See SwimmingWorld (in English) and svoem.dk (in Danish)
Danish superstar Rikke Moller Pedersen has signed a one-year deal to move her training base to the Herning Swim Club this year ahead of Denmark hosting the European Short Course Championships in Herning later this year. [… ]
“Rikke is a great acquisition for the Herning team,” Danish National Head Coach Nick Juba said. “After breaking the world 200m breaststroke record at the World Championships in Barcelona, she went on to lower European short course standards in the World Cups that followed. With the European short course Championships being staged at Herning in December, the timing could not have been better for the club and the city.”
(Herning chairman John Axel Hansen, Rikke Møller Pedersen and Herning head coach Jens Bertelsen)
Quotes off the svoem.dk story, translated by me (as best I can, now in a hurry):
Chairman of the Herning Swim Club board John Axel Hansen says, “The Herning Swim Club board is unanimous behind this decision, and it has been important to our club that the project surrounding Rikke is fully funded by sponsorship contracts, separately negotiated for this particular project.â€
Head coach of Herning Swim Club Jens Bertelsen says, ‘I look forward to Rikke becoming a part of Herning Swim Club and Swim Team Mid-Jutland. I believe that our swimmers can learn a lot from Rikke’s positive and serious approach to daily training and competition. Rikke sets a high standard in her approach to both training and competition, which will be an example for everyone in the club. I am sure that Rikke will be a fantastic ambassador for the sport of swimming in Herning, which will inspire many of our young swimmers to become even better.’
Rikke Møller Pedersen herself says, ‘I look very much forward to start in Herning Swim Club. It is a good and positive club with a great team and club environment. They have many plans which hopefully will lead to a lot of progress and development, and I would like to be a part of that. It is a huge help that Herning Swim Club can also contribute to my life as a swimmer in the world elite to be a little easier. I look forward to the European Championships in Herning and can now say that I am going to compete in a sort of ultimate home ground, and that is great.’
