Ryan’s Bio

Ryan Mallette was named head coach at Swimