, and somebody said to me, please will you coach at the club, and I kind of knew that that is what I wanted to do. I got permission from the school to also do that as a sideline activity and that's really what happened.

TL
Yeah, I mean we swim in the old Paarl swimming pool, outdoor swimming pool and I still very fondly remember our kickoff of our summer season was always at some training camp at Goudini Spa in a warm water pool. We worked really hard but we had an incredible amount of fun. I remember the Kombi trips. I mean Libby you didn't only coach, I mean you were the taxi driver, those days you would have been the Uber driver. You drove us to the galas, you gave us massages, you gave us pep talks, you know, you just, you had to do everything and I mean you were young, you were quite young, you were under 30 when you started in Paarl.

Libby Burrell
Very much so. I was very young then.

TL
A couple of naughty boys in the squad as well. I wasn't one of them but I know some of them were.

Libby Burrell
Well I know some of them, some of the kids that swam with me, had a love-hate relationship with me. They hated me at swimming during the hard workouts, but they loved me when I could give them letters for bunking out of the hostel at school. So I, we had good, we had good times there. You know, I have contact with a number of swimmers from that day, and more especially right now with Richard and David de Villers. I've got a connection with them. But, and they are very kind when they talk about the grounding that the swim club gave them. But you know I owe it to the swimmers that I had, for being able to take the path that I took. I'm not an overly confident person, but I'm a harsh harsh realist. It was hard for me to realize that I was never going to be a great swimmer but I could still with hard work become a great coach. And so that's really what I wanted to do. I'm not sure how aware you are of this one story, and obviously, you know him really. Well, and I had a set of twins at the school that I taught. And one of the twins came over to me, I never knew which one was which. And one of the Droomer twins came over to me and said, I have a little brother, and we think he can be a really good swimmer. We would like you to look at him. So I said sure, and so they invited me to the Droomer of the family home. And I met, very tiny at that stage, Noel Droomer. And I had a look at him and there was something natural about what he did in the water is a backstroker. And so I said if you. I told him and I'm sure he remembers this if you work really hard for and consistently for a long period of time, we can make something of you. And it happened to be later on in the year. Everybody went away and Noel was really worried because he said, who are you going to coach if there's nobody? Everybody's away on holiday all the borders are away? I'm like - I coach, I don't mind if one person is there or nobody's there, I turn up. And so we sat down, Benji the late Benji Droomer and myself and we plotted out how much we had to improve every single day before he could qualify for Currie Cup, and he did it. And that was the first time that I realized that if you plan really well, and I was really nervous because it was my first experience of taking somebody on that journey when you and Ellen were already established summers. So that was really kind of a fun journey. So where I am today, I owe everything to the swimmers is gave me the opportunity to experiment on them.

TL
Well, the experiment worked for all of us and I mean that's why we're still in touch. A few years ago, we heard you were coming out to South Africa and it was one or two phone calls, and I think 30 or 40 of your previously coached athletes, I mean they, they're not your swimmers, they're your friends. You have impacted our lives for so many good reasons. And I think that's why when we heard you were coming to South Africa where everybody dropped everything and they came out to that sort of reunion and that function.

Libby Burrell
Yeah

TL
You gave me a lot of time away from the study halls, which I'm very grateful for. And I drove with Noel Droomer and his dad sent a driver to pick me up at the boarding school and we. I went to Paarl to swim with you but after a year you left and you started coaching and Stellenbosch, which is I think a 30 kilometer or 40 kilometer drive away and we gladly drove through every day. And you started the indoor swimming pool, you were the first one to coach there.

Libby Burrell
Yeah, well, it's actually an interesting story. The person who was head of sport at that time, Jackie Wiese, approached me and she came actually to visit me and she said, and she was primarily involved with hockey but swimming was also in her portfolio at the sports office, and she asked me if I would be interested in starting an open club, considering that swimmers are so young, usually when they have to start out and get a good grounding. And I decided that that that would be quite a nice option because it would provide the swimmers with warm water. And so we could swim year-round, when the heater didn't go down, as you know, the heater went down often.

TL
It didn't matter we still swam, it was just cold.

Libby Burrell
What was exciting to me then is how many people decided that that I was a good option and in the end, I think you might know I limited the senior group to 25 swimmers and the junior group to 25 and I always had 20 to 30 people on the junior waiting list, so nobody could really mess around on the junior group because I could just replace them. And I was blessed with the stunning group of young swimmers. It was a pretty exciting time. I remember at Western Province Junior Championships, I had about between six and eight young boys in under 12, and then again in the under 14 section and I never knew which of the four were going to make the Western Province team because it just depended on who was on on the day, so, that was really an exciting time of my life. It was a really good move, and I was pretty sad to hear recently, that that I believe the Maties Swim Club is no more. But I'm not sure how that has developed but that was really, another great learning opportunity for me. Crazy time for me, because I'm when I started out, I was teaching Paarl, I'm sorry I was teaching at UWC, at the university, so I would drive from Paarl to some to Stellenbosch to coach, the as soon as I finished coaching the morning session that I'd go through to UWC, obviously to lecture all day. On the way home drop off and coach in the evening again, and then drive back to Paarl. So it went on six to seven days a week until we moved house to some South West.

TL
Incredible times! I mean, I remember those times so well. You also, you said you had a bunch of talented young swimmers but you also were the reason for a lot of swimmers making sort of a comeback. I remember Lee McGregor joining us, I think, Jane Weir joined us for a while, Kobus Scheepers came to swim with us, probably other names that I can't remember now.

Libby Burrell
Greg Carswell was at Stellenbosch University when he won 100 meters in Cape Town, so I take no credit for him because his coaches were absolutely awesome but he. I kind of administered the programs that he told me that he wanted to do but he was with us and yeah that was really exciting.

TL
He must have been the best looking South African 100 metres champion, ever.

Libby Burrell
Yeah. You know, I had a lot of very busy parents in the Stellenbosch Junior group who all decided to become spectators to every training session when Greg was on the pool deck.

TL
I also had a bit of a problem when I was doing surf lifesaving duties and I told my now wife who was in my girlfriend I said, I've got duty at Clifton, and she says Is Greg in your squad? then she'd always join me. Greg is a wonderful man. He's been dodging my request to be on my show, but we'll get to him very soon. He's been helping me to connect, amongst others with Jonty Skinner, so he's been a great help to me. Libby, tell me, when you moved to the University of Southern Western Cape. Eventually, you stop coaching with us but you coached there. And then all of a sudden I heard that Libby Burrell the Foot of Africa ladies Half Marathon record. How did that happen?

Libby Burrell
Well, it's kind of an interesting story. When I handed over the squad to Santa van Jaarsveld. And I just felt my swimmers were too good and I couldn't afford them the time with a full-time lecturing job. I was heartbroken really. Every evening when it was swimming time I was wondering what they were doing. Santa was really good she would keep me informed How are my swimmers who I regarded or miss as my children. And so I just decided - you remember Marietjie? Do you remember my best friend Marietjie? She said to me, why don't you do something, go run or do something. The first time I went out the front door, the furthest I could run was for seven minutes. And so I just persisted and lost weight and so I felt pretty good and I just kept myself busy, and I did the same diligence as I did with some coaching I started reading everything about it and what I needed to do and then I hooked up with a running group in the Strand, well Somerset West and the Strand. Back in those days, everybody was still running for Helderberg Harriers and I happened to be in the dentist's chair the one day when my dentist said to me that, oh you, I hear you interested in running you should come and run with our group and he's the guy that I now live with, in Canada. So we started running and we ran together and I think just the lung capacity that I had from swimming and diligence. I mean,, we are crazy people that stare at the blank line up and down for hours on end and I come from the era where we did high mileage, swimming, we were 8000 9000 meters a session. And so I just, I just grew to love it and I remember the day that I ran my first marathon I sent a picture and landed up me with the Defense Force guy, and he was also a former swimmer. And that was my first marathon and we finished in the stadium at Stellenbosch University the athletics stadium at Coetzenberg. And it was quite exciting because Santa had heard that I was running, and she let the squad out early. So all the swimmers were lined up at the end of the marathon and that was the start for me and I became hungry and then actually too hungry, because with excessive miles come injuries and. So that led me to dabble in triathlon afterward because then I could swim and bike is a relief from the running so that's basically how it happened and I still run, I run 6 to 7 times a week now at my ripe old age. I just keep going on it so that's really how it happened I was missing the swimming so much I wanted to keep myself busy.

TL
Well I can, I can testify that I never thought I could run, so running was not even in my, in my frame of mind and when, when I heard you ran the Foot of Africa and you broke the ladies Half Marathon record and ran many marathons and it always sort of stuck in the back of my head. In the army, I started running. And my first full marathon was the Foot of Africa. I thought of you and I remember you ran it, and I recently did my hundred and second half marathon when I did my hundredth my son joined he was in matric he ran his first marathon. So you, not only helping swimming and really inspired me in swimming, I can promise you, the fact that I'm running and the fact that I believe the swimmer can run. You are the reason for that as well and running has given me many many many great, great, you know, joys and then so thanks for that as well.

Libby Burrell
In fact, that was the full marathon record, the Foot of Africa. At that stage, I'm not even sure if, if the, if there was a half marathon at that stage, maybe there was. I think because I think Ilana was like 13 or so 11 or 13 when she ran it. I just remember after winning the marathon, the marathon and foot of Africa, how appalled I was because the men's winner, won a thousand rand and I won a hundred rand I remember that.

TL
It's quite an interesting debate that's currently ongoing in just about every sport and, I mean, it's reasoning, like that, that, that started the conversation, and why we have more equality now. You then mentioned triathlon and I remember you became an Olympic triathlon coach but before that, you also partook in some Ironman. Tell us how that happened?

Libby Burrell
It was really a strange thing. I went through a funny phase of my life where I felt as if, man, I really haven't achieved anything, you know, and I kind of wanted to do something unique and different and so on, and I decided to dabble a little bit in triathlon but I'll tell you exactly how it came about. One of our young swimmers and you will remember, he's not a he's a young, he's an older married man now, but he was a young swimmer, a 16-year-old, in our squad, who went to surf lifesaving championships up north in the KwaZulu Natal region, and had an accident and was paralyzed. And, yeah, Harry Bell, a delightful young man, and a super talented swimmer. And it made a huge impression on me. I visited him a long time, and then I heard that the surf lifesaving club was going to do a fundraiser for Harry, and it was going to be a triathlon. So I got myself an old Raleigh bicycle and knew that I could swim a bit and knew that I could run a bit, and did it, and was hooked. And so, I did that and then I did a couple of races in PE and I went and did the Durban Ultra and qualified to race world long-distance champs in Nice, France, and age group, old the old, the old guns and came second in my age group at World Championships. And then decided okay well, the next thing is Hawaii Iron Man, so let me try and do that so I went over first to Germany to Roth did a fantastic amazing race there. And then did Hawaii Ironman. I, unfortunately in that year, developed arterial iliac artery problems. So I was just running and competing on borrowed time and shortly after that, I had a pretty major arterial surgery. That was really the end of that for me. But during that whole time, people approached me and asked me if I would coach them. And one of those people was Conrad Stoltz who I coached for 11 years.

TL
The Caveman?

Libby Burrell
Yes, the Caveman and, and again he was my education in triathlon. He opened doors for me because he just got on with it. He let me do what I thought I needed to do and trusted me and what I always called a great keeper of his own body, so he would be able to give me really good input and feedback. And so over the years I coached and I'm I coach Conrad Stoltz and Lizel Moore to the inaugural Olympic triathlon in Sydney, and then Kate Roberts and Marie Rabie in Beijing, and several other athletes and it was during the time that I was preparing Conrad that the United States contacted me and asked me if I would take over their program. And so, I, probably the happiest days of my life workwise will always be my almost 19 years of lecturing at UWC. I love teaching. I love the students. I love the opportunities that gave and I believed in what the university stood for. So it was hard for me to pack up and go. The people that I lectured with are still some of the closest friends that I have in the whole world and I still maintain contact with them. And I went off to the United States. It was a very tough gig. And I persistent for almost five years there before returning home. But during that time I was offered a job with the International Federation as the development director to develop the sport globally and find athletes and train coaches and I did that for seven years, working in South Africa, from South Africa, because I did a lot of work in Africa and Asia. As things happened in my life and progressed I moved to Canada and continued because the head office for International Federation was in Vancouver, did a short stint with Triathlon Canada. Before I was offered an opportunity that I could not refuse in the job that I now currently hold which has absolutely nothing to do with swimming, biking, or running because I'm a high-performance director for winter sports or Winter Games so I work only with winter sports right now.

TL
That is incredible Libby. You've, you've had just such an amazing journey and such a wide variety of sports you've touched. You competed in hockey, we haven't even touched on that but I know you were a very good hockey player as well.

Libby Burrell
Not very good I played hockey and I was a goalkeeper. Actually, but I did play hockey Yes, but I was not great for sure.

