Saskatoon’s Eric Kramer has been selected as a para swimming coach for the Tokyo 2020 team.
Swimming Canada, February 19, 2020
Photo Credit: Swim Saskatchewan
OTTAWA – The Canadian Paralympic team for Tokyo 2020 continued to take shape on Monday with the nomination of three award-winning coaches to the squad that will compete at the 16th Summer Paralympic Games from Aug. 25 to Sept. 6.
Eric Kramer, Marc-André Pelletier and Mike Thompson join a group of seven athletes who were nominated for the Canadian delegation last September following the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London.
Kramer, Pelletier and Thompson have all merited national coaching awards from Swimming Canada over the past two seasons.
“I’m very glad to have Mike, Eric and Marc-André declare their availability and interest in joining our team for the Tokyo Games. As home coaches of swimmers already achieving nomination for the team, I know they have the skills and experience to do the job,” said Wayne Lomas, Swimming Canada’s Associate Director of High Performance and Para Swimming National Coach. “Coaches play an incredibly important role in facilitating peak performance of swimmers and all three have demonstrated their ability to help swimmers, not just from their own training groups, to achieve their very best on the day that matters.
“In making these appointments now, I’m looking to provide our coaches and swimmers with certainty in their preparations. I’m confident in the abilities of Marc-André, Eric and Mike.”
Kramer, who earned back-to-back Swimming Canada Coach of the Year (Female Para-swimmer) recognitions in 2017 and 2018, will make his Paralympic Games debut in Tokyo.
At the helm of the Saskatoon Lasers Swim Club since 2015, he was part of the Canadian coaching staff at London 2019 where two of his athletes competed, including Shelby Newkirk, who captured silver in the women’s 100-m backstroke S7.
Earlier in his career, Kramer was the personal coach of Olympic bronze medallist Patricia Noall (Seoul 1988) and Olympian Martine Dessureault (Atlanta 1996). He was also an assistant coach for Canada at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.