Unable to suppress a nostalgic feeling and looking back at the years he spent in the service of sport, Michael Gialanze spoke to me about his connections with Maltese swimming after he returned to Malta from Saudi Arabia in the late 1980s.

He had been chairman of the ASA Swimming Board from 1989 to 1994 and then from 1998 until late last year when Mark Galea succeeded him.

My acquaintance with Michael stretches back to our teenage days in the mid-50s when I used to follow track and field events at Marsa. The lad was a good sprinter but he excelled in the one-lap race.

In fact, in 1958 he represented Malta in the 400m event at the European Championships in Stockholm.

Those bubbling, youthful days during which we also shared a common love for swimming, were followed by academic studies which later had Michael qualifying as a medical doctor. The profession landed him a job in the Middle East, and that is where a renewed enthusiasm for swimming sparked off.

He became fully immersed in the US-inspired school of swimming activities in which his son, Christian, became totally involved as a very young competitor in the US.

The boy's eventual participation in the Mini Olympics in 1984 and his spate of Maltese national records activated more interest from Michael in this sport.

"Thanks to the initiative of the ASA in the late 80s, then headed by Dr Gino Camilleri, I was asked to lay the foundations of swimming, including competitions and organisation, together with Alfred Cachia and Ernest Balzan. Assistance from the association was kept up and strengthened when Robert Ebejer came on the scene as the top man of aquatic sports," Gialanze said.

First steps

I reminded him of the first group of young swimmers, with the 'water babe' Gail Rizzo, now one of our foremost coaches, leading the way.

"Yes," he replied, "in those days we had some budding swimmers, with boys coming also from the waterpolo ranks. We set the ball rolling and engaged a Canadian coach, Albert Burgund, and in no time we planned to streamline the sport on a rational basis.

"We started participating in swim meets abroad," he continued.

"Meanwhile, the National Pool at Tal-Qroqq, eventually completed in 1993, boosted our vigour to keep promoting this sport. A good number of medals won at the Games of the Small States of Europe held in Malta during that year, the engagement of more foreign coaches, the swimming schools run by our coaches and more overseas participation, as well as local swim meets, continued to boost the sport."

I also reminded him that the emergence of Angela Galea, whose medal successes made her the Maltese 'queen' of swimming, and the initiatives to put Malta on a bigger international swimming platform were other pluses.

"The World Paralympic Championships and the European Junior Championships in this sport, both held in Malta in the mid-1990s, were the other high points which finally put our small country on the world swimming map," Gialanze replied when asked what were Malta's organisational milestones.

Even before the man became chairman of the Swimming Board, he had envisioned a new way of doing things in swimming in our country. Before, the sport had no reference point which could help us make inroads as to how it can be initiated on proper organisational and technical lines.

"We had to start from scratch," Michael said.

"But we were hellbent on reaching our targets of giving the sport a sound footing. We encouraged the swimming nurseries and our developing talent and at the same time we always opened our doors for any athlete of Maltese stock to represent our country.

"What we did in these past years will serve as a foundation for others to build on. I am sure the people now at the helm, will take note of this. There is always room for improvement.

"More central funding, and that from sponsorships, a bigger base of swimmers from untapped areas, such as the schools population, building of more facilities, including shallow indoor pools, and more technical knowhow from a bigger circle of coaches should be the way ahead for this sport."

Now honorary president of the ASA, Gialanze looks back with satisfaction on the contribution he and his team gave to the sport and trusts that the legacy bequeathed will be built on and enriched.