TL
So, but I think that's what made you a great coach is that you were on the other side as well you know and I'm not saying that all great coaches had to be on the other side I mean it's been proven in World Cup rugby where people who didn't play for the Springboks won World Cups as coaches and so, but I always felt you and I still remember in Paarl every now and again you put on your costume you swim with us. You know, I think it's very important for someone to also feel what the person on the other side of being coached feels like so that you can have a bit of, you know, insight into that as well.

Libby Burrell
That, that was really, um, you know, multisport. Triathlon only came into being when I was almost an old lady already. Um, and I, I was fascinated by it and, and decided that there is absolutely no way that I can coach it and this I experienced it. And so, you know, but when I went over to do German Ironman and then I flew directly to Europe, and I stayed in like a little back room, where basically I could lie in my bed and my bicycle was next to me and, and I had this one plate that I cooked on and so I'm preparing myself for Hawaii. You know, and those weren't the days where we had cell phones and laptops and can connect with each other. I had to reverse charges to anybody that was actually interested in talking to me back home. And so that was an experience and that's the life that a pro athlete starts out as before they become successful. You know my story is pale in comparison to how Conrad started up and I know that Conrad's writing a book so I don't want to reveal all his stories but I mean he would if he didn't have a place to sleep, he would get a place in a cell in France at the police station and sleep in his bike bag. So, that's kind of how that the athletes thought. Often so it was hard for me as a 40 something-year-old doing that. But it was an experience that, that I put me on the right side with the athletes because I know what they're going through they're not all high money spinners.

TL
I mean the athletes just speak highly of the way you treated them. And so, so you actually, from a South African perspective, went to two Olympics with the triathletes?

Libby Burrell
I have been, I've been to a number of Olympic Games now. So I went in, and that this was an interesting story, so I went with the South African team as the coach manager of, of that, they were both my athletes and it was a kind of a sad occasion because there were many other athletes that qualified but the South African SASCOC, and those days, NOCSA, decided not to select all of them, so it could have been a bigger team so I went with Lizel and Conrad because I was a personal coach at that stage. And then I went to work in the USA so I went to Athens, as part of the as team leader for the United States team. That's when I won a to bet, wearing the American uniform, I won a bet that our men in the 4x100 freestyle relay would win gold at the Olympics. So anyway, so that that was I went to Athens. Then I went when I went to Beijing in 2008, I went as the official onsite announcer. I was the announcer, what they call the colour commentary announcer in the stadium for all television channels there. In London, I went, just as part of my role with it the ATU. That was I knew that was going to be my last gig. I did not go to Rio because I resigned from Triathlon Canada before that and moved over to winter sport, and then in 2018 I went to Pyongyang, South Korea, with the Own the Podium with Canada, as they're part of their basically just a support team for the app, the sports that I work with, I work with seven Winter Olympic sports right now.

TL
That is incredible. So your dream has come true and you are living the dream. What what's left for Libby Burrell or is there still something on the bucket list, sports-wise coaching wise as an athlete, something you want to do what's on the bucket list?

So, um, I am I feel very privileged to be in a job that I'm in. I feel it's a combination of I when I work with a sport I say, I can help you out because I've made all the mistakes in the book, and I've learned the lessons, out of all those mistakes. If you only do everything right you don't learn too much right so I feel very very privileged I, I hope to be side by side with my sports till Beijing. I'm getting long in the tooth now I'm next year I'm 65 so I'm a true senior next year. I would like to contribute to Canadian sports, as long as I can. I think you probably know that I really wanted to contribute to South African sport. But a lot of us that progressed and moved elsewhere, went back and they weren't really ready to, to take a lot of the people back, but Canada has given me a new life and so many privileges and so many opportunities and I'm, I'm, I feel as if I'm now in a second-best job in my career and I would like to contribute there as much as possible. And for me, I just want to stay healthy. For as long as I can and keep moving and keep active, I'm a terrible skier. I look like an African on a downhill slope. I like cross country skiing, but again, I'm terrible at it. I keep doing it. And here, we learn you adapt, I put crampons on shoes and I run out in the deep snow here. And just stay healthy. So I would like to give back. As much as I can. and I think if I had to have to go back to anything that I love the most. It would be coaching swimming.

I love working with young people, and very young people. I remember, and I'm allowed to mention athletes' names, I'm sure, I remember when I came across and started working with Tessa Loftus. I remember we were on the train, some of the photos I sent you of when we were at the station heading to Sasol Winter Championships in those freezing cold air and very warm water. And Tessie was about nine then, and she was swimming her first individual medley me and she had written down on a piece of paper what time she wanted to swim for each length and if so first one, and she was comma four out of one she estimated, a little. And so, just to see those kids form and develop and think and, and, you know, be cognitive about everything that they doing, I do think you have such an opportunity as a coach if you good with the kids is to shape them and help them develop. And sure I look back and many times I lie in bed thinking of mistakes I made and what I would have liked to have done better and what I would have liked to have done differently but as coaches we also human and as long as your value system is good, and you keep returning to that, then that's really the name of the game.

TL
Well, I can say it was very sad when I heard you were gonna leave South Africa and I can't say you were lost for South African sport, but you are such a big part of the history of South African swimming and for that matter, triathlon and even road running, and you've played such a major part in not just my life, in so many kids lives, who now are adults and who can now use it, and transform their kids into better people. So for that, I will be forever grateful. You've, you've played a massive part in my life, and I hope you continue to play a part in my life because I really love connecting with you. I love chatting to you. I love seeing you and keep on returning to South Africa and I'm sure you still got your house here in South Africa and I'm sure you guys will keep on coming back to drink our wines.

Libby Burrell
I most definitely will and, you know, wherever we go we make contact with the other people. I don't know when you spoke to Jonty if he told you that his office was just around the corner from mine and we used to meet up regularly. I think that if you have a look at the group of the old-time swimmers now that have connected with each other. And I can only really speak of the Eastern Province because that's was really, you know, Eastern Province, Western Province, was a large part of my life. My dad was president of swimming there and was kind of, kind of a role model for a lot of us, but we still keep in touch, all of those people that I swim with we still keep in touch and, and I think that that's the most important thing it's not just you, you train with somebody and then they move off. But one of the things that we expect as coaches you know some of the people you'll maintain contact with. And some people will just move on but the impression that they've left on you remains with you forever. And I think that's really how I see it. I'm getting on that side of my life now that I keep thinking about what could I have done better. And so now, I tried to focus on what can I do now. And what can I do playing it forward?

