Ben Titley named head coach of Canada’s Olympic swim team for Rio

OTTAWA – Veteran coach Ben Titley will oversee Canada’s Olympic swim team in Rio.

Swimming Canada named the 39-year-old Englishman coach of the 27-swimmer squad Wednesday. It will be Titley’s fourth Olympic Games, but first with Canada.

He worked for British Swimming in 2004, 2008 and 2012 and arrived in Toronto in 2013 to run the swim program at the Canadian High-Performance Centre – Ontario.

Titley was Canada’s coach at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. The host country earned a total of 27 medals in the pool, which ranked second behind the United States at 32. Canada’s eight gold ranked third behind the Americans (12) and Brazil (10).

Twenty swimmers will make their Olympic debut in Rio. Victoria’s Ryan Cochrane is the team’s headliner as a medal contender in the men’s 400- and 1,500-metre freestyle.

“We’re shooting for medals and the best performances we can,” Titley said in a statement Wednesday.

Canada won three swimming medals in 2012, including Cochrane’s silver in the 1,500, Richard Weinberger’s open-water bronze and Brent Hayden’s bronze in the men’s 100-metre freestyle.

At the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, Titley directly coaches 15-year-old sensation Penny Oleksiak as well as double Pan Am gold medallist Chantal Van Landeghem.

Cochrane and 2012 Olympic breaststroke finalist Martha McCabe of Toronto were also named team captains Wednesday.

“I really just hope that each and every swimmer feels just as honoured and privileged to be on the Canadian Olympic swim team because many people would give up everything to have an opportunity like this,” McCabe said.

Cochrane, 27, will compete in a third Olympic Games. He also won bronze in the 1,500 in 2008.

“Hopefully my experience at the Games will allow me to help our newer athletes deal with the pressures an Olympics inevitably brings,” he said. “I have the utmost confidence in every member of our team and I know we will all do well come August.”