KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Aquatics (MAS) has hired Danish coach Magnus Hojby Andersen.
Andersen, who has over 15 years of experience in developing swimmers, worked with Danish Olympian Alexander Aslak Nørgaard for Tokyo 2020, and helped Rasmus Nickelsen win the 100m butterfly gold at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival.
MAS vice-president Marilyn Chua said Andersen has a good track record in producing elite swimmers and uses sports science to aid swimmers' development.
"Andersen is a big believer in sports science, and he's been working very closely with Dr Jan Olbrecht, who is one of the top sports scientists in the world."
Olbrecht is renowned for his groundbreaking work in swimming training methodologies, particularly in lactate testing. He has worked with Olympic and world champions like Inge de Bruijn, Pieter van den Hoogenband, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Kyle Chalmers, Duncan Scott, and Florent Manaudou.
Marilyn added that with the hiring of technical director Megan Oesting earlier this year, MAS had introduced a data and sports science-driven approach to coaching.
"Now that Andersen is with us, he can help us spearhead this very sports science-driven coaching that we are focusing on," she added.
"Using data and sports science, we can customise the training programmes for each swimmer, which is necessary at the highest level."
Marilyn revealed that Andersen was supposed to start work in July, but visa issues delayed his arrival.
"We almost lost him because his visa took forever, but he has been patient and willing to wait.
"He will officially start work on Jan 2 but was already with the team at the short course world championships earlier this month. He got to know everyone and how everything works," she added.