Writing in his President's message, Bertrand insisted the overhaul of the sport in the country following a turbulent 18 months since London 2012 will help it become the top swimming nation in the world.

"By 2020, and this is the big vision, we aim to be the No. 1 swimming nation in the world, from the Olympic podium and Paralympic podium through to grassroots," said Bertrand.

"To the extent that, the Americans benchmark Swimming Australia as world best practice.

"It's a huge challenge.

"It is an exciting challenge."

Australian swimmers put in the country's worst performance at an Olympic Games since Barcelona 1992, when they returned home with only one gold medal from London 2012.

That was compounded by a review which found abuse of alcohol and prescription drugs, as well as flouting of curfews and bullying, went unpunished within the Australian swimming team, and blamed a "culturally toxic" environment on their ultimate failure.

In comparison, the Americans won 16 swimming golds in London, while the US topped the medals table at last year's World Championships in Barcelona with 13 gold compared to Australia's three.

The mens 4x100 medley relay team of Nathan Adrian, Matt Grevers, Brendan Hansen and Michael Phelps helped the US to 16 swimming golds at London 2012 ©AFP/Getty Images



As a result of the debacle at London 2012, Swimming Australia underwent a raft of changes to key personnel which has seen the appointments of former British head of swimming Michael Scott as their new high performance director and Dutchman Jacco Verhaeren as the country's new head coach.

Former Hockey Australia boss Mark Anderson replaced Kevin Neil as the governing body's chief executive in April last year, while Bertrand replaced Barclay Nettlefold last August after the former President allegedly made lewd comments to female colleagues.

Bertrand insisted the radical overhaul will deliver results.

"Swimming Australia has certainly undergone major change," said Bertrand, who won Olympic sailing bronze at Montreal 1976, and skippered the Australia II yacht to victory in the 1983 America's Cup.

"We have undertaken reviews, evaluations, strategic thinking, planning and preparation.

"As a result we have introduced new personnel, structures, programmes, values and beliefs.

"We are in the business of creating a high-performance team to lead our sport, in and out of the pool.

"To achieve the vision of world best in high performance, we have formed a team led by Michael Scott and Jacco Verhaeren.

"In Jacco's short time in Australia he has already started to make an impression.

"He talks about process and the only expectation that he has, and that is, that athletes and coaches do everything they can to ensure the process is right."

Alica Coutts, Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie, and Melanie Schlanger won Australia's only swimming gold medal at London 2012 in the 4x100m freestyle relay ©Getty Images



Bertrand also stressed the need for "education and peer support" for elite athletes in reference to recent reports regarding the mental health issues of former Olympic champions Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, suggesting that "Swimming Australia has a duty of care in helping create an environment which will help our athletes to successfully make the transition from swimming competitor to the next stage of his or her life."

He also revealed the Australian squad for this year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will be selected following the conclusion of next month's Australian Swimming Championships in Brisbane which run from April 1 to 6.

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