Canadian swim team adjusting to life without longtime head coach Ben Titley
CBC
Ryan Mallette is undoubtedly the busiest person at the pool in Victoria this week as the national trials continue.
He's trying to get up to speed with all the tasks that come with now being the interim head coach of Canada's swimming team.
In what can only be described as an abrupt and unexpected end to Ben Titley's tenure as head coach for a decade after his contract wasn't renewed at the beginning of March, Mallette is getting acquainted with the top role.
"I feel like I've adjusted well. It was unexpected so it's been a lot of work for sure," Mallette told CBC Sports.
Mallette has been with Swimming Canada since 2013 when he moved to Victoria to become the NextGen coach. He then took over the high performance program centre program under difficult circumstances following the death of Randy Bennett in 2015.
In 2019, Mallette moved east to Toronto.
Titley and Mallette were not only coaches together in Toronto for the last number of years, they had become good friends. The sudden departure is something that's still being processed by Mallette and the many swimmers Titley coached throughout his time in Canada.
"Once we get through this meet I'll process it a little further. Right now it's about making sure everyone else is OK and that they're managing well," Mallette said.
The two had great chemistry and together along with the team around them have created a powerful swimming program with talent and depth.
"The way we worked together was in tandem but without saying this is your specific duty. Ben was really big on chatting, picking my brain. We were always having a conversation," Mallette said.
The timing of all of this is certainly less than ideal – one month before trials and three months before this summer's world championship.
"Losing Ben has been really hard but I'm just really proud of what we've been able to do this week to get the job done," said Sydney Pickrem.
"It's huge. He means so much to all of us. It was a shame how it happened. There wasn't a lot of information. We knew that we had a job to get done and he wanted us to get it done."
Titley worked extremely closely with Pickrem, Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse, Kayla Sanchez, Rebecca Smith, Taylor Ruck, Maggie Mac Neil, Yuri Kisil, Finlay Knox, Josh Liendo and Summer McIntosh at the high performance centre in Ontario.
