<p>In an attempt to garner India their first Olympic podium in swimming, Australian Olympic gold medallist Stephanie Rice is set to launch her Stephanie Rice Swimming Academy in the country. Following the rumours that the academy is set to be established at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, in a chat with DH, Rice, who announced the same at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday, touched on her plans.</p>.<p>Excerpts:</p>.<p class="Question"><strong>Tell us about your academy...</strong></p>.<p>We've been working on the project for about a year to build my team of coaches, physios and experts to be a part of it. Right now the goal and focus is to look for a location to host the academy and also find a sponsor. The biggest thing that was asked was about how much time I will personally give the academy? I want to be able to work with the athlete one-on-one, especially on the mental performance, and I will bring with me my coaches and experts for the physical training and probably spend about 3-4 months a year here. Being top three in the world is definitely a goal.</p>.<p class="Question"><strong>There were rumours of the academy being in Padukone-Dravid Centre of Excellence...</strong></p>.<p>We were definitely in the conversation with them. It's a beautiful facility and one that we haven’t definitely crossed off. But given they already have an academy (Dolphin) training there, we were really limited by the space. When it comes to creating an elite level swimmer we need to have access to the place that we need when we need it. It just wasn’t working in a couple of areas. While it’s not a no, we are also looking at a couple of other places. We are hoping to identify the next couple of weeks where we could have the academy. It can be anywhere in India.</p>.<p class="Question"><strong>So who is going to be with you at the academy?</strong></p>.<p>The academy is going is to headed by me and the coach I trained under Michael Bohl. We will also bring a head coach to do the day-to-day role and we will be training a number of local coaches. </p>.<p class="Question"><strong>What about your role specifically?</strong></p>.<p>My team of coaches will be delivering a physical side of training and I will be working on the mental side and that covers things like handling the pressure, nerves, media attention and making sure you're more holistically happy and have good support around you. Not to say that we won’t get a psychologist if that's what we feel is needed at the time. I want the athlete to know me personally and be able to, in eight years time, have a swimmer trained in my programme be on the Olympic podium.</p>
<p>In an attempt to garner India their first Olympic podium in swimming, Australian Olympic gold medallist Stephanie Rice is set to launch her Stephanie Rice Swimming Academy in the country. Following the rumours that the academy is set to be established at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, in a chat with DH, Rice, who announced the same at a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday, touched on her plans.</p>.<p>Excerpts:</p>.<p class="Question"><strong>Tell us about your academy...</strong></p>.<p>We've been working on the project for about a year to build my team of coaches, physios and experts to be a part of it. Right now the goal and focus is to look for a location to host the academy and also find a sponsor. The biggest thing that was asked was about how much time I will personally give the academy? I want to be able to work with the athlete one-on-one, especially on the mental performance, and I will bring with me my coaches and experts for the physical training and probably spend about 3-4 months a year here. Being top three in the world is definitely a goal.</p>.<p class="Question"><strong>There were rumours of the academy being in Padukone-Dravid Centre of Excellence...</strong></p>.<p>We were definitely in the conversation with them. It's a beautiful facility and one that we haven’t definitely crossed off. But given they already have an academy (Dolphin) training there, we were really limited by the space. When it comes to creating an elite level swimmer we need to have access to the place that we need when we need it. It just wasn’t working in a couple of areas. While it’s not a no, we are also looking at a couple of other places. We are hoping to identify the next couple of weeks where we could have the academy. It can be anywhere in India.</p>.<p class="Question"><strong>So who is going to be with you at the academy?</strong></p>.<p>The academy is going is to headed by me and the coach I trained under Michael Bohl. We will also bring a head coach to do the day-to-day role and we will be training a number of local coaches. </p>.<p class="Question"><strong>What about your role specifically?</strong></p>.<p>My team of coaches will be delivering a physical side of training and I will be working on the mental side and that covers things like handling the pressure, nerves, media attention and making sure you're more holistically happy and have good support around you. Not to say that we won’t get a psychologist if that's what we feel is needed at the time. I want the athlete to know me personally and be able to, in eight years time, have a swimmer trained in my programme be on the Olympic podium.</p>