TL
This is the first of many talks I think we need to chat again, there's just so much that you've given to the sport and that you continue to give to the sport. Thanks so much for your time, love to have you come back to South Africa and we can have a proper catch-up

Libby Burrell Thanks for thinking of me. Thank you. Bye.

1979 Springbok team

Masters has also been good to Paul in lifesaving. At the time of writing, he is the current World Surf Race Champion (50-54). He has previously won numerous national and international surf race titles. Paul is also the new Masters World Record holder for the 200m Obstacle race (a pool lifesaving event).This was an event where, 38 years earlier he had broken the open world record in Barcelona, Spain. He was awarded the State President’s Award for this result.

Paul never saw himself as a distance swimmer although at the peak of 'Hell Week' during December training he was doing 20km a day in the pool (over 100km in the week)! His first South African record at the age of 14 was in the 400m freestyle where he paced his old training partner Peter le Roux for 300m and then sprinted the last 100m, always preferring the sprint distances.

The second annual event was the 'Mainstay Swim'. This was a 3.5km swim from Pirates (his surf club) to South Beach with a compulsory stop at North Beach. Paul won this race numerous times.

Paul has also swan the Red House River Mile in Port Elizabeth (Africa's oldest open water swimming event) and the famous Robben Island swim. He was in the team that won the relay event, but it was extreme and not something to do again.

Paul’s first real experience of a long open water sea swim was The Rottnest Channel Swim in Perth. Rottnest Island was also used as a prison and although it was rumoured that some prisoners swam back to the mainland, there is no proof that any did. The Rottnest Swim is a 20km swim and this was the first time he had trained for long-distance swimming with Shelley Taylor-Smith, the winner of seven consecutive FINA Marathon World Cups. 

Paul’s first solo Rotto swim after months of training with Shelly began at 5.45 am with the seeded males. Very dehydrated by the end, Paul finished in a credible 7th position at the age of 52. This race is the largest open sea swim in the world.  The next year he won the overall duo category and the year after, won the mixed team category.

Today Paul still swims and makes the headlines - finishing third in the 2014 Rottnest Channel swim - behind two under-30 year olds.

‘The achievements of the Club's greatest son, Paul Blackbeard, have been so extraordinary, that we believe they deserve special mention over and above what has already been written. Paul joined Queen's Park as an 11 year old in 1969 and from the beginning played a very prominent part in the Club's revival during the early 70's.

Before he turned 14, he had broken on innumerable occasions all the Natal Juvenile records with the exception of the two breaststroke events. He later went on to rewrite the Natal record book for all the under 16 events, excepting the breaststroke and 800m freestyle, and then finally in senior competition he established Natal open records for 100, 200 and 400m freestyle, 100 and 200m butterfly, 200 and 400m individual medley, but in addition also created South African records over all these distances with the exception of 100m freestyle.  In addition, there was one stage in his career when he held as many as thirteen South African Age Group records at one time, a feat unequalled by anyone else in South African swimming history.

Nearly all his records were accomplished without the aid of anti-ripple lanes and high starting blocks and, despite the ever-improving standards of swimming at all levels, it has only been 10 years later that his records have started to fall. His name none-the-less still remains against several events in the record books but of even greater importance, he is still swimming for his Club and the province and he still continues to win titles- in this regard, he won his first Natal Championship title in the Juvenile division in 1971 and since that time has won a massive number of 61 Natal titles and has taken his place in 37 Club relay teams to win championship events.

At a national level, he has won 38 gold medals at the South African Championships spread evenly between individual and team race events. To date he has swum in the Natal senior team on 40 occasions and for South Africa no less than 9 times (5 of them as team captain). Arising directly from his ability as a swimmer he has also represented South Africa at surf lifesaving and still-water lifesaving to become a triple Springbok, representing his country in 3 separate sports.

During the thirteen years Paul Blackbeard has been with Queen's Park he has accomplished many unique feats associated with swimming in this country, but throughout he has remained a good sport, absolutely dependable, well-mannered and above all else extremely loyal to his Club. In recognition of the immense honour he has brought to Queen's Park, the Club bestowed on him its most honoured award, that of honorary life membership, in 1975 and he thereby became the first member of the Club to receive such an award while still wholly involved in competitive swimming.’

Paul’s top result in the National Swim Titles was in Johannesburg in 1975 where he won 9 Gold Medals being the 100m and 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m and 400m individual medals and 3 relay gold in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle and the 4x100m medley relay. Who knows if this could have been 11 medals as in 1975, the 50m races were not in the Nationals?

Natal team to the 1977 South African swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo championships.

Paul Blackbeard's bio in the Springbok surf lifesaving team - Occupation - Policeman (age 22) - Member of the Pirates Surf Living Club. Triple Springbok - earned National Colours for Surf Lifesaving, Stillwater swimming and Lifesaving. Holder of numerous South African swimming records and world record holder for Stillwater Lifesaving event. Undefeated individual Surf Swim Champion from 1975 - 1979. South African Belt Swim Champion 1975, and Victor Ludorum in 1979. Toured USA in 1979 with Springbok team.

In 1974, while the Springbok still water lifesaving team was competing in Europe, Paul Blackbeard broke the world record in 200m obstacle race.

After leaving South Africa to work abroad, Paul continued to swim and compete. 

Posted by Paul in FaceBook : A few weeks ago I was the swimmer of the meet at the state champs. This week 5 golds (all new PanPacific records) and 2 silvers. The 5km surf swim tomorrow. Overall winner of the PanPacs 5km ocean swim in tough conditions. Also in the race was Trent Grimsby, the English Channel record holder (which he did in 6 hours and 55 minutes!). Perth’s Paul Blackbeard receives some tips from his coach before the ocean swim at Mermaid Beach

The first swimmer to cross the finish line overall in the 5km race was 58-year-old Paul Blackbeard from Perth. Having grown up in South Africa, Paul is a veteran of the surf and also a former South African national (pool) swimming champion.

“This is my first Games and it looks a bit rough out there but we’re all in the same boat and I’m used to swimming in the surf,” he said.

Paul considers the ocean swim at JPPMG a fun training session to start the season and is enjoying catching up with friends at the games.

Legend back for Midmar Mile

Blackbeard to share his mastery of all swimming.

15th December, 2015

PAUL Blackbeard, one of the greats of South African swimming and the superstar of the sport in the country in the 1970s, will be journeying from Australia to swim the aQuellé Midmar Mile in February.

