India can also produce Olympic level swimmers: US coach

Visakhapatnam, Feb 23 (UNI) India can also produce Olympic level swimmers if the country's children are given proper training, American olympic swimming coach Richard Quick said today.

While interacting with the young swimmers in GVMC aqua sports complex here, he gave a two hour intensive demo and handed out tips to the children.

Quick said more children should be made to take swimming classes. ''Many of the parents did not know that their children might become olympic gold medalists in future, when they take them to learn swimming,'' he added.

Stating that the lack of sufficient number of standard pools in India was the main drawback, he said pools of 25-metre length would be sufficient to train the swimmers.

The vital point to become a good swimmer, according to the 64 year-old was that a child should be given training from the age of 12 for girls and 15 for boys.

UNI