Clareburt revealed to the Herald on Tuesday he’s leaving behind Hollywood, his coach of seven-and-a-half years, nine months out from his Paris Olympic campaign to head to Auckland for better access to training lanes and high performance facilities.
The move follows years of challenges the pair faced as a result of their reliance on lane availability at the Wellington City Council-operated Regional Aquatic Centre (WRAC) in Kilbirnie, which houses a number of aquatic sports.
Despite the continued hurdles in Wellington, Clareburt and Hollywood’s partnership proved fruitful since first linking up in 2016 at the Capital Swim Club, as Clareburt rose to become one of the world’s top 400m medley swimmers.
He led the Tokyo Olympic final in 2021 at the halfway stage before fading to seventh, then won double gold in the 400m IM and 200m butterfly at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Hollywood, who’s unable to shift to Auckland for family reasons, is devastated at the premature end to their joint bid for Olympic success in Paris.
“Words cannot express how sad I feel about Lewis feeling he has to leave Wellington now just nine months out from the Olympics, knowing things could have been so different if we’d had access to a more positive training environment,” Hollywood said in a public Facebook post.
“We’ve been through a lot together but sadly am unable to relocate to Auckland.
“I’ve had to put family first and can only hope it all works out for the lad. Lewis is a great talent and deserves every opportunity for success in Paris”.
The Herald previously revealed Clareburt and Hollywood often found themselves dealing with the consequences of the Wellington City Council breaching its signed lane booking agreement with Swimming New Zealand.
In multiple instances, council staff gave the pair just several days’ notice of 50 metre lane booking cancellations or alterations, despite one month’s notice being required as per their agreement.
It’s also understood tensions boiled over with WRAC staff after the 24-year-old’s training gear went missing, and a pool manager imposing what Clareburt calls “outdated” restrictions around his filming for social media followers.
While the reliance on Council-run public pools carries more risks than operating out of a dedicated high performance centre, the practice is not uncommon in New Zealand, with the country’s most successful Paralympian Sophie Pascoe regularly using Christchurch City Council-operated pools, and Paris medal hope Erika Fairweather training at a Dunedin City Council-run facility.
Fellow high performance swimmers Zac Reid, Chelsey Edwards and Sam Brown all spent time as part of Clareburt’s high performance setup in Wellington, but ultimately chose opportunities elsewhere.
Hollywood, who’s been employed by Swimming New Zealand specifically to coach Clareburt, said the situation paints a grim picture for the future of swimming in Wellington.
“I thought we could create a model to retain our best and brightest Wellingtonians in Wellington, sadly I don’t believe that is now possible with the current environment,” Hollywood said.
“I think moving [forward], future swimmers in the Wellington region need to look for scholarships in the USA.
“It’s telling when Lewis is the Wellington region’s only Olympian across all codes, making myself its only Olympic coach. Time to reassess after 38 years of coaching and aspiring to coach a swimmer onto the Olympic podium.
“It’s been a tough life lesson. ‘So close, yet so far away’ “.
In a statement, Wellington City Council chief operating officer James Roberts said senior council staff met with Clareburt and Hollywood last week before Clareburt made his decision to discuss how the Council could best support them.
“It’s unfortunate that there have been recent incidents that have caused distractions for Lewis - most of these incidents have resulted from communication breakdowns which we’re keen to address and eliminate,” Roberts said.
“WRAC and Freyberg are both heavily-used community pools and there is an inherent need for compromise in terms of pool usage and priorities. We can’t offer Lewis, and other elite swimmers, absolute priority for use of the pools at all times - but we continue to try to accommodate them.
“We wish [Lewis] well - and we will continue to offer as much access to our facilities as reasonably possible when he is in Wellington” he said..
Clareburt will spend the coming weeks confirming a new Auckland based coach and training programme, before turning his attention to the Swimming World Championships in Doha in January, which offers the first chance of securing Paris Olympic qualification.
