Enrich and Inspire

Towards 2032

Head Office – Melbourne

Level 2, 50-56 York Street, South Melbourne Victoria, 3205

P: 03 9910 0700 E: admin@swimming.org.au

swimming.org.au

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Message from our PresidentWith over 4.5 million active swimmers, we at Swimming Australia are proud to say we oversee the largest participation sport in the country. Our sport encompasses the incredible learn to swim industry who at any one time are teaching over one million children water safety and the basics of swimming, to the thousands of swimming carnivals that are organised around the country each week, the crazy iceberg swimmers who swim all-year-round, through to all those Aussies who just love to swim with their families and friends. This is a big tribe. This is Australia!

I remember many years ago hearing the great Dawn Fraser had broken 60 seconds for the 100m freestyle event. A new world record! The country was in awe. How could anyone swim that fast? Now the women’s world record is 51.71 seconds, and the men’s 46.9 seconds – incredible.

How fast can our swimmers go? That we do not know. However, what we do know is that as long as young Australians put their minds to it, and combine the dream with the support and encouragement of great coaching, swimming athletes will continue to go faster and faster. For this is the essence of human endeavour, higher, further, faster. We are so proud that our sport of swimming captures that essence so well.

Only a tiny percentage could ever swim as fast as Dawn Fraser did all those years ago, let alone even dream what our Olympic and Paralympic Dolphin swim team achieve now. But what we do know is people who swim have a lot of fun. They enjoy the sport for what it is. Health, camaraderie, giving it a go. For swimming is a sport for life. Yes, we are very lucky.

Go Australia!

John Bertrand AO – President Swimming Australia

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Message from our CEOWe have a clear vision at Swimming Australia. We want to enrich and inspire the nation through all that we do and aim to achieve.Swimming has always held a special place in the lives of Australians. Our beach-loving, outdoors lifestyle dictates that the ability to swim and enjoy the water is an essential part of life; but equally, the opportunity for all Aussies to be involved in a safe, inclusive sport, enjoying all the benefits that this participation brings (as a swimmer, coach, volunteer or fan), is also critical to the health and wellbeing of our country.

‘Strategy Enrich & Inspire – towards 2032’ – serves to provide the platform for the sustainability and growth of our biggest and most successful Olympic sport. Swimming Australia is the governing body for the sport, and made up of a diverse range of member associations and stakeholders. Collectively, we have an enormous opportunity to reach all parts of our nation, through participation and performance.

Two goals are central to our strategy – to win when it matters, and to build the tribe. We want to make the most of our big moments that serve to inspire, as our incredible athletes of past eras have done, and we want to ensure the heartbeat of swimming – our swimmers, coaches and volunteers – have what they need to create success beyond Tokyo. While the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics are just around the corner, our eyes are also firmly fastened to what we need to do today to set up success in Paris (2024) and Los Angeles (2028). The Olympians of 2032 are currently 12 or 13 years of age – what we do now matters.

This strategy is the collective effort and vision of our people, with an extensive consultation process undertaken during 2018/19. We have restructured our operations and squads to better reflect where we are going and what we want to achieve, as well as redefining our values and behaviours to help us measure our progress as an organisation. The world of sport is rapidly changing and ‘Enrich & Inspire’ is our blueprint to capitalise on the opportunities ahead of us, while working through inevitable challenges of change as one tribe.

We are immensely proud of our history, and excited for the future. Let’s go.

Leigh Russell CEO Swimming Australia

There are two goals central to this strategy – to win when it matters, and to build the tribe.

Australia’s number 1 participation sport

Swimming by the numbers 2018

141 Gold

150Silver

149 Bronze

28 Gold

21Silver

24 Bronze

62 Gold

70Silver

68 Bronze

Australia’s most successful

Olympic sport

Paralympic success

4.5 million Active swimmers

90,000 Swim club members

50,000 Go Swim participants

35,000 Splash app users

26 million Connections across

social media and digital

2018 also delivered our most successful result at the

Commonwealth Games

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The birth of Australia as a nation also marked the birth of our love affair with Swimming. Australia’s modern Olympic flame was ignited in Paris in 1900 by Swimming and our sporting glory has continued to be fuelled by our swimming success ever since, as the most successful Australian team in Olympic history.