During the 70s, his name stood out head and shoulders above all other South African swimmers, and in 1975 he won an unmatched nine titles at the South African National Championships.

He was also a world-class surf lifesaver, and although Blackbeard competed mostly over shorter distances in the pool, his heavy training regimen and time spent in the sea prepared him for the Midmar Mile.

He was a gold medal winner at the World Championships in lifesaving for South Africa in 1974. He remains heavily involved in the sport and is still racking up titles.

“I am a life member of the Pirates Surifesaving Club and represented South Africa several times. “I am still actively involved in masters’ lifesaving and was recently the world surf race champion.

I also won three gold medals at this year’s Aussie Masters Surifesaving Champs, ” Blackbeard said.

Blackbeard won the fourth Midmar Mile in 1977. “It was my sprint at the end that allowed me to win. Maybe this was the start of me getting into long-distance swimming?” he suggested. “The event was a great ‘outing’ for our swimming club Queens Park.

Our swimming squad from Durban made it a camping weekend at Midmar, ” he recalled. “It was a great experience for me to win because at that stage I was a sprint swimmer and did not swim distance events.”

Looking ahead to 2016’s edition of the world’s largest open water swimming event, Blackbeard said: “It was a real pleasure to be invited by Wayne Riddin to return for the race nearly 40 years later and to help celebrate his retirement after 25 years of organising the event. “It was Wayne (a good swimming friend of mine) that I beat in 1977 after he had previously won in 1975 and 1976.”

Blackbeard left South Africa for Sweden in 1994, on a two-year contract with Tetra Pak. From there he moved to London for ve years, followed by stops in Italy and the U.S., before he returned to Cape Town in 2005.

He retired at the age of 50 and in 2008 built his own catamaran “and went sailing for a few years before ending up in Perth” , where his eldest sister had been living for 25 years, and his mother and youngest sister for 15 years.

More family members have since joined him in the Western Australian capital where he now runs a lifestyle consulting business. Swimming though, remains a huge part of Blackbeard’s life. He is ranked in the world's top 10 for seven masters’ swimming events and holds many Australian records.

He is the current world champion in the surf race, world record holder in the 200m lifesaving event, won nine golds at this year’s Australian Masters Swimming Championships and three golds in the lifesaving championships.

In open water competition, Blackbeard has swum the Maui Channel and Waikiki rough water swims in Hawaii, finishing 14th overall in the latter and first in his age group ahead of two former American Olympians.

His other achievements in long-distance swimming include finishing third overall in the Rottnest Island swim, which covers 20km from Perth to Rottnest Island. The combined ages of the two men who beat him were less than his age.

When a goto website for anything to do with open water swimming published a list of the Greatest Watermen in Open Water Swimming History in May, Blackbeard’s name was among them, as was Riddin’s.

It described Blackbeard as follows: “World-class pool swimmer, ocean swimmer, and lifesaver. He skilfully represented his country in three different sports and always served as a humble ambassador of aquatic athletic pursuits.”

Blackbeard will again be taking part in the Rottnest Island Swim in 2016. “I am again planning to do a duo in the invite-only ‘Champions of the Channel’ Rottnest Island swim event, ” he said. “My duo partner is 14yearold and I plan to mentor him, as it is his rst time. This swim, two weeks after the Midmar Mile swim, is on 27 February. I will be 58 and our team is called ‘Ageless’.”

 Fun days with my Porsche GT3 on the track

The 2024 Big Lap

Paul, fantastic to sit with you here in South Africa. I remember my sister coming back from Currie Cup, back in the 70s, mentioning a guy called Paul Blackbeard, and you became one of my heroes. It's an honour to have you here. Where did it all begin? Swimming - is it part of the family?

Paul Blackbeard
Not really, actually. I actually started as a boxer. Yeah, strange. Born in Zambia and, and I wasn't doing much. I won a little trophy, as you both finished an event, you both won a trophy, but I wasn't doing particularly well, so my dad said: Let's try another sport. Let's try diving. I used to dive at school.

Thys Lombard
Okay, so where was school? In Zambia still?

Paul Blackbeard
In Zambia. My dad was down in King William's Town. He did some diving there. So he said: But you want to learn to swim before you start diving. So I started swimming - in Zambia.

Thys Lombard
At what age was that?

Paul Blackbeard
About eight years old. With a Mr. Watson. He was the pool supervisor but he's also the coach, and I still give him credit for a lot of my stroke. He was a fanatic about, you know, 'stroke the black cat', and little simple things that I kind of still use now as techniques and tools to kind of get my stroke back again. So I learned with Mr.Wattie Watson, and swam for Zambia, in the junior team. And then we left Zambia when I was about 11, and came down to South Africa, joined Queens Park in Durban. At the same time when we came down, one of the friends from school, his mother had just helped an Australian coach, move from Port Elizabeth to Durban. She was helping him set up. And said to him: Do you have any other friends? and I was introduced as a friend and kind of went off training with a guy called Terry Gulliver. And Terry was probably the guy who took me to the next level. I give him a lot of credit for that.

And it was very frustrating. In I think it was, in 1973 Terry left South Africa right with frustrations, that, you know, he could never produce international swimmers. So I lost, I think, a good coach then.

Thys Lombard
Yes. So was it part of the isolation years already, that frustrated him?

So did he move to the States?

Paul Blackbeard
Yeah. As a coach he wanted to achieve more., and he felt he couldn't. I was in matric in 1974 and had a number of scholarship offers. Really ahead for you, but a number of the scholarship offers to states, and was ready to go and study overseas. I think he also felt that he could, you know if he couldn't follow me there what is he going to do the rest of swimmers, so.

No, he went back to Australia. And, and my, my father got very sick, about six weeks before I was going to go. In fact, I accepted a scholarship, with Doc Counsilman, who was at the time was the, he was the top American coach, and it was a great scholarship. But six weeks before I was going go my dad could very sick. And I decided not to go, to stay, and I think it was the right decision. But I didn't realize that you lose your eligibility after four years. I thought I could maybe go back in four years' time. I'd study in South Africa first and go do some year post studies. But anyway, that was another story.

Thys Lombard
So, after school, was it university?

Paul Blackbeard
Yes, and went to university went to Natal University, did a BComm. I did that part-time, and then I did my National Service in the police and got transferred back to Durban. national, because one of the guys I swam with, his dad was the recruitment officer for the South African Police, and he said: Look come and join us and we can get you transferred back in, you can keep training

Thys Lombard
So you keep your training regime, you could keep it up?

