In his early years, James Dergousoff, one of Canada’s top swimmers, was coached by Kelly Kaye, the current head coach for the Squamish Pirates Swim Club.
Last Thursday evening, the 19-year-old had a chance to return the favour, as he came to Squamish to help instruct the members of the Pirates at their practice at Brennan Park.
He worked with the younger swimmers early in the practice before moving on to help the older club members, going over the technique of how to make turns while swimming the breaststroke.
Breaststroke is his specialty, although he swims all strokes and does not always focus on his main stroke when he works with children.
He split his session into two because he finds that he has to approach teaching younger children a little differently than the older ones.
“I find that older kids just know the movements more,” he said.
Between the two sessions, he joined the young Pirates in the hot tub to avoid cooling down too much and posed for pictures with the swimmers.
Even though he is in his competitive prime, Dergousoff is comfortable working with young swimmers and credits Kaye for helping him pass on what he knows to others.
“She taught me how to teach younger kids,” he said.
Dergousoff is one of the good bets to make Canada’s Olympic swim team. He has competed for the Chena North Shore Swim Club and qualified for Canada’s national team after beating defending champion Richard Funk in the 200 metres, while adding a third place in the 100 metres.
He took part in last summer’s Pan-American Games in Toronto, where he finished 11th in the 100-metre and 200-metre finals and won a bronze in the four-by-100 relay.
Dergousoff’s path towards representing Canada started with Swimming Canada’s Development Program in 2011 with the Prospects Initiative, and he followed with competitions at the 2012 U.S. Youth Tour and the 2012 North American Challenge Cup.
He holds the national 100-metre breaststroke record for the 15-17 age category.
The swimmer, who grew up in Christina Lake, B.C., and now lives on the West Coast, is connected to coach Kaye through the Chena club, where she previously coached.
“She was really hard, but she was really fun,” he said.
He got involved when she invited him to come swim for a couple of hours a week with the club, and he ended up training with her from approximately age nine to 13.
As far as this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are concerned, Dergousoff is gearing up for a race in early April to determine who will get the two spots in his event.
In the meantime, he is focussing on training and eating properly rather than on worrying too much about a race more than a month away.
“I try to keep my mind off it as much as possible,” he said.
