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Frost Named World Swim Coach Of The Quadrennium

May 8, 2001  - Ian Hanson

DOUG FROST, the man who has guided Ian Thorpe to the top of the international swimming tree, was tonight awarded international coaching's highest accolade when he was named the World Swimming Coaches Association Coach of the Quadrennium on the Gold Coast.

In a night Frost, 57, will never forget, he was also named the 2001 Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association Telstra Australian Coach of the Year and along with Denis Cotterell and Scott Volkers, elevated to the title of "Master Coach."

The Coach of the Quadrennium is judged by the WSCA board of directors under independent Chairman, Mark Bone of New Zealand, and is based on the performances between 1997 and up to and including the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

He is only the third winner of this prestigious WSCA award, with the initial award resented to John Carew in 1993 for his efforts with Kieren Perkins up to and including the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the second in 1997 to Russian coach Victor Viktoraddenko, who guided the great Denis Pankratov to gold in the 100 and 200m butterfly in Atlanta in 1996

The performances of Thorpe to break nine long course world records, win the 1998 World Championship for 400m freestyle at just 15; four Gold medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games; four gold medals at the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships (where he broke three individual world records); three world records at the 2000 Telstra Swim Trials, before winning three gold (including the 400m freestyle, in world record time and the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays in world record times) at the Sydney Games is the fruit of a 10 year coach-swimmer relationship between Frost and Thorpe.

It was relationship which started when a chubby Thorpe followed his sister Christina into the Padstow pool at the age of nine.

The man who started out in Lithgow, as a learn-to-swim coach and first grade footballer, eventually graduated to a thriving business at Padstow Indoor and on to the Sutherland Leisure Centre and as the newly appointed Australian Head Men's coach - is on top of the swimming coaching world.

Cotterell, the head coach at Miami and coach of Australia's Olympic 1500m freestyle gold medallist Grant Hackett and Volkers, coach of Olympic 200m freestyle gold medallist Susie O'Neill were the two other Australians in the final for the big award.

Other international coaches in the final and in attendance for this week's Telstra Gold Medal Clinic, being conducted on the Gold Coast, over the next week included US Women's head coach Richard Quick - who coached Misty Hyman to victory over Australia's Susie O'Neill and Petria Thomas; fellow Americans Jon Urbanchek (Tom Malchow - 200m butterfly) and Mike Bottom (Gary Hall Jnr. and Antony Earvin - 50m freestyle).

Other coaches included Jacco Verharen, Holland - (Pieter van den Hoogenband 100, 200m freestyle; and Inge de Bruijn, 50, 100m freestyle/100m butterfly); Paul Bergen, USA - (Inge de Bruijn); Gabriela Sachelarie, Romania - (Diana Mocanu - 100/200m backstroke); and Mickael Holmertz, Sweden - (Lars Frolander - 100m butterfly).

The elevation of Frost, Cotterell and Volkers to the title of Master Coach sees the trio join Terry Buck, Forbes Carlile MBE, Terry Gathercole AM, Joe King, Laurie Lawrence, Bill Sweetenham AM, Harry Gallagher OAM, Ursula Carlile, Don Talbot OBE, Ken Wood and John Carew as Australia's prestigious group of Master Coaches.

The Full list of winners at the 2001 Telstra Australian Swimming and Coaches Association Annual Awards:

WSCA Coach of the Quadrennium: Doug Frost

ASCTA Coach of the Year: Doug Frost

Outstanding Coaching Achievement Awards: Scott Volkers, Jim Fowlie,
David Urquhart, Greg Salter, Brian Sutton, Mark Regan, Ian Pope, Gennadi
Touretski, Denis Cotterell, Doug Frost, Barry Prime, John Carew, Ken Wood

Age Group coach of the Year: Shannon Rollason

Rookie Coach of the Year: Tracey Menzies

Open Water Coach of the Year: Brian Wilkinson

Swimmer with a Disability Coach of the Year: Peter Freney

AUSSI Masters Coach of the Year: Louise Stovin-Bradford (Seaside Pirates Swim Club)

Meritorious Service to Teaching of Swimming in Australia: Ted Tulberg

Outstanding Contributions to Swimming in Australia: Tony Shaw, Telstra, Nestle Australia

Media Awards: Ray Warren and Nicole Stevenson (Channel 9) and Fox Sports