Paul Blackbeard
Yep yeah. In fact, I remember in Police College, very kindly being allowed to train in the evenings of this beautiful 50-meter pool in Pretoria. They put the lights on at night, nobody else, I was the only one training and everyone else had study time, I was the only allowed to go training. Very spoilt!

Thys Lombard
So swimming has been very kind to you? It's hard work but it's been kind to you?

Paul Blackbeard
In fact, in the Police, I was the Police Sportsman of the Year, and at the same table was Naas Botha.

Thys Lombard
I remember, he was at the Police College as well.

Paul Blackbeard
So it was obvious Naas was going to win it. And I actually won the Police Sportsman of the Year award.

Thys Lombard
That's incredible! Against a legend of South African sport. Paul so when was the first time that you realize that you had quite a special talent? Because I mean, when you start swimming and you never, you know, we aim to become Springboks, all South Africans, once they get their rights to walk around and swim around and whatever we think of becoming Springboks. When was it something that you realized was possible?

Paul Blackbeard
It was probably in my matric year, 1974, because I was lucky enough to get Springbok colours in three sports, in the same year.

Thys Lombard
Wow, the other two being water polo and surf lifesaving?

Paul Blackbeard
No, the other two being still water lifesaving and surf lifesaving.

Thys Lombard
You never played water polo?

Paul Blackbeard
I played a bit of polo, but not at that level. And also the shoulder would have been a problem.

Thys Lombard
I competed against you in the surf lifesaving, but we'll get back to that later. Also a fantastic sport, surf lifesaving. The Natal boys dominated for so many years.

Paul Blackbeard
And the history I've got with those teams, still great friends. I mean that's the beauty of sport. They're friends for life.

Thys Lombard
So, obviously, if you became a Springbok in your matric year you must have been able to swim in Currie Cup in years earlier than your matric year?

Paul Blackbeard
72 was my first one.

Thys Lombard
And for what events you qualify?

Paul Blackbeard
400 freestyle was my first African record so that was my, my first kind of event.

Thys Lombard
Can you remember it who's record you broke?

Paul Blackbeard
Unfortunately, not.

Thys Lombard
Because Greg Carswellremembers breaking your record. The other day I spoke to him he said the first South African he record was one of yours.

Paul Blackbeard
I was actually just trying to get hold of Greg on this trip, but he was off to Europe.

Thys Lombard
And speaking about guys like Greg Carswell, what other names do you remember from your swimming years? I was a bit younger, but there were some legends swimming in your era?

Paul Blackbeard
This is where you need to get a hold of Linda, my wife. I'm shocking with memory and names, and I'll be a disservice to them all.

Thys Lombard
Blame the chlorine! Guys like Dougie Eager? A name that pops up to me is Jonty Skinner?

Paul Blackbeard
I'll just go back to Dougie for a moment. I always remember swimming medley against Dougie, where he had such a powerful breaststroke, and that is my worst stroke. My worst. I would do a beautiful butterfly, great backstroke, he'd catch me and sometimes pass me on the breaststroke. And then, of course, I'd come back on the freestyle, and the crowd ... It was just a great event!

Thys Lombard
I mean I grew up watching it, you guys compete. And it was, it was fascinating

Paul Blackbeard
And as a competitor, it was lovely to have that kind of event as well. The crowd, and you're loving it.

Thys Lombard
Paul, tell me, training, I mean, obviously the sport has become professional and in your days it was not a professional sport, although I think you work as hard as the professional, I don't think it could work harder?

Paul Blackbeard
I wanted to work on the beaches and when I finished my schooling, make some pocket money, and the rules then, if you went to the beach for more than six weeks you're using your sport as a profession, and you couldn't do it. So six weeks was the maximum you could do it. That's how tight they were on anti-professionalism.

Thys Lombard
And you're not even talking about earning five rand or ten rand or anything?

Paul Blackbeard
No sponsorship, no.

Thys Lombard
Paul, the years that you swim and you are at the pinnacle of your sport. We'll get back to what you achieving now as year 58 year old as well. I think you're still at the pinnacle of what you do, which probably boils back to discipline and we'll get back to that. But when you were at your best, swimming your best times and not allowed to compete in the Olympics. I mean, that must have hurt real bad?

Paul Blackbeard
It was hard. It was hard. I mean, but you know, if you've never had it you kind of don't know what you've missed. And I would like to have done it. No lie about it. But we didn't. And in fact, it was one of the reasons that I actually, when South Africa got back into the Olympics, then made a swimming comeback.

Thys Lombard
This was in '92, Baecelona?

You were thinking of making a comeback, at the age of 34?

Paul Blackbeard
Yeah, I actually got back into the water and got fit again. I actually won the Natal trophy, which I had previously won 21 years before. So there was a lovely comeback.

Thys Lombard
A couple of names in between? Guys like Graham Hill, I'm sure.

Paul Blackbeard
Yeah, yeah. And I think there's a guy called Mike Bolstridge who won it one for six years in a row. And then I won it for 10 years in a row after that, so was between us we've got 16 years on that trophy.

Thys Lombard
That's incredible.

Paul Blackbeard
Because I retired and then come back.

Thys Lombard
So you came back, did you make the qualifying times?

Paul Blackbeard
Made it, and in fact, got into the finals for the qualifying races, but I think I came third in that particular hundred butterfly.

Unknown Speaker
Okay.

Thys Lombard
Okay. Did you make the qualifying times for the Olympics?

Paul Blackbeard
They didn't have qualifying times, they just selected a team. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah.

Thys Lombard
Okay and did you stop then? Putting in all the hard work, getting back to fitness levels?

Paul Blackbeard
Sort of, to an extent. There was a lifesaving trip at the same time, going to Australia. I think also tried for that and again just missed that one. But for me, it was more the Olympics.

Thys Lombard
You wanted to compete in the Olympics?

Paul Blackbeard
For my honeymoon, I took my wife to the '84 Olympics, Los Angeles. Just to go and be part of it.

Thys Lombard
Mark Spitz when did he..

Paul Blackbeard
That was '72. Munich.

Thys Lombard
Munich, right,

Paul Blackbeard
So I went to '84, just to watch it and of course the experience and be part of it.

Thys Lombard
Speaking of the Olympics, this is an Olympic year. Your times, when you were at your best? I remember when we swam, we got the tops of the international swimmers, how did your time rate?

Paul Blackbeard
In the 400 individual medley, I was ranked 14th in the world. That was probably the highest, but there were a number in the top 20. But, but it was, you know, like anything, if you've got competition next to you, you always do better, you get pulled forward.

