The Swede (pictured top), who guided Britain's Paralympians to third place at London 2012, is already raising the bar for his adopted nation as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships loom next month in Moscow.

"I always thought we had a lot of potential in the country and we always underperformed," Eriksson said.

"I think as a nation we should do better."

The 60-year-old coach announced in May that he would be leaving his British Athletics job for "family reasons" and has now rejoined his wife and four daughters at the family home in Ottawa.

"I couldn't be away for another four or five years," he said.

Before arriving in Britain to take charge of the Paralympic athletes in 2009, Eriksson had made his name by guiding Chantal Petitclerc to 10 gold medals over two Paralympic Games.

David Weir, pictured second on his way to winning the London 2012 wheelchair marathon gold, was a leading light in the team which Peter Eriksson guided to third place in the Paralympics medal table

Athletics Canada chief executive Rob Guy said the organisation had looked globally in hiring for the position, but wanted an integrated coach who could lead both the Olympic and Paralympic teams.

Eriksson said he believes Canada will be the only country in the world with an integrated coach.

"We're very pleased to have him back in Canada, very accomplished in what he does," said Guy, who noted Athletics Canada formally interviewed four candidates.

Eriksson added that he had learned much from his time working in Britain.

"I think I learned more in these four years than I learned in the last 25 years," he said.

"Easily.

"I think it's been a big difference, I think I leaned to look at others, to learn from others.

"It was a great learning experience also because athletics is such a high profile sport in the UK, it's always written about, it's always on TV, plus they have really good coaches in the system, so I learned from working with them."


Athletics Canada fired its head coach Alex Gardiner and chief high performance officer Martin Goulet following Canada's disappointing performance at London 2012, where Derek Drouin won the team's only medal – a bronze in high jump.

Eriksson added of Canada's prospects: "I think we have good coaches, I think we have good potential, you see all the kids doing well in the NCAA, they could really become something, we just have to nurture that and turn it into medal performances, not just medal potentials.

"We have a lot of medal potentials, but how much do we convert into medal performance?

"It's a whole slew of good athletes coming up, now we have to create the best environment for them in order to get there."

Just three years out from the Rio 2016 Olympics, Eriksson said he believes he and his staff can turn around Canada's team in time.

"I think you can, with the younger talent pool and some of the older established athletes, you just have to making sure you optimise their environment," Eriksson said on a conference call.

"I think there's great potential of reaching that even in the short time that we have leading up to the Games.

"I'm confident with that."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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