Pierre Lafontaine will lead a team of seven coaches at the helm of the Canadian team at the Beijing Olympic Games. Head Coach is Tom Johnson, with breaststroke guru Jozsef Nagy (Vancouver) and Jan Bidrman (Calgary), former mentor to Penny Heyns (RSA), alonsgide Randy Bennett (Victoria), Paul Midgley (London), Benoit Lebrun (Montreal) and Claude St-Jean (Montreal) as team coaches.

'We are truly grateful to have such an extensive group of talented coaches to support our Olympic team as we head to Beijing,' said Pierre Lafontaine, CEO and National Coach for Swimming Canada, via a federation release. 'These coaches have demonstrated great dedication to the sport of swimming in Canada and the performances of their athletes have earned them a spot on this amazing team.'

The Canadian squad will test themselves in morning finals format at a grand prix event on May 22-25, which will be followed by a five-day team training camp, before a ceremonial dinner headlined 'A night of Dreams' is hosted on May 28 as part of bonding and spirit-lifting efforts, and perhaps a little fund-raising too if the bean-counters are on alert.