Thys Lombard
I think, that at a certain level, anyone can win, it's on the night. So that's one of your big regrets, not being able to compete in the Olympics?

Paul Blackbeard
Regrets, but at the same time, you know, life. I wouldn't have been my wife, you know, things would have been so different.

Thys Lombard
Exactly, the Olympics only last for one year, and you're still married to your beautiful wife. I think that's a great outlook on life. Getting back to your swimming. You still very fit. You're now 58. I saw you earlier on this year, at the Sanlam Cape Mile and I actually watched and you came out, I think, fourth overall in the elite group, And just behind the guys. But what impressed me even more, in the Midmar Mile, you swim under 20 minutes for a mile. How do you do that? How do you train, at the age of, where you are now?

Paul Blackbeard
The one thing that I have learned, is that you don't have to train as hard as we used to train, but it's consistency. Training for three to four times a week, but regularly, doing good sessions and listening to your body a lot more than you used to. I mean, I always knew my body.

Thys Lombard
When you really listen to your body, do you also listen to what your body wants as fuel? Is that important?

Paul Blackbeard
Yeah, very much so.

Thys Lombard
Have you always been a healthy eater?

Paul Blackbeard
You know, when we train as hard as we used to when we're younger, I would eat anything, because you were just hungry all the time.

Thys Lombard
It probably now wasn't very scientific then?

Paul Blackbeard
No, just as much just to get. J

Thys Lombard
Just going back to the, to the distances you guys did with training at the peak of your, your fitness. What type of training sessions, three sessions per day?

Paul Blackbeard
Hell week we did 20 kilometers in a day, two sessions. It was incredible. 13 times a week we were training, 4 to 5 hours a day.

Thys Lombard
Are you good early in the morning?

Paul Blackbeard
You got used to it. Just becomes part of your routine. You get up, you've got your clothes organized, and off you go.

Thys Lombard
When did you guys leave South Africa, because you're now living in Australia? Tell us a bit about that?

Paul Blackbeard
We left in 94, on a one year contract originally with my company. That was in Sweden, and then we went off to London for five years after that, and that then rolled into three years in Italy.

Thys Lombard
In those years - did you swim?

Paul Blackbeard
I joined the Master's clubs.

Thys Lombard
So you've always been a competitive swimmer?

Paul Blackbeard
I started, when I, when I was 25, I actually started the Master's organization in South Africa. A guy called Frank Waterman, he was a great sprinter in his day, had been on to me for years about let's start this Master's thing. Because he'd heard about it in America. That's all, it was only going in America at that stage. And so when I turned 25, I thought, let's do it.

Thys Lombard
You were still in Durban?

Paul Blackbeard
Exactly. In fact, we down to North Beach, where the water polo guys and lifesaving guys were, and we called the guys up, up and said we wanted to start this thing. We need a quorum to start it, won't you all come up and join us in the clubhouse and we had a quorum and formed the organization.

Thys Lombard
I remember you in the Pirates costume, the black and white costume, competing against the Durban Surf boys, the black costumes and red caps, where the Chalupski's are. I mean, fond memories of surf lifesaving?

Paul Blackbeard
You know, getting back to the international thing, the lifesaving and surf lifesaving gave me those things. The lifesaving, I actually got world records out of that. Surf lifesaving gold medals and international competition, because we couldn't get that in the swimming, we were banned by FINA, but in lifesaving, we were still allowed to compete.

Thys Lombard
Guys like Julian Taylor, I mean legendary guys and all good, good mates of yours. Do you still have contact with some of your lifesaving buddies?

Paul Blackbeard
Definitely.

Thys Lombard
And when you swim at the Midmar this year, I saw you got a picture taken with you and Chad le Clos. Do you follow the South African swimming even though you are based in Australia?

Paul Blackbeard
That was one of my, my best pictures ever. When he actually walked up to me and he said: Do you mind if we have a picture taken together? And I went - me? You're my hero!

Thys Lombard
He's a very humble guy, and very approachable. And I think that you know that you never know when that one kind word is going to inspire the next Chad le Clos, so, awesome.

Paul Blackbeard
One of the things about swimming, you know, I used to hear about inspiring people but not as much. I'm hearing it so much now that I'm older, also from younger swimmers, or people who actually gave up swimming and come back into it again. And they're talking about the inspiration. And I think you need it.

Thys Lombard
I think mentorship is enormous.

Paul Blackbeard
That's the value I can give back a lot more.

Thys Lombard
So who were your mentors when you grew up?

Paul Blackbeard
A guy called Lee McGregor.

Thys Lombard
I know Lee very, he got me into surf lifesaving. McGregor's dad. He was an incredible competitor. In my mind, I have never seen anybody who takes winning as seriously as Lee. I a good way!

Paul Blackbeard
Yes, totally.

Thys Lombard
He taught me first is first and second is nothing. Ok, so Lee McGregor.

Paul Blackbeard
He was probably one of my big ones. And then, I think, going back to the coach. Terry Gulliver. What Terry was so good at was getting you to believe that you could do more than you could do. So having a mentor was important, but having that belief in your own ability. He was so powerful, at getting your mind. Because, and as I've got older as well now realizing how powerful that mind is, you know, visualization stuff that we do nowadays, he was doing that back in the 70s with us, and physically also, he was helping us. We would sit down, lie down, and we'd talk it through 50 or 60 times until we've done the race. And that stuff is so powerful.

Thys Lombard
Someone who features quite strongly in the South African Olympic setup, these days is a guy called Graham Hill. I competed against Graham, but you must remember Graham as a young kid growing up, swimming?

Paul Blackbeard
I was Graham's hero, and I still remember the photograph in Port Elizabeth who his parents came up to me and said: Would you mind if Graham had a picture taken with you? And we had pictures from there and, and went forward and of course now.

Thys Lombard
Graham was is untouchable! Born in exactly the same year, when Graham was in the race, we were swimming for second and third place.

Paul Blackbeard
And coaching now as well.

Thys Lombard
He's a good coach as well. I think he's a good mentor to a lot of these young swimmers. South African swimming, do you still follow it, even though you're based in Australia? It seems like you're quite clued up with the South Africans?

Paul Blackbeard
I know the names and follow it but probably not as close as I'd like to. I'm probably looking more at Australian swimmers nowadays which are looking very powerful for the Olympics this year,

Thys Lombard
They have a massive squad, I think, 36 people. You're not involved at all in any coaching?

Paul Blackbeard
No, a little bit in the Masters.

Thys Lombard
Anybody in your family swimmers?

