Asked the obvious question Linda Kiefer chose her words carefully.
Why aren’t there more woman swim coaches?
The answer is twofold, said Kiefer, the only woman on Swimming Canada’s coaching staff at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
For some women it’s a choice between career and family. It’s not easy to coach and raise children.
“It’s hard for us,” she said. “I’m single. Definitely it would be easier for females that are single because you’re not leaving your family at home. Just the way a lot of families work, the woman tends to be more of the child caregiver. I was able to uproot and go places.”
For an example of the challenges women face, Kiefer pointed to the announcement late last month that Olympic organizers finally agreed to allow athletes who are nursing mothers to bring their infants to the Games.
“It’s really hard for a mom,” she said.
Then there’s the other reason, the one Kiefer doesn’t want “to get deeply into.”
“It’s an old boys’ network,” she said. “It’s really hard to crack into that. Some men are way more accepting than others. Others they just still have closed doors.”
Kiefer has spent close to 40 years coaching, the last 31 as the assistant head coach at the University of Toronto. Along with Byron MacDonald she coached backstroker Kylie Masse to an Olympic bronze medal, two world championships and a world record.
When COVID-19 forced the U of T pool to close for several months Masse made the decision to train at the High Performance Centre - Ontario.
The 60-year-old Kiefer said a woman can bring a different perspective to coaching.
“I think it’s just maybe a way of listening,” she said. “Just a different way of looking at things.
“I’ve alluded to it may times, the book Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus and it’s true. I just bring a different way. I’m a pretty good listener. The swimmers and some of the staff will come to me and I can listen and talk. I like that part of it. Sometimes men don’t like the emotional part and don’t want to deal with that.”
Kiefer feels comfortable coaching both men and woman.
“Sometimes woman swimmers will try to manipulate the men coaches,” she said. “They look at me because they know I’m going to call them out on it. You’re not going to get away with that with me.”
Kiefer brings a no-nonsense attitude to the pool deck. Athletes know in her partnership with MacDonald he’s the softer touch.
“I’m the disciplinarian and I’m the one that says no,” she said. “I was raised by strict parents. I like following rules. Bryon doesn’t.”
While establishing rules is important for Kiefer, she also wants her swimmers to be relaxed and have fun. An athlete won’t feel relaxed if their coach is stressed out and worried.
“You want to keep a happy face and you want to keep them relaxed and enjoying it,” Kiefer said. “I try to keep them calm. I try to keep them happy.”
When Masse walks out on the deck at a competition smiling and waving, Kiefer knows she’s prepared to race.
“I want a smile on her face,” said Kiefer. “I know what’s going to happen just by the grin.”
Besides coaching, Kiefer’s other passion is teaching.
“I’ve always loved to teach,” said Kiefer, who graduated from university with a teaching degree. “I taught swimming lessons since the time I was 13. I knew I was either going to teach full time or coach.
Kiefer sees a parallel between the two careers.
“Coaching and teaching to me are very similar,” she said. “Coaching is just another extension (of teaching) just slightly different.”
Kiefer was a backstroke swimmer at university. When her swimming career ended she got her foot in the coaching door by working with MacDonald.
“He was going out of town and would call me to watch the swimmers,” she said. “We started a coaching kind of relationship. I’d step in when he was out of town.
“When the university wanted to hire a coach, they really wanted to it to be female. Like today, there are not a lot of female coaches around and back then even fewer. I interviewed for the job and I got it.”
Tokyo will be Kiefer’s fifth Olympics. She was part of the Swimming Canada staff in Rio four years ago. At the 2012 London Games she coached for Swaziland and also worked with Canadian open water swimmer Zsofia Balazs. She also attended an Olympics as a personal coach not on the Canadian staff.
What Kiefer finds exciting about the Olympics is seeing athletes from other sports. She remembers watching tennis star Novak Djokovic warning up outside the athletes’ village in Rio.
“As a kid you grew up watching the Olympics,” she said. “The fact I’ve got to coach at the Olympics is amazing. It’s the ultimate sporting event.
“It’s just watching amazing swimming and talking to people and talking to coaches. You learn so much by watching.”
Part of the fulfilment Kiefer derives from coaching is witnessing swimmers progress both in and out of the water.
“I see the whole picture and watch them develop into amazing young men and young women,” she said.