WSCA To Base New Boost To Board On Merit Measured By Coaching Performance
The World Swimming Coaches Association (WSCA) is to boost its board representation by adding delegates from each of the six aquatics continents and National Swimming Coaches Associations – on merit measured by coaching performance – from the Paris 2024 Olympics onwards.
In significant changes to its Constitution, WSCA, which played a significant role in the decision of World Aquatics to ring-fence the women’s categories in swimming and other disciplines for female athletes, will only select Continental representatives from “the world’s leading coaches, with coaching performance a pre-requisite of application and acceptance”.
In a statement today, WSCA, led by Ireland director Jon Rudd, also emphasis its twin purpose as a global organisation of 14,000 members: “The WSCA of 2023 has evolved to serve two missions. The Association provides the voice for the high-performance coaches in the world through continuous advocacy, while remaining as the service providers (through education and consulting) for the developing swimming nations of the world.”
The WSCA Statement:
The Board of the World Swimming Coaches Association voted for significant constitutional change this month in what signals their strongest ever endeavour to ensure that the Association’s governance and strategic direction is truly representational on a worldwide level.
The Constitution will now allow for ‘Continental’ Board representatives to be nominated to formulate the new WSCA Board for the Los Angeles Olympic cycle. With WSCA serving over 14,000 members worldwide, the continents of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania will each have at least one representative on the Board following the Paris 2024 Games.
Additionally, each of the recognised and constituted National Swimming Coaches Associations will continue to be able to further their partnership with WSCA going forwards via their own Board seats, available to them through affiliation.
The new Constitution ensures that Continental representatives are selected from the world’s leading coaches, with coaching performance a pre-requisite of application and acceptance.
WSCA is also now in a position to be able to appoint additional ‘skill set’ Directors to the Board to help them enable their 2024-2028 Strategic Plan, which is currently in the final stages of completion.
The WSCA of 2023 has evolved to serve two missions. The Association provides the voice for the high-performance coaches in the world through continuous advocacy, while remaining as the service providers (through education and consulting) for the developing swimming nations of the world.
WSCA believes themselves to be the only organisation that serves both ends of the spectrum and this development helps to ensure that these two key remits remain at the forefront of their work.