Olympian Kareena Lee was given a hero’s welcome when she returned to her training base, the Noosa Aquatic Centre (NAC), last week after winning a bronze medal in the 10km women’s marathon swim at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Kareena signed autographs for the many students who had come to see her before NAC hosted a celebration ceremony for her and fellow Tokyo Olympian William Thorley who trains at NAC and represented Hong Kong in the men’s 10km marathon swim.
NAC also dedicated a lane to Kareena to honour her achievements and unveiled a plaque to honour previous NAC swimmers who have competed in the past three Olympics.
Kareena and William were joined by fellow marathon swimmers Finella Gibbs-Beal, Nick Sloman and Kilian Carrel who are all vying for a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics under the guidance of eminent coach John JR Rodgers.
For 53 years, the quietly spoken, straight-talking JR (as he’s always been known) has trained swimmers fulfilling a dream many times over to be an Olympic coach.
Growing up in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra where his family had the pool for 18 years, his life was destined in involve swimming. While his brother Barry was a champion iron man, JR chose the pool and became an Australian champion. He took over the lease of the Maroubra pool and head coach position in 1969.
His students have included Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes such as Max Metzker, Graeme Brewer, Ron McKeon (father of Olympian Emma McKeon) and Moscow Olympic Gold medallist, Michelle Ford.
He has been Olympic and Commonwealth Games’ team coach for Australia and Olympic Games’ team coach for Canada. After an impressive career in Australia, JR was offered a job as a high performance coach in Canada and took that country to the London Olympics.
On his return, he and wife Jenny came to Noosa with an aim to retire from coaching, then the position came up at NAC.
“Jenny said, go on put down for it. That was 10 years ago,“ he said.
There’s something about an Olympic athlete that JR can spot from an early age. It’s their stroke, their technique, their mindset.
“It’s a gift,“ he said. JR’s skill lies in his ability to guide and motivate them to reach the highest level.
“They’re all individuals. I give them a plan but I still don’t do everything exactly the same.“
JR said Kareena was lucky to be naturally tall and fast in the pool and a lot of her training prior to the games focused on accelerating that speed. Before her Olympic race, JR said she was swimming faster than she’d ever swum.
“I said you’ll be on the podium. I don’t know where.“
JR wasn’t able to attend the Tokyo Olympics due to Covid but has experienced many as a coach, all “exciting“.
Berlin was an experience that enabled him to see a grim East Germany before the wall came down and one of the world’s greatest swimmers Kornelia Ender, who was the first woman to win four gold medals at a single Olympics.
“Montreal was hard because it was straight after the Munich massacre,“ he said, “People were walking around with guns.“
“LA was awesome, just a good Olympics. I had three swimmers in the team. Moscow was good. We came away with five medals,“ he said.
“It’s my life. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s been a full life, an amazing life. I don’t want it to stop now.“
JR’s day revolves around the pool. He rises early at 4am and is at the NAC at 5am for training until 7.30am. His Olympic swimmers attend school or university and other training sessions in the gym, returning for their afternoon training sessions at NAC.
JR feels fortunate to have a wife he has “walked hand in hand“ with through life who also share a love of swimming. Each day JR swims three kilometres at NAC, “in the middle of the day when it’s nice and warm“, Jenny prefers the ocean.
The 2024 Paris Olympics is firmly in the sights of JR and his elite NAC team he is certain are all on the road to Paris.
