| July 27, 2000 Swim coach to fight for
job
Nolden will apply again for Olympic position
Martin Cleary
The Ottawa Citizen; with files from Canadian Press
The Canadian Press / Shauna Nolden's appointment was challenged by others.
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Swimming Canada has returned to square one to determine its
first female Olympic coach, but feisty Shauna Nolden, the original selection, remains on
the pool deck and is still training swimmers destined for the 2000 Games at Sydney,
Australia.
The decision to quell a two-month-old controversy by
beginning again make it appear that Nolden's selection never happened, according to Hilary
Findlay of the Centre for Sport and Law. However, Nolden's lawyer, Alan D'Silva, said
yesterday the Ottawa-born swim coach hadn't lost her job and was determined to prove a
second time that she was the right person for the job.
Owner of the 125-member Toronto Olympians Swim Club, Nolden
was named Canada's first female Olympic swim coach by national team head coach Dave
Johnson on June 4. However, her appointment upset the Canadian Swimming Coaches
Association and two of its members, Linda Kiefer of Toronto and Lucie Hewitt Henderson of
Oakville, who alleged Johnson didn't select the female coach based on pre-determined
criteria and results.
They challenged Johnson's choice, and a Swimming Canada
appeals committee of Marion Lay of Vancouver, Eldon Godfrey of Calgary and David Lech of
Ottawa was formed to determine if there had been any wrongdoing. At the start, Swimming
Canada said it did nothing wrong, and the federation proposed starting the selection
process over in a move to keep costs down.
Nolden and D'Silva agreed, but were upset to learn later
that Keifer and Hewitt Henderson wanted to change two of the four members of the Swimming
Canada selection committee.
The appeals panel, however, is considering a request by
Keifer and Hewitt Henderson to do just that and determine if new criteria is needed to
select the coach.
Kiefer and Hewitt Henderson argued reasonable apprehension
of bias against two current members. The appeals committee can either dismiss the claims
or order Swimming Canada to appoint a new selection committee.
The matter could be resolved tomorrow.
Swimming Canada must submit its Olympic roster to the
Canadian Olympic Association by Aug. 6.
In the end, Nolden, 27, could be selected again for the
Games in Australia since she is one of about 11 female swim coaches in Canada qualified
for the Olympics. Kiefer and Hewitt Henderson also are expected to apply for the job.
"Swim Canada said they were not prepared to
acknowledge they made an error, but they were prepared to acknowledge some people were not
happy and that they'd remake the decision," Findlay said. "They went before the
(appeals committee) and asked to void the decision, wipe it out, as if the decision wasn't
made."
D'Silva called the request by Kiefer and Hewitt Henderson
to change the selection committee "offensive in the extreme."
"I have never heard of anyone getting to pick who they
want to get to pick them," he said.
"(Nolden) has had enough of the backstabbing and
innuendo. She wants to prove for a second time that she is the most qualified for the
role."
Replacing Nolden at this point would be disruptive to the
team, said D'Silva, who has several letters of support from Olympic team swimmers and
officials.
"Two team sports psychologists said it would have
devastating effects on the team to remove her," he said.
"She's not off the team. She'll continue until
something happens."
Nolden, who moved to Toronto three years ago, has been
coaching for six years. She had her first national team assignment in the 1999-2000
season, going to the world short-course championships in Greece and several World Cup
meets.
Johnson said everything must happen quickly.
"The initiative (to appoint a woman coach) is a very
good initiative," he said.
"I'm also quite confident we made the right call the
first time around. We have offered to do it over. We'll just go through the process
again."
Reprinted with permission
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