Swimming: Snyders chases place in NZ's Olympic team

Glenn Snyders plans to settle in America. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand swimmer Glenn Snyders will take part in the national swimming championships in Henderson next week, a location far removed from Los Angeles, where he is now based.

Snyders has had a glittering career for New Zealand, competing in the Beijing and London Olympics as well as picking up a silver medal in the 50m breaststroke at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

After the London Games Snyders felt he needed a change of scene and decided to shift to the United States to give himself the best chance possible of making it to, and succeeding in, the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"I didn't want to be stuck doing the same thing I'd been doing for the past 10 years," says the 28-year-old. "I was starting to get a bit stale.

"I needed more motivation and I needed breaststrokers to train with. That was a big thing.

"I was by myself at the Millennium Centre [in Auckland] as the only breaststroker and pretty much the only sprinter."

Snyders now trains under the tutelage of American swimming guru Dave Salo. "It's a very good programme and the coach is world renowned for his breaststroke and sprinting programme."

Outside of the pool, Snyders has taken to Californian life with aplomb, and is now engaged to an American woman.

"For me life is just starting in America. I plan to settle down [there] after I've retired from swimming.

"I really do enjoy it there. It's a different lifestyle. I think there's just a lot more opportunity, especially for athletes."

Snyders' main goal in this week's competition is to qualify for the New Zealand Olympic team, something he is confident of achieving.

"I've been under the qualifying time many times, so all I have to do is replicate that again and everything should be good.

"Then I can head back to LA and get myself back into training."

Snyders wants to continue swimming for a while yet, but has one eye on his post-competition life. He is studying extramurally for a degree in sport and exercise and has considered coaching options, but says it's too early yet to pick a retirement date.

"Right now I can't make that decision. Obviously Rio is the main focus.

"It's a hard decision because swimming is all I've really known, so letting it go will be a hard thing.

"I want to make Rio and hopefully do something special and achieve some of those goals that I haven't ticked off yet. But when I look back on my career I feel that [it's] been a pretty successful one."

Swimming

What:

New Zealand national swimming championships

When:

Tuesday, April 14 to Friday, April 17

Where:

Westwave Aquatic Centre, Auckland

For more information, visit:

https://swimming.org.nz/2015nzopenchampionship-event.html