Just over two decades ago, Paul Kutscher was at the peak of his swimming career. He started transitioning to coaching while still swimming competitively. Now, Paul trains and mentors young swimmers hoping to make it to the top.
Paul Kutscher, head coach of the SchwimmClub Uster, a swimming club for high-performance athletes in Switzerland, recently visited Stellenbosch as part of the club’s summer training programme. PHOTO: Kwanda Mkhonto
It’s a Monday afternoon. The swimming pool at Coetzenburg, Stellenbosch is packed with swimmers. They are all high-performing athletes. Some are Olympians. They are left with four days of training in Stellenbosch, South Africa, before they go back to Switzerland.
The athletes are splashing through the water using various swimming forms — some front crawling, backstroking, and breaststroking — from one end to the other on a 50 metre Olympic-sized swimming pool.
At the side of the pool is Paul Kutscher. He is wearing white sneakers, black shorts, and a white T-shirt branded with an uppercase Switzerland text on the back. He has his sunglasses on and a timer in his hand as he is roaming around the pool observing the form of his athletes closely.
Paul, originally from Uruguay, is currently the head coach of the SchwimmClub Uster (SCU), a Swiss swimming club. According to the SCU’s website, to date, the club has had over 60 swimmers who have represented the country and the club in various world and European championships, including at the Olympics.
Paul started coaching back in 2003, when he was still an athlete and a university student in Germany, he says.
Now, his daily routine is tied to his job. As a coach for high-performing athletes, he is always working, he says. The programme is intense, only leaving the team with one day of rest a week, Sunday.
Swimming coach Paul Kutscher writing a morning swim programme for the SchwimmClub Uster athletes, on their last day in Stellenbosch, South Africa. PHOTO: Kwanda Mkhonto
The days consist of swimming sessions and body workouts.
“Every day I have […] water training […] from 07:00 to 09:00 in the morning and from 17:00 to 19:00 in the afternoon,” says Paul. When not swimming, the team is doing weight-lifting and stretching.
In his free time, Paul has to plan the programmes, the competitions, and do the necessary administration work.
“If I would not be a coach, I would work in the garden,” says Paul, who has a small garden back home. He spends every free minute he has on his plants.
The making of a two-time Olympian
In the early 2000s, Paul competed in the Olympics for Uruguay. Getting to the Olympics was not easy, because he was also a student, he says. He needed to focus on his studies, and had to work a little bit to get money. On top of that, he had to go through gruelling swimming training.
Yet, at the age of 23, he qualified and competed in the men’s 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He also competed in the men’s 100-metre at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Both the Sydney and Athens Olympics were special moments for Paul.
“I liked the 2000 Olympics in Sydney more,” he says. “It was very special.” The Australians were crazy about sport, he recalls. This added to the energy at the Games.
Swimmer and swimming coach Paul Kutscher commemorated his Olympic career by getting a tattoo of the iconic Olympic rings on his left leg. PHOTO: Kwanda Mkhonto
The 2004 Athens Olympics were also important to Paul.
“Athens was very special for me, because my brother was also in the Olympics,” he says. His brother Martin Kutscher, eight years younger than him, swam for both the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Swimming professionally is not easy, says Paul. And it is getting more difficult to qualify for the Olympics. It was easier 20 and 25 years ago, he says. Now athletes need a lot of support to supplement talent if they want to make it to the top.
Therefore, those who are interested in pursuing a swimming career need to enjoy the process, otherwise it is going to get hard, he says.
“It’s a couple of years in your life. You are not going to swim forever,” says Paul.
Education is important, he says, as it helps in pivoting the athlete’s career after swimming.
“Sooner or later, when you finish your swimming career, you are going to have to work.”
A first encounter with swimming
Paul is from Uruguay, but was born in Germany in 1977, and maintains a strong link with Germany. While his father had his ancestral roots in Germany, his family moved from Germany to Uruguay in the 1920s. His mother’s family moved to Uruguay from Italy in the 1930s. His parents got married in Uruguay, and then relocated to Germany, where Paul was born.
Three months after he was born, the family relocated back to Uruguay, where Paul grew up. The most popular sport in Uruguay was soccer, so as a kid growing up, he played football, says Paul.
However, at the age of nine, he started getting cramps in his calves, so he visited the doctor. The doctor told him he needed more stretching and recommended swimming.
Swimming coach Paul Kutscher walking around the Stellenbosch University’s Olympic-sized swimming pool in Coetzenburg, Stellenbosch, to monitor the activity of his athletes. PHOTO: Kwanda Mkhonto
At his home they did not have money for the swimming club, but his grandfather helped, says Paul.
“I will pay for you — the club fee — and you go and swim,” Paul’s grandfather said. Compared with other competitive swimmers, Paul’s career started relatively late, at the age of nine.
“You start with the swimming school when you are five years old,” he says.
Through the eyes of the athletes
Paul is currently a full-time coach for the SCU. His team is made of diverse high-performance swimmers. Current Olympians in the team include Vanna Djakovic, Gian-Luca Gartmann, and Marius Toscan.
Vanna has been with the club since 2016, and joined Paul’s training group in 2021. Paul had been very helpful in her swimming career, she says.
“He helped me a lot. We made big progress together,” says Vanna. “We still have a long way ahead of us, like world championships, or the Olympics.”
Paul talks to her not only about issues relating to water and swimming, but also about her mental state and how she feels, says Vanna.
SchwimmClub Uster, a swimming club for high-performing athletes from Switzerland, doing a morning training session on their last day in Stellenbosch, South Africa, before they departed back to their home country. PHOTO: Kwanda Mkhonto
Nathalie Vogt, who is half South African and half Swiss, recently joined the SCU under Paul’s guidance.
“If you have a problem you can always talk to him,” says Nathalie, who describes Paul as sociable and friendly. “He’s quite outgoing and he likes to talk a lot.”
Finding an outside pool in the European winter
In Switzerland, Paul’s team mostly trains in indoor pools, because of the cold weather. During the European winter, he takes his athletes to a summer region, where they can do outside training.
“When it’s winter, I am searching for a pool outside where we can train, with a good facility, and with a good gym,” he says.
The team spent a few weeks training at Stellenbosch University’s 50-metre long Olympic-sized swimming pool earlier this year. This was the third year that the club trained in Stellenbosch, says Paul.