Whether it was Murray Rose or Dawn Fraser, Susie “Madam Butterfly” O’Neill, Ian Thorpe streaming down lane four, a nation holding its breath to will home Kieren Perkins in the 1500m, our magnificent relay teams taking it to the United States, or the excitement of watching the Campbell sisters compete, our swimming superstars have been our national heroes. Performing when it matters, and building a tribe of passionate fans across the country.

We have made this sport our own and we have taken our brand of swimming to the world, second only to the United States in total medal count in the pool. Suffice to say historically we have punched well above our weight and have rightfully been a lasting source of national pride.

But it’s not just every two or four years on the international stage where our love affair with this sport is on show. Every day, at pools, beaches and surf clubs throughout Australia you’ll find the young, young at heart, the dedicated and determined. This is our tribe.

There are 4.5 million of us across the country swimming every week. It is Australia’s number one

Many people. One aspiration.

sport for participation. Across our network of almost 1000 swimming clubs nationally, there are more than 90,000 competitive swimmers meeting every week to take on the clock, their teammates, or their local rivals. This is our source of national pride.

At Swimming Australia, our vision is simple. To enrich and inspire the nation.

As the governing body for Australia’s number one sport, our challenge is to continue to strive to be the best we can be on behalf of our tribe. For every child learning to swim, the aspiring young athletes, the volunteers, the coaches, the parents, those who have followed the black line for decades, and our elite team of Dolphins.

Together with our dedicated partners, we are building our tribe and we will perform when it matters – bringing 24.4 million Aussies with us.

We are focused, unified, and determined. We are building a culture of courage and capability, with a fierce dedication to finding new and powerful ways to engage with and connect to our ever changing tribe. For the greater good of our sport, always.

Because that’s Swimming, Australia.

At Swimming Australia, our vision is simple. To enrich and inspire the nation.

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Our vision To enrich and inspire the nation

Through this plan, we will:

1. Connect and strengthen the tribe;

2. Enrich the lives of Australians;

3. Be in control of our destiny;

4. Instil the pride in our history, and excitement for our future;

5. Get ahead of the game to win.

Our values and leadership principlesWe build our trust account through:

C U ECourage

We are committed to having the CRUCIAL conversations.

We are BOLD, DECISIVE and RESILIENT.

ExcellenceWe do as we say.

We are PROFESSIONAL and RESPECTFUL in all

that we do.

We adopt a GROWTH mindset.

UnityWe act with HONESTY,

AUTHENTICITY, and TRANSPARENCY.

We have PRIDE in the tribe.

We collaborate with PURPOSE.

Our operating context

Sport Sustainability Viability and the performance of sport is under threat from declining volunteering, funding shifts, product relevance and governance capability and capacity.

Consumer ConnectionTechnology and social media are driving fan expectations. Positive engagement through emerging platforms and meeting fans where they are at, not where we have traditionally expected them to be, is vital to remain relevant and enhance the fan experience. Digital connectivity is changing the way, and the speed, at which we communicate.

High PerformanceInternational success is becoming harder to achieve as other countries invest more in elite sport. Opportunities to drive high performance outcomes are around building capability and capacity of athletes, coaches, and staff.

PartnershipsStrategic partnerships are vital as sport continues to strengthen our value proposition to our communities. New organisational forms and capabilities are required to create innovative approaches to delivering sport and value to partners.

Participation LandscapePeople are increasingly time poor with limited budgets and are being offered new forms of sport, recreation and entertainment. Fewer are participating in organised sport, but there is a greater demand for a diverse range of sporting opportunities.

The heartbeat of swimming

Tomorrow’s swimming business

Culture &capability

Build the tribe

Business of swimming

Performwhen itmatters

Datadriven

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Our strategic approach

Engine 1 The heartbeat of swimmingCentral to swimming success are the people that make the sport happen – athletes, coaches and technical officials / volunteers.

Critically, not only do we need to provide opportunity to develop our people through our programs and events that foster great performance and a thriving swimming community, but seek new experiences and programs that will ensure our growth in the future. What we do in this engine room will enhance our traditional offerings and develop our passionate tribe.