Paul Blackbeard
My kids got some but they are lazy to train. And it takes time, and so they play tennis, they do other sports.

Thys Lombard
I saw on Facebook, it was a young Australian guy, when you left South Africa, in March after the Midmar, you were doing a long-distance swim with him. It looks like you're quite a mentor to this little swimmer.

Paul Blackbeard
Little Raoul, yes. He's 14 years old, right, and, and we were swimming in one of the open water races and started chatting to him afterward and we end up doing racing together. In fact, this particular race, Channel of the Champion race.

Thys Lombard
I saw that, I saw the pictures. And how did you swim in that race? Did you swim with him?

Paul Blackbeard
Yeah, we swam together. It's a 20 kilometer race, and we swam as a duo, so changing. We started out swimming, changing about every 800 meters, by the end we were changing every two hundred meters.

Thys Lombard
Okay. And tell me, a 400-meter swimmer. Did you ever compete in the 1500 competitively, or were you more short distance?

Paul Blackbeard
I love sprints, so 1500 was far too far. Nowadays I do 1500s, I can't believe I've moved into longer distances.

Thys Lombard
I think Ryk Neethling changed from a 1500 swimmer, he converted himself into a 50 meter and hundred-meter swimmer, which I think is pretty amazing too, because it's a different approach to training and to racing. So you do the longer distances as well?

Paul Blackbeard
I'm doing the longer distances. Now, if I look at the Australian Master's competition. I've got all the Australian swimming records from the 50 100 200 400 800 1500. And some of the names of those people that held Australian records were good swimmers. I'm kind of pleased I range from sprints to long.

Thys Lombard
When I grew up, everybody wore the Marks Spitz Speedos. I think you still remember those. Have you ever met Mark Spitz?

Paul Blackbeard
No, but he was, again, one of my heroes. I mean, in terms of his stroke and what he did, I used to watch that all the time,

Thys Lombard
And Jonty Skinner?

Paul Blackbeard
Jonty's dad used to give us massages. He had an old, like a sausage, before the race. He was fantastic. He just so generous, so kind of do that.

Thys Lombard
So Jonty is a bit older than you?

Paul Blackbeard
Jonty is older than me, but I swam against Jonty just before he went off to the States, in 100 freestyle, when he did the 51,9 or something like that and I did 52 something. Of course, he went on a year later to break the world record.

Thys Lombard
And do you know if Jonty is still swimming?

Paul Blackbeard
I saw him in Colorado about seven or eight years ago now, when he was coaching the American team.

Thys Lombard
So he's still involved in swimming?

Paul Blackbeard
He was the coach at the American high altitude center, in Colorado. Yes, he's still coaching.

Thys Lombard
In March, when you came for a wine tasting, you had some of your old swimming buddies with you, and you're actually still friends?

Paul Blackbeard
John Harker was the guy who was with us, that's right. Yeah.

Thys Lombard
And so you still have contact with some of your old swimming mates?

Paul Blackbeard
Lots of them. I mean many of them. And the nice thing, about, going back to the fact that I traveled with my company so much, is that I've made swimming friends now all around the world. I've got swimming records in Sweden, and London, Italy and the States. But friends as well, because of that, you kind of connect with people. I stay in touch.

Thys Lombard
Having broken records and competed on the highest level, what keeps you motivated, what gets you back in the pool tomorrow?

Paul Blackbeard
Part of it is the camaraderie. I like the people, I like the swimming people that I meet. So part of it is just that that whole network of people and then the friends that you make. And then there is just the personal satisfaction of actually getting, can you better? Your personal best. You're competing against what you used to do. Not what I used long ago, but what I did last season.

Thys Lombard
Exactly, what is possible now as well. And obviously working hard and still putting in the hours. Aging is not really a factor if in your mind you can stay young, but you think you lose the ability...

Paul Blackbeard
But the body gets a bit older. Going back to the thing about listening to the body. I mean I will actually now get out of a session if I'm feeling that that's a little past where I should go. I very seldom now push it past where it should go. Just look after it. But consistency is one of the key things.

Thys Lombard
Yeah and you mentioned eating healthfully. When you were young you ate anything you could. Now, what are some things you will not eat?

Paul Blackbeard
Very very lucky I have a wife who is actually quite knowledgeable in that whole area, and she looks after the food well. Down on sugars, good on proteins, but kind of just keep the balance.

Thys Lombard
That's awesome. Paul, thank you very much for your time. It's just awesome to sit here with you and chat with you, and you come back to South Africa regularly so I hope to catch up with you soon.

Paul Blackbeard
Maybe next year at the Cape Mile obviously, we'll see.

Thys Lombard
Thank you very much.

Paul Blackbeard
Thanks, Thys

Dream team ready for Port to Pub swim challenge

Thu, 2 March 2017

The Olympian Eamon Sullivan is racing with five other retired champions in the Port to Pub swim from Leighton beach to Rottnest on March 25. The team consists of Sullivan, Olympians Travis Nederpelt, Jim Piper and Adam Lucas and Australian champions Bobby Jovanovich and Mark Riley. Swimming WA open water swimmer of the year Rhys Mainstone, Kane Radford and Jessica Pengelly and Rottnest Channel swimmer Jaime Bowler are also competing.

“I’m training twice a week. It was about 14 times a week during my career,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan and his dream team completed the 20km Port to Pub swim, from Leighton Beach to Rottnest, in just under four hours last year.

Sullivan does most of his training in the pool. He said the new open water swim team were potentially a game-changer for the event.

“We were looking forward to not having to worry too much and wanted to make it fun, but since these guys have entered it sparks a bit of competition and rivalry,” he said. Entries close on Monday.

“I realized the reason I did well in swimming was because of my personality of giving everything into one thing,” she says. “I was sort of split in two, trying to do really well in school and really well in swimming and there wasn’t enough of me to go around.”

SickKids has been her favourite placement so far, but a post partum, labour and delivery placement at Scarborough General is a close second.

“My very first day I saw a birth. I was in the room and helping a woman deal with pain and everything. I got to see a C-section and a lot of the stuff the students do is stuff the registered nurses don’t have much time for, so I got to give baby baths all the time. It was a lot of fun,” she says.

If she pursues labour and delivery, she’d be following the path of 2012 Olympian Heather MacLean, who recently completed the U of T program.

“I think she’s going to make an amazing nurse, it’s a profession that’s extremely well-suited to her personality type and work ethic,” says Titley.

“And she’ll always be a very important part of the success of women’s swimming in Canada.”

Story and Photo: Swimming Canada