Gary Vandermeulen (born June 19, 1965) is a former competition swimmer who represented Canada at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. There he finished in 26th position in the 400-metre freestyle, and in eighth place with the Canadian men's 4x200-metre freestyle relay team.

Vandermeulen began his coaching career in 1995 with the Hanna Seals summer swim club in rural Alberta. He was a coach with the University of Calgary swim club from September 1995 to January 1998 and the head coach of the Duncan Stingrays swim team from 1998 to 2003. The most successful swimmer of his coaching career has been international swimmer Alison Sheppard. Her 50-metre freestyle time of 0:24.68 at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 ranked her No. 1 in the world in that event.

Gary Vandermeulen

Vandermeulen was the high performance swimming coach for the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport (TFIS) based at the University of Dundee in Scotland from 2003 to 2006. During his tenure at TFIS, three swimmers from Tayside and Fife qualified for the European Junior Swimming championships. These swimmers were Ross Clark of Dundee, Andrew Rodgie of Dunfirmline, and Daniel Scott from Glenrothes. Vandermeulen was named as the performance manager of the swimming programme at the West of Scotland Institute of Sport from 2006 to 2007.

Gary Vandermeulen

Vandermeulen and Sheppard, who became his wife, began the Sheppard Swim School in January 2008.

Gary Vandermeulen

See also

List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (men)

References

1965 births

Living people

World record setters in swimming

Olympic swimmers for Canada

People from Dawson Creek

Sportspeople from British Columbia

Swimmers at the 1987 Pan American Games

Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Canadian male freestyle swimmers

Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming

Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada

Pan American Games medalists in swimming

Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada

Swimmers at the 1990 Commonwealth Games

Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games

Medallists at the 1990 Commonwealth Games