By Times’ Junior Journalist, Pia Grover
Horst Miehe, owner of Howick Swimgym, has been part of the Swimgym coaching team for almost 28 years and was a part of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Many of you will be familiar with Swimgym, which has multiple branches around Auckland.
Today, I will take you behind the scenes.
Why did you start this business?
I wasn’t the one who started Howick Swimgym. Jackie Clarke did. She was a swim coach for Pakuranga.
She decided that the best way to help a swim club survive is to have some money coming in and the money comes from learning to swim.
Learn-to-swim is a financial driver. It means the club is well supported and you are able to swim well.
That was made even more important when Lloyd Elsmore Pool was built. Designed in the initial stages the supplementary facility for the coming of [Commonwealth] Games in 1990 and Jackie and the swimming club at that stage decided to tender for the rights of learn-to-swim ever since 1987.
How did you get into coaching swimming?
So, I wasn’t a particularly good swimmer, but I had a lot of opinions about how I should’ve been coached.
I also did a degree that didn’t really relate to any job that I wanted, so in a fit of panic at the end of my university career I decided that I would become a swim coach.
I worked in Matamata for a little while and learned how to swim and coaching at the same time.
Then I was recruited at Howick Swimgym.
When you started, how many staff members were working here at the time?
When I started at Lloyd Elsmore, there were 11 staff and 70 squad swimmers, about 450 people in the club and around 400 learn-to-swim lessons in a week.
Now, there are around 130 staff we operate, and we deliver up to 15,000 lessons a week. 2011 was massive because we built this facility and started in 2012.
What ages can your students start swimming at Lloyd Elsmore?
At Howick Swimgym, you can jump into lessons at three months of age because we have total control over the environment, and we feel that it’s safe providing children at their first vaccination.
Everywhere else is six months old and the oldest that I’ve personally coached was 89 years old.
We do everything from learning to swim to the Olympics Games.
Where do you get your products from?
We have got a relationship with two suppliers. Those suppliers are Zoggs, who do a lot of learn-to-swim products, and then Engine Swim which is a performance brand.
They do lots of performance goggles and performance swimsuits. They also make the club’s uniform.
We would love to hear about your experience in Paris, Olympics 2024.
Horst Miehe enjoyed the experience very much and has been to four different Olympics.
Hopefully he gets to go again to the 2028 Olympics.
Horst has been passionate in swimming since he was five years old, and the passion still remains several years later!
How were the Olympics?
Going to the Olympics was such an honour as I got to meet all sorts of swimmers, all as passionate as I am.
I enjoy looking at the crowds full of excitement, the way the audience cheers and shouts as the swimmer begins. This is truly music to my ears.
What did you enjoy at the Olympics?
I enjoyed meeting other athletes with the same passion as me, the experience and the people made it all a memorable event, certainly an event I will remember 20 years later.
What didn’t you enjoy?
I thought that the hospitality was a highlight, but the food (apartments) and sleeping arrangements were not up to the standard.
Pia: If you or your children aspire to swim at Olympics, you know where to get the right support now.
- Pia Grover is in year 7
