At past Paralympics Ryan Jones would have to wait anxiously at home to learn his swimmers’ results.
This year Jones will have a front row seat on the pool deck as a member of Swimming Canada’s coaching staff at the Paris Paralympics.
“This time I get to go with my swimmers,” said Jones, head coach of the Saskatoon Lasers Swim Club. “It’s different not to be there in the heat of it is. It’s going to be nice to be there.”
Paris will be Jones’s first Paralympics but he was part of the coaching staff at last year’s Manchester Para Swimming World Championships where Canadian athletes won 19 medals, including nine gold.
Three members of the Lasers are among the 22 swimmers heading to Paris. Shelby Newkirk and Nikita Ens both competed at the Tokyo 2020 Paras, while Hannah Ouellette is a rookie.
“We identified some things to really focus on going into Paris,” said Jones. “We’ve seen some success at worlds. I’m really excited to go with them.”
Jones didn’t follow a traditional path to being a coach. He didn’t swim competitively and got involved in the sport in 2011 when he volunteered with Toronto’s Variety Village Flames Swim Team to be a tapper for visually impaired athletes.
He went from volunteering three times a week to becoming a lifeguard then a swim instructor and eventually was hired as an assistant coach. Jones also coached the Ontario Para Swim Academy and completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology.
“I kind of just fell into it through volunteering,” Jones said. “It kind of grew, the excitement around having to be so adaptable to all the athletes, both Olympic and Paralympic stream.”
The support shown by Raphael Polinario, the former Variety Village head coach who lost his battled with cancer in 2017, played a large role in Jones pursing a coaching career.
“He said he would rather hire something that wants to do it,” said Jones. “Just working with (him) at that time helped me really get into it.”
Another mentor is Janet Dunn, Swimming Canada’s Para Swimming Performance Pathway Coach and National Classification Lead.
“Since the first day she came on the pool deck, I listened to Janet, followed Janet,” he said. “She helped me get athletes to the level they have.
“My advice to a lot of people is just listen to Janet. She’s a wealth of knowledge.”
While attending a swim camp operated by Dunn in 2019, Jones meet his future wife Akeela, an elementary school teacher in Saskatoon and an assistant coach with the Lasers. Jones moved to Saskatoon in 2020 and was hired by the Lasers.
Jones also points out Vince Mikuska, who spent several years as Swimming’s Canada’s Paralympic program national senior coach, also did not have a competitive swimming background.
“When I became the head coach of the team in Toronto, I didn’t know it would equate to into this becoming a career,” he said. “When Vince got his new role at Swimming Canada it was nice to know there’s someone else that wasn’t a competitive swimmer.”
Jones’s athletes sometimes tease him about not being a swimmer.
“They like to tell me I can’t swim,” he said.
Having not competed, Jones doesn’t bring any preconceived attitudes about training or racing.
“For me, it’s being opened minded and trying to learn as much as I can every day, grow and be adaptable,” he said.
For Jones, the best way to get the most out of his swimmers is to keep training fun.
“I think we have found a lot of the success we’ve had because we have fun with what we do,” he said. “We have fun, and we work hard.
“Seeing them have fun, and their happiness, whether just going on a team trip together or winning a medal, that’s the most rewarding.”
Accepting the differences in each swimmer is also important.
“You have to navigate some more hurdles,” he said. “Coaching should never be stagnant. It should evolve constantly. That’s the open-mindedness and adaptability.
“For me, no two swimmers are alike. That’s how our program runs.”