Unrest Within Dutch Swimming Team

Kromowidjojo announced on Thursday that she will no longer train with national coach Marcel Wouda. The announcement is the newest of changes within the Dutch swimming team.

The reason that Ranomi Kromowidjojo gives, is that she is not 100% sure that the cooperation between her and Wouda is good enough for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next year.

Almost at the same time Bastiaan Lijesen also stopped the cooperation with Wouda.

Both Kromowidjojo and Lijesen have announced to prefer to train under the leadership of the  assistant of Wouda, Christiaan Sloof.

Ranomi Kromowidjojo further said that it was not the training itself which moved her towards her decision. Technically, she said, everything was OK. It was the personal connection which was not ideal.

Last weekend Kromowidjojo won two gold medals at the world cup events in Doha.

Jacco Verhaeren, the departing technical director - wikimedia

Jacco Verhaeren

The news earlier this month, that Jacco Verhaeren is going to leave the Dutch swimming scene for Australia seems to have some impact on the team of medal winners in Eindhoven.

After Jacco Verhaeren stopped last year as national coach, he became the technical director for the Dutch swimming federation. Verhaeren is seen as a very important man in the Dutch swimming scene since under his coaching many Dutch superstars like Pieter van den Hoogenband, Inge de Bruijn and Ranomi Kromowidjojo gathered many gold medals. His fame now delivered him a new challenge in Australia, where he is appointed to be the national coach from January 1, 2014.

Dutch star swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband - wikipedia

Verhaeren is, until his take off to Australia, going to solve the problem. He probably will rearrange the tasks of the coaches of the Dutch team.

Marcel Wouda

After the announcement of Kromowidjojo, Wouda told the press that he didn’t have seen this coming. According to him, he put all his energy in his work  and he can only conclude that it was not enough for the double gold medal winner in London. “If a sporter is satisfied for 99.9 percent but unsatisfied for 0.1 percent and sees no way how to solve that problem, then something has to be done. It is disappointing to me, but it is actually understandable and brave, if you consider such a situation, that a sporter makes such a decision.

Marcel Wouda, the national coach - wikimedia

After Lijesen also quit the cooperation with him, he told the press that he is going to step back for a few days and that he is going to reflect on the situation. “It is al very new, it totally caught me by surprise. I don’t want to say anything more.”