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nick gillingham

Nick Gillingham must rank as one of the most consistent championship performers British swimming has ever produced. Three consecutive European titles, Commonwealth and world golds combined with Olympic Silver and Bronze in an amazing 6 year run from 1988 to 1994, which also saw him gain numerous other medals and be awarded the MBE, must surely mark him out as a truly great competitor, despite the fact that Olympic gold sadly eluded him. But the record breaking has not stopped, even though he has of course retired from international swimming, as Nick continues to break records and win world titles as a masters swimmer. pullbuoy caught up with him to find out why he keeps going and his views on today's swimming.

What did you make of the British performance at the world championships?
The British performances at the recent World Championships have at long last confirmed my view that we have much talent and management of such talent is a careful line between success and an also ran - this year the timing was right to allow such high class performances!

Do you agree with the selection policy for the European short course champs which is skewed towards getting more youngsters into the team?
With such a busy domestic and international calendar mature swimmers should discuss their seasonal pathway, not only to capitalise on any possible earnings but to ensure that their long term goal is met. Young swimmers wishing to gain further experience on the international stage should be driven by the governing body and the national performance director. A blend of young and old within a team can only be a good thing.

You're still very active in the masters pool, what motivates you to keep training?
I swim these days to give myself some personal time within this very busy world in which we live and to this effect I have created swimZone - a swim fitness programme for the public.

How does the training you do now compare to what you used to do?
These days I only swim three times each week for just one hour and enter the masters competitions to help with motivation. I now swim 9,000mts each week instead of 30,000 - 70,000mts! The furthest I ever swam in one week was 86,000mts.

I saw you set several world records at the Midland District Masters. How much satisfaction do these give you?
To set a World Masters 200m Breastroke Record of 2:16.60 off such little work is very rewarding as I did not expect to swim much under 2min20sec. What means so much is to take records off good names no matter how young or old. Rocco Santos from the USA held the previous mark at little more than 2min17sec - I was in the next lane to him at the 1992 Olympic Games!

Which of your Olympic medals gave you most satisfaction?
My 1988 Olympic medal gave me the most satisfaction mainly because it was my first.

James Parrack said in his interview on this site that he didn't feel swimming was doing enough to tackle drugs. Having been heavily affected by the issue in Atlanta, what's your view? Have things improved since then?
The drugs issue in sport / swimming has not really improved - where things have improved the legal system has let many down! In my case CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) should not have made the ruling in favour of the Russian Federation, however, based on evidence given by the IOC the court had little choice but to give 'benefit of doubt' to the Russian Federation. The IOC were negligent in respect of evidence for the drug in question, as all they had to do was prove that the drug was Class1A. A CAS ruling is 'final and binding' so to open a new case against the IOC would cost me too much money. I could issue a writ against the IOC and open up a new hearing but you cannot fight politics, power and money! I am a small fish in a big sea and now somewhat cynical of sport at the highest level. I have all the evidence to prove the above, but no court room to sit in!

James also said it would be fun to race you again - what do you say to that?!
Having set the 200m world record in Leamington Spa, I was a little disappointed then to only swim 1:04.00 and 29.53 afterwards, so to race James again would be an interesting challenge!

You now work for Arena - what do you make of the recent innovations in swimsuits - do they have as much effect as people (particularly masters) claim?
The new body suits do have their place and help some swimmers more than others. The suits do give extra buoyancy which is a positive factor for many swimmers. To ride high on the water surface is one thing, however some suits can be too buoyant. The Arena suit, in all honesty, has a great blend of buoyancy and feel for the water due to the specialist material. I'm very technical and like to feel the water and the Powerskin allows me to do this. Even if I didn't work for Arena I would choose Powerskin and because of my position you'll just have to believe this at your will!

Recently Roman Sloudnov set a world record and won the world title with a technique that is more akin to David Wilkie than a swimmer such as yourself - do you think we'll be seeing a lot more swimmers keeping low in the water like Sloudnov?
It's much more important to have a natural stroke with all the fundamentals correct than to worry about what the stroke looks like. As a result everybody's strokes will look somewhat different. Although Sloudnov looks very low in the water he executes all the base elements with 100% accuracy. He has high hips throughout his stroke - he maintains a consistent propulsive and resultant force within each stroke cycle - he produces a full stroke cycle with hands and feet finishing together at a particularly high rate of stroking to produce high speed and efficiency in one - finally he delivers low levels of drag, with no break through his head, neck and back resulting in one motion through a powerful tube with propelling motion - he'll be tough to beat. I was never a fan of wave action anyway as it always felt forced and unnatural!

Who is your favourite swimmer and why?
I admire all natural talent, when performance is unforced, these are my favourite swimmers.

Which is your favourite pool and why?
The Olympic pool in Seoul - I knew something special was going to happen on the night I dived in the water after a 19 hour flight from London!

Do you prefer racing or training?
As racing is the end result to all training, then I prefer racing, but training itself had, and still has, many goals, and to chase all goals was what I did best. The love was always trying to achieve all my goals in or out of competition but the greater challenge of course came from competition and the self satisfaction that was attached meant so much.

Do you have any particular race rituals?
I had no race rituals other than staying warm to the point of even standing on my towel before stepping onto my blocks.

Finally, if you had one piece of advice for an up and coming swimmer what would it be?
To all the young swimmers out there - Enjoy - learn from your mistakes - the journey upwards is a delight - staying there is the tough part - always look for the perfect swim and focus on the process not the outcome.

pullbuoy would like to thank Nick for his time and assistance in the production of this article.