Olympian inspires best efforts from titles-bound Piranhas

From left, Coach David Simon, Adam Friscalzo, Hamish Jackson, Sebastian Martinuzzi, Olympian Melanie Wright (nee Schlanger) with her gold medals, Taylah Cowan, Keesha Wilson, Darci O’Brien, Georgia Steinhardt-Lai and Milla Tomlinson.

A question and answer session with Olympic swimmer Mel Wright (nee Schlanger) certainly had the desired effect on Nambour Swim Club members.

Three of six Piranhas swam personal best times in a spontaneous race which followed Melanie’s talk last week. It was great timing as the squad prepared for the Queensland Long Course Titles which started Saturday December 10. 

“After Melanie’s talk, people at training lined the pool and cheered our State swimmers in a race in preparation for the meet,” said Piranhas coach David Simon. 

“Of the six swimmers, incredibly, three swam personal best (PB) times. Not just a Club PB, but overall PBs. Faster than they’ve ever swum  in their young lives!”

Nambour was represented by six individual swimmers in 28 events, as well as in three Club relays at the titles. Three Piranhas will also represent WideBay Region in five relays. Nambour Swim Club has made a huge resurgence over the past two years. 

Mel was born in Nambour and represented Australia at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics winning five Olympic medals (including 2 gold, 2 silver, and a bronze). 

Now a doctor on the Sunshine Coast she answered questions from the young swimmers before presenting special shirts and certificates to the state representatives.

Mel said she started swimming at 14 and one of the secrets to her success was setting “stepping stone” goals. 

“At 14 I did want to go to the Olympics but that wasn’t the only goal I had,” she said. “At 14 I  had to have stepping stones in the meantime. So wherever I was at, I was just looking to the next goal. And after a while, if you keep working hard and you keep taking those little baby steps that you’ve got along the way, eventually you get to the point where you’re standing on the blocks racing for a spot on the Olympic team. 

“So that’s kind of where I ended up, eventually at the Olympics and with a very, very strong team, some very fast teammates.” 

Mel said as well as goals, hard work set the foundations for success. In her early days she was doing 80-kilometre weeks in the pool.  

“Probably 40 hours training in a week,” she said. “Which included swimming and running and all sorts of stuff. 

“As I got a bit older and I started to focus a bit more on the shorter events, that dropped quite a lot to about 25 to 30 hours a week. But as you get older, your muscle maturity is a bit stronger, and you reap the benefits of all the training from the younger years. So it is a bit of a battle but it’s certainly worth it.”

Coach David Simon was thrilled the Olympian could pass on nuggets of wisdom to his aspiring squad.

“Clearly to reach that level of performance required sacrifice, focus … it also required time, and lots of it. Mel was not an overnight success. And her career did not go without set backs, including a year off swimming at one stage. However Mel came back … to the top of the world.”

• To enquire about joining Nambour Swim Club team contact David on nambour@widebayswimming.org.au