By JIM MORRIS -- The Canadian Press

Although her appointment as a coach for Canadian Olympic swim team has been voided, Shauna Nolden is confident she'll be returned to the position when a new selection committee makes its decision.

"I was very willing to go through a selection process and have offered to do this for a number of weeks," Nolden said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.

"I am very confident in the original appointment and believe my attributes will benefit the team. . . . We want to get through the politics of this . . . and focus on what is important, which is getting the swimmers to perform."

Nolden's appointment as the first woman to help coach a Canadian Olympic swim team was voided this week by Swimming Canada in a move to avoid a long and costly hearing into allegations her selection was arbitrary and biased.

Her selection had been appealed by the Canadian Swimming Coaches Association and individual coaches Linda Kiefer and Lucie Hewitt Henderson.

Swimming Canada has agreed to open the selection process to the entire women's coaching fraternity. Nolden, 26, who has been working with five swimmers on the Olympic team since June 4, will re-apply for the job.

"I am confident about my relationship with the swimmers and look forward to coaching them to good performances in Sydney," Nolden said.

Swimming Canada's executive board will hold a telephone conference call Friday night to determine who will sit on a new selection committee.

A decision on who will fill the women's coaching job on the Olympic team will probably be announced during the Aug. 3-6 summer nationals swim meet in Winnipeg.

The Canadian Olympic Association wants all Games' coaches named by Aug. 6.

A three-member panel, convened by the Centre for Sport and Law in Ottawa to hear arguments against Nolden's appointment, has ruled the selection committee deciding on the new coach will have at least two changes from the original group.

The panel heard allegations the previous committee had "a reasonable apprehension of bias" in favour of Nolden.

John Vedeika, president of the Canadian Swimming Coaches Association, will not sit on the committee because he was one of the people appealing Nolden's selection.

The panel also said Rob Colburn, chairman of the original selection committee, must be replaced.

"With some reluctance, the panel has concluded that there is now associated with Mr. Colburn and his role in the selection process to date, the perception or apprehension that he may be biased," the panel ruled.

The panel rejected arguments that Lisa Flood, the athlete's representative on the original committee, was biased.

"The evidence presented was not persuasive," the panel ruled.

Nolden's appointment to the Games' coaching staff angered both men and women in the swimming fraternity. They argued Swimming Canada flouted its policy of selecting coaches based on pre-established criteria and results.

In a separate hearing, a three-member panel heard arguments by Kiefer, a University of Toronto swim coach, that she should be the coach of record for Kyle Smerdon, who qualified as a 4x100-metre relay swimmer going to Sydney.

That would make her the only Canadian woman coach with a swimmer on the Olympic team and improve her chances of winning the female coach's job.

Swimming Canada maintains Bryon MacDonald, the University of Toronto's head coach who does commentary for CBC, is Smerdon's coach of record.

In its decision, the panel voided Swimming Canada's decision to revoke Kiefer's status as Smerdon's coach.

But the panel said it did not have the authority to declare Kiefer as the coach of record.

Instead, the panel sent the issue back to a Swimming Canada selection committee for a new decision.

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