Yuriy Vdovychenko: Head Coach
Yuriy’s coaching philosophy: Get skills right first, then get speed, then get fit and have fun swimming fast at
the competitions!
Yuriy’ has worked with swimmers at all levels and most recently coaching elite para swimmers representing Australia at international competitions including the Tokyo Paralympics. Yuriy is a very experienced coach with extensive knowledge in swim coaching and managing both able bodied and Paralympic swimmers at the club, national and international level. He also has experience working with Masters and Triathletes at a club, national and international level. Yuriy is an Advanced (previously Silver) License Coach and has been accredited by Swimming Australia since 2003.
For the 8 years before joining Woden Swim Club at the end of 2021, Yuriy has been working for Swimming Australia’s National Training Centre (NTC) at the AIS as Head Coach of the Paralympic Program. In 2014 he was awarded with Swimming Australia and ASCTA Paralympic Program Coach of the Year. In 2018 he was awarded Commonwealth Games Paralympic Coach of the Meet.
Yuriy started his career in the Ukraine where he was awarded with Honours ‘Coach of the Ukraine’ in 1998 and ‘Honoured Worker’ of Physical Education and Sports, by the President of the Ukraine in 2000. This is equivalent to the Order of Australia, for outstanding achievement and service to sport.
Yuriy has a Master’s Degree in Coaching and Sports Administration with distinction, and prior to arriving in Australia he held the position of Senior Coach of the Dnipropetrovsk State Institute of Sport for 13 years and for 11 years he was the Head Coach of the Ukrainian Paralympic Swim team. His athletes won numerous medals at the National and International competitions.
Yuriy was born in the Ukraine and since his childhood he was and continues to be a keen swimmer. From the age of seven, he was a member of his local swimming club. Then by the age of thirteen, he was training seriously and was competing on the national level, and won two gold medals for 400 and 1500 Free at the Age National Championships. Following this, Yuriy was selected for the Soviet Union Youth National Swimming Team. Then at the age of fourteen, he won bronze for the 1500 Free at the European Youth Championships. When he was seventeen Yuriy was the Ukrainian Champion, and won a silver medal for 50 Fly and bronze for the 4×100 Medley at the Soviet Union Swimming Cup. Yuriy liked all strokes, because one of his favourite races was the 200 IM.
Chelsea Flinn: Assistant Coach
Chelsea is an enthusiastic swim coach who has successfully coached NSW State, Country and Master’s swimmers and has bronze level accreditation.
Chelsea has swum at the Junior and Master’s level in both the United States, and since moving to Australia. She commenced her coaching career at McKeon’s Swim School and Wests Illawarra Aquatic Swim Club before moving to Canberra and has coached squads across all levels.
While Chelsea loved backstroke as a young swimmer, she has grown to enjoy distance freestyle, and swam a total of 10.5 hours in a single day at the Wollongong MS Mega Swim. She also enjoys Fly and IM.
Chelsea loves to help others achieve their goals and spread a passion for swimming. She believes that swimming is more than a sport and coaching is about more than training a swimmer. She is an enthusiastic coach with a life-long passion for health, fitness and learning. She loves to help her swimmers achieve their goals by working together and places great importance on the value of a supportive team atmosphere.
Jasmine Delaney: Assistant Coach
Hi everyone! I’m Jasmine, the newest member of the Woden Valley Swim Club. I will be assisting Chelsea with development squad and will be co-coaching bronze squad with Nick. I raced my first club night in Sydney way back in 2012 and have loved competitive swimming ever since. I competed and raced multiple times a year across all strokes until 2017.
I competed in the 2016 Australian Open Water Championships in the girls 15 year olds 5k category. In February 2022 I started working as a swimming instructor for the learn to swim branch of Stromlo Leisure Centre which then lead me to WVSC. I have always loved the water and my only regret moving to Canberra has been its lack of beaches. When I’m not at the pool I can be found studying Anthropology and Arabic at the Australian National University.
Nick Odgers: Assistant Coach
Hey team, although you all know me by now- my name is Nick and I’ll be continuing to coach development and bronze on Mondays and Wednesdays!
I am currently still swimming competitively myself, and have been our Club Captain since 2020. I’ve raced in many high level competitions with swimmers from around the world, including Pacific School Games and British Schools in Asia Championships where I won two medals.
Amongst my own training and working with both WVSC & the Y’s learn to swim program, I can be found studying full-time at ANU or keeping up to date with the world of elite sport (especially AFL and tennis)!
Contact the coaching staff
If you wish to contact any of our coaches or organise an assessment for your swimmer, please contact us via the coaches contact form.