Gary Vandermeulen (born June 19, 1965) is a former competition

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who represented Canada at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

in Seoul, South Korea. There he finished in 26th position in the 400-metre freestyle, and in eighth place with the Canadian men's 4x200-metre freestyle relay team. Vandermeulen began his coaching career in 1995 with the Hanna Seals summer swim club in rural Alberta. He was a coach with the University of Calgary swim club from September 1995 to January 1998 and the head coach of the Duncan Stingrays swim team from 1998 to 2003. The most successful swimmer of his coaching career has been international swimmer

Alison Sheppard Alison Sheppard, (born 5 November 1972) is a freestyle swimmer from Scotland. Swimming career She competed in five consecutive Summer Olympics for Great Britain, starting in 1988. She is a seven times winner of the British Championship i ...

. Her 50-metre freestyle time of 0:24.68 at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 ranked her No. 1 in the world in that event. Vandermeulen was the high performance swimming coach for the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport (TFIS) based at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee; . Abbreviated as ''Dund.'' for post-nominals. is a public university, public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a University college#United Kingdom, university college in 1881 with a donation ...

in Scotland from 2003 to 2006. During his tenure at TFIS, three swimmers from Tayside and Fife qualified for the European Junior Swimming championships. These swimmers were Ross Clark of Dundee, Andrew Rodgie of Dunfirmline, and Daniel Scott from Glenrothes. Vandermeulen was named as the performance manager of the swimming programme at the West of Scotland Institute of Sport from 2006 to 2007. Vandermeulen and Sheppard, who became his wife, began the Sheppard Swim School in January 2008.

References

1965 births Living people World record setters in swimming Olympic swimmers for Canada People from Dawson Creek Swimmers from British Columbia Swimmers at the 1987 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics Canadian male freestyle swimmers Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada Pan American Games medalists in swimming Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Swimmers at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games Medallists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games {{Canada-swimming-bio-stub

See also

References