Hamblins Named Swiss National Curling Coaches

Manitobans Chris and Lorne Hamblin of Morris have been named Swiss Curling Association National Co-Coaches. The Hamblins were in Switzerland in early June to compete negotiations on an agreement which will see them spend the winter of the 2009-2010 curling season based in Berne, Switzerland but working with the Swiss National teams at bonspiels and championship events leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and beyond to the World Championships in Swift Current, SK (Women) and Cortina, Italy (Men).

The Swiss Curling Association was originally looking for a single national coach when they posted the Job Opportunity in the fall of 2009. The Hamblins, who had seen the posting on www.thecurler.com, presented the opportunity of a partnership of two fully qualified Level 4 Curling Coaching coaches both recognized as having played a key role in the success of their son David's 2002 World Junior Championship team.

In the current era of Olympic-focus for curling, results are key to funding by national sport and Olympic bodies. Lorne Hamblin says the challenge facing the new Swiss National Coaches is quite simple. "We have to build a program which can produce medals at the world level," says Hamblin. Initially, the arrangement is for the 2009-2010 curling season with the possibility of extension into the future based on evaluation of the first season.

Excited by the prospect of participating in the sport at the highest level, the Manitobans will be the Swiss coaches at the Vancouver Olympic Games. As the Swiss Curling Association has made the decision that their Olympic teams will not represent their country at the subsequent world championships, they will coach two entirely different teams at the Worlds.

Since 2000, Switzerland has won only two Men's World curling medals - silver in 2001 in Lausanne (Christof Schwaller) and silver in 2003 in Winnipeg (Ralph Stockli).Since then the closest they have come to the podium is 4th place finishes by Stockli in 2007 and 2009. The Swiss Women's record is slightly better with three medals in the same ten years. Mirjam Ott won silver in Vernon in 2008 while Luzia Ebnother won bronze in 2004 in Gavle and also in 2000 in Glasgow.

At the Olympics, Ott took the Silver medal in 2006 while Ebnother was the 2002 Silver medallist. On the Men's side, Andreas Schwaller was Bronze medallist in 2002 while Patrick Hurlimann won the Gold Medal in Nagano in 19998.

In the same time period, the Swiss Junior Men have won two Silver and two Bronze medal while their Junior Women have earned one Gold and two Bronze medals.

Link here to hear an interview with Lorne Hamblin discussing the challenges and opportunities of moving into international coaching.

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The news bulletin from the Swiss Curling Association website (http://www.curling.ch/de.aspx) follows. It is also available in German at the SCA website........

Lorne et Chris Hamblin, ce sont les noms des nouveaux entraîneurs nationaux de SWISSCURLING qui, durant la saison prochaine, travailleront avec les équipes de l’élite de Suisse et prépareront tout particulièrement aussi, et de manière optimale, les deux équipes olympiques pour la grande manifestation de février 2010 à Vancouver. Ainsi, l’association élargit encore davantage sa structure professionnelle.
       
Lorne et Chris Hamblin viennent du Canada, près de Winnipeg. Aussi bien Lorne (ing. agr.) que son épouse Chris (institutrice diplômée) sont tous deux en possession du diplôme de la plus haute formation (National Coaching Institute, Level 4) qui leur atteste la possibilité d’être les coaches d’équipes olympiques du curling canadien. Ils ont une expérience d’une dizaine d’années dans les différents domaines de la formation et ils ont vécu de nombreux points forts. Ils ont été, entre autre, les coaches de l’équipe des juniors qui a obtenu le titre mondial au championnat du monde 2002.
       
Parmi de nombreuses candidatures reçues et après des douzaines d’entretiens, SWISSCURLING a pris sa décision en faveur du couple parce que, par leur attitude, leurs présentations et leurs idées mais aussi à cause des preuves de leurs performances à tous les points de vue, ils ont réussi à persuader. Lorne et Chris entrent en fonction début septembre prochain.