Engine 2 Tomorrow’s swimming businessPaying attention to our operating context, it is clear the role of the national federation is quickly changing.

Responding with agility to commercial opportunity, developing, testing and scaling new products, creating a picture of national swimming impact in our communities, leveraging the sum of our collective strengths and preparing our workforce for the future is this engine room.

Both engines serve to enrich and inspire

Developing both swimming ‘engines’ for the future.

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Our strategic frameworkOur vision

Our focus 5 key areas

Our foundation Mission critical to drive success

To enrich and inspire the nation

The heartbeat of swimming | Tomorrow’s swimming business

Our Values on CUE – Courage. Unity. Excellence.

Leadership

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Connect, engage and drive value

Performance driven, coach led, athlete focused and expert supported

Shaping our success

The foundations – Infrastructure and support to excel

Intelligent decision making and enabling business growth

Australia’s high performance system has continued to develop and adapt to the ever-improving international standards set at Benchmark Events (BME). The environment is changing. It’s getting more challenging to win on the world stage, as evidenced by the fact that the average number of countries winning medals has increased. We want to enhance the capability of coaches and swimmers striving for international success through a sustainable, simple and driven high performance system.

Critical for us is to create a focus on people, and build a mature culture that will provide a winning platform across the business. We want to make the most of the biggest asset any sport has – its people – to drive our strategies, and to engage and influence the swimming community and sport industry. To do this, we need to develop and nurture talent and provide opportunities for people to do the best work of their life.

Sport sustainability relies on effective, modern, agile systems and structures, recognising future requirements and continuous improvement. The Business of swimming needs to provide support for the tribe to excel. Strong relationships, effective decision making, and building organisational capability is crucial to future sport success, alongside increasing the capacity of a lean team to succeed.

Understanding and responding to the changing needs of our customers, fans and consumers, alongside responding to change in the sector requires a strong evidence base, and the ability to intelligently use new insights and analytics. We want to translate data into meaningful action, clear decision making and a competitive advantage.

Culture &capability

Build the tribe

Business of swimming

Performwhen itmatters

Datadriven

Our focus5 key areas

Build the tribe

Perform when it matters

Culture & capability

Data driven

Business of swimming

The opportunity is enormous to connect our customers, fans and consumers. Swimming plays a significant role in many Australian’s lives, with our nation having a strong relationship with water. The tribe is already there – we want to find ways to powerfully engage and drive value. Changing demographics and sport being increasingly viewed as entertainment, provides a platform to develop new products and to enable swimming as a traditional sport to remain relevant. Expectations and how the consumer engages with sport is changing and a new world is in front of us.

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“For the greater good of

our sport - always”

Our 2019–2022 prioritiesBuild the tribe• Establish lasting connections with the recreation swimming tribe and increase opportunity

for Australians to engage with swimming• Build junior participation in swimming• Develop membership and a strong fan base for the Dolphins• Develop partnerships with the Learn To Swim industry to increase impact• Modernise swimming’s shopfront• Develop an integrated, modern approach to media and communications• Establish strong alumni / role model connection• Leverage Tokyo 2020 with a campaign that unites our industry, community and country

Perform when it matters• Deliver successful benchmark (BME) events • Accelerate athlete, coach and system progression• Deliver national event camps • Create a strategy to increase numbers of categorized athletes in NSW

Culture & capability• Build and develop athlete leaders• Strengthen relationships with our team• Deliver a best practice athlete wellbeing and engagement framework• Prepare athletes for podium success• Make coaching development a key priority across pathway and performance• Build the capacity of our swimming workforce• Support and develop our technical officials

Business of swimming• Get ahead of the game in governance and shared services of our sport• Explore contemporary new event concepts• Restructure our commercial framework and way we work with corporate partners• Map investment and resources in High Performance Centres to influence

optimum service and support• Implement systems that create efficiency and productivity

Data driven• Develop technology that assists coaches, athletes and staff• Deliver first national Customer Relationship Management System for swimming• Identify how a data driven approach can create efficiency and amplify reach for swimming• Better leverage customer and consumer insights