The 2024 Swimming Australia Awards dove off with a splash last month with Lane Cove Swim Club taking home the prize for Swim Club of the Year.
The awards, held on 14 September 2024 at the Howard Smith Wharves in Brisbane, celebrate the sport’s best swimmers and contributors.
Lane Cove Swim Club was commended on their exponential growth since COVID, growing 52 per cent, making it the largest swim club in NSW and third largest in Australia.
President of Lane Cove Swim Club, Josh Baker, says there were various reasons why he believes the club won the award but, it all comes down to the club’s strong identity within the community.
“It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly gets you swim club of the year,” Josh began to explain.
“It takes a bit of time to kind of get some momentum going. And certainly for us, it was after COVID where the pool was closed for a period of time which impacted the club a fair bit. But on the back end of that, it was just going from strength to strength and having that fantastic new aquatic centre that’s been built.
“At the end of the day, the first president of the Lane Cove Swim Club was the Mayor of Lane Cove. We are inextricably linked to the community.”
The club is determined to focus not just on the competitive nature of the sport but also on the recreational, engaging swimmers from all age groups and skill levels through different events and activities.
Lane Cove Swim Club Vice President Emma Black says the Saturday Swim Club is a major factor in bringing in families.
“We get a lot of families that come to our club purely based on that,” Emma said.
“They might have one kid who’s a competitive swimmer, and other kids that just like to get in, and maybe mum and dad used to swim. So we get the whole family moving over to us because they can all swim together, get a sandwich at the barbecue for brekkie on a Saturday morning.
“That’s your weekend set up beautifully. So I feel like that’s probably a big tick from Swimming NSW.”
Although the club is quickly expanding, its primary objective is not growth but more to make sure everyone in the area has access to swimming.
Initiatives such as the Take Your Mark program were developed by Swimming NSW aiming to introduce kids to swimming. Lane Cove Swim Club utilises this program further by getting older competitive swimmers to train the younger swimmers to develop their skills and interest in the sport.
“We cater for anyone from, you know, four years old up to, I think, one of our elders, members is about 97 years old,” Josh said.
“We’ve got our older swimmers training our younger swimmers. It wasn’t actually like we opened it to some of our younger members, but we actively put the invitation out to the local schools. So it was really about trying to give the Lane Cove community access.”
“We get that full circle where we’re getting people that swam as teenagers then coming back as parents and bringing their kids back into the club. So I think that speaks volumes to the kind of structure and the community feel that we’re trying to get,” Emma added.
The Swimming Australia Awards saw four more NSW stars take the gold with Tim Hodge and Misha Payne winning Para Athlete and Coach of the Year, Ariel Darley winning Local Legend of the Year and Chloe Brodrick taking home Flipper Athlete of the Year.
Despite its goals focusing primarily on inclusivity, Lane Cove Swim Club has produced its fair share of champions, such as Daniel Arnamnart, who made it to the 2012 London Olympics for the 100m backstroke, and ex-Lane Cove swimmer Josh Collette, who was just announced as an Australian Dolphin.
However, when asked what’s next on the agenda for NSW’s largest club the answer was not to produce more champions or grow to be the largest in Australia, but rather continue to make the club inclusive for all.
“Our focus is never around just getting more and more members in through the doors. It’s about improving that access to the pool for the community that we want to have,” Josh said.
“We’re a community club. We’re not here for widespread fame and fortune. We’re here for the Lane Cove community.”
Lane Cove Swimming Saturday Club
Saturday Morning Swim Club begins on 19th October 2024 at 7 am.
Saturday Morning Club is held in the 50m pool at Lane Cove Aquatic Centre from 7 am each Saturday morning through the Summer swimming season (October-March).
Swimmers race in up to three races each Saturday.
Race distances of 25m, 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m are offered on a rotating calendar. Race times are recorded to track progress and cumulative point scores contribute to awards at the LCSC Annual Presentation Event.
Entries are undertaken via Swim Central or emailing [email protected]
For each race you swim, your time is recorded. Points are then calculated based on the difference between your graded and recorded times on the day. These points count towards the Summer Club Point Score. There are numerous age categories for each gender plus a Family Point Score if more than one family member swims.
Lane Cove Swim Club Details
Website: https://lanecoveswimclub.org.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LCSwimClub/?ref=page_internal
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