Danyon Loader testing waters again

MAARTEN HOLL/Dominion Post

QUIET ACHIEVER: Danyon Loader still ranks as New Zealand's most successful swimmer.

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Danyon Loader, who will mark his return to competitive swimming tomorrow, still finds himself immersed in elite sport as an Olympic ambassador and mentor.

The shy Wellingtonian, who has a hand in several national and local sports organisations including the New Zealand Olympic Committee, will dive into Auckland's Waitemata Harbour for the first leg of the Ocean Swim Series.

Loader will swim 2.8km from North Shore to Viaduct Harbour tomorrow against current Olympian Moss Burmester and 1400 other entrants.

There is no talk of a comeback and Loader's training schedule isn't close to the distances that built his technique and strength in Dunedin, under coach Duncan Laing.

"It's about the enjoyment of the water," Loader says. "Maybe it will encourage other people to enter as well."

The 34-year-old who won two freestyle gold medals at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, still ranks as the country's most successful international swimmer by a mile.

He became New Zealand's first swimming gold medallist since Malcolm Champion, who won gold at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm as an Australasian 4x200m relay participant.

In contrast to more recent Olympic champions such as rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, cyclist Sarah Ulmer and triathlete Hamish Carter, Loader's success did not result in large-scale advertising campaigns.

There is no Loader-fronted, beef and lamb advertisement, clothing line, or energy bar endorsement. Despite his absence from our screens, he is still seen in the public spotlight.

Last month he was in sole charge of some of Wellington's brightest swimming prospects for next year's Commonwealth Games, coaching at the Capital Swim Club.

He raced in a celebrity relay last week, with fellow Olympian Rebecca Perrott, at a low-key opening ceremony for the Paralympics national championships.

Loader has also been making arrangements for the New Zealand team heading to the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.

Capital Swim Club coach Gary Hurring, who went on his honeymoon and left Loader in charge of his squad of 16 elite swimmers, came home to find them in excellent shape after a month under Loader's direction.

"He is very familiar with what we do and very good at it," Hurring said. "Obviously with his talent as a swimmer, he's been with some of the best coaches, with Duncan Laing for years, and he's absorbed all of that information."

As patron of the diving centre, he happily attends training sessions and award dinners. Loader hopes to raise the profile of their excellent setup.

"They've got world-class coaches there in Steven Zhu and James Hardaker and now what they're doing is building up talent," he says.

Loader works fulltime at the NZOC as games services manager. He attended last year's Beijing Olympics and the Youth Olympics in Sydney to mentor athletes. He still finds time to work with the asthma foundation, his charity of choice.

Loader isn't expecting to match Burmester tomorrow, but there will be strong interest in his results.

"I'm only there to challenge myself," says Loader who has been logging about two to three kilometres in the pool, three times a week.

"I've been 10 years retired, so no way am I going to be competitive."

AT A GLANCE

Name: Danyon Loader
Born: April 21, 1975, Timaru
Occupation: Games Services manager, New Zealand Olympic Committee
Other: Capital Swim Club assistant coach, patron of high-performance aquatics diving, New Zealand Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, NZOC Olympic ambassador
Olympic Games: Barcelona 1992, silver medal 200m butterfly; Atlanta 1996 gold 200m and 400m freestyle
World championships: Rome 1994, silver 200m butterfly, bronze 200m, 400m freestyle
Commonwealth Games: Victoria, British Columbia, 1994, gold 200m butterfly, silver 400m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, bronze 200m freestyle
Achievements: Held four short-course world records: 200m butterfly (three times), 400m freestyle.
Inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003.