Canada’s synchronized swim team is borrowing from the best in its quest for Olympic medals.
The Canadians are working this week in Montreal with Tatyana Danchenko, coach of the Russian squad that utterly dominates the sport globally, claiming all seven titles at last summer’s world championships.
Canadian coach Meng Chen hopes it’s just the beginning of a longterm partnership between the two countries.
"It’s an honour for us working with her, because she’s using her own time to come to us, and no other countries but Canada," Chen said. "Hopefully in the near future we can have this exchange of programs, not only between coaches but between athletes, that’s our longterm ambition."
Danchenko coached the Russian duet teams that won Olympic gold in 2004 and 2008 (Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova) and 2012 in London (Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina).
Ishchenko has won 18 medals — including 16 gold — at world championships, making her the most decorated synchronized swimmer in the history of the event.
Danchenko will spend much of her technical visit to Montreal working with the Canadians fine-tuning choreography.
"We started the first day today, she’s really focused on the details, choreography is very important, what makes it look even better is the details," Chen said. "That’s what she’s looking for from all the swimmers is the details, not just from one swimmer, not just from two swimmers, but from the team. She’s really strict on those things, which is really really good."
Canada had a couple of fourth-place finishes at the 2012 London Olympics, in the team event, and Marie-Pier Boudreau Gagnon and Elise Marcotte in duet.
Chen said the Canadian team swimmers have embraced the chance to work with Danchenko.
"I think this is a really great experience for my team right now," she said. "There is a lot of emotion going around, there is excitement, there are nerves, wanting to impress, they’re giving themselves a lot of pressure too, because they want to show the potential they have. But I translate this as a positive momentum, because we have the best opportunity right now working with her."