SWIMMING: New Zealand medley gun Clareburt makes Melbourne move

Former 400-meter individual medley world champion Lewis Clareburt is leaving his native New Zealand to train under coach Jolyon Finck at Melbourne’s Nunawading Swimming Club as he aims for his first Olympic medal at Los Angeles 2028.

The 26-year-old Wellington swimmer, who won the 2024 world title in a depleted field in Doha and earned a world bronze in Gwangju in 2019, will join Finck’s program alongside other medley specialists.

Men’s medley swimming has been dominated by French sensation Leon Marchand, who trains in Texas under master coach Bob Bowman and captured both the 200- and 400-meter medley golds at his home Paris Olympics.

World record holder Marchand also won both the 200- and 400-meter world titles for a third consecutive time in Singapore this year, following his victories in 2022 and 2023.

Bowman, the former coach of Michael Phelps, previously guided Carson Foster through his Texas University program before the American claimed bronze in the 400-meter medley at Paris.

Clareburt said Finck, who has worked with top British swimmer James Guy, aims to develop a school of medley swimmers capable of competing with the best in the United States.

“We’re looking to create a really strong medley training group in Melbourne,” Clareburt said in a statement Wednesday.

“Right now, there’s a very successful medley training group in the U.S., and they’re winning all the medals internationally. If medley swimmers from Australia and New Zealand want to be on the podium, we need to have a similar group in the Southern Hemisphere, and that’s exactly what we’re aiming to set up.” -Ian Ransom in Melbourne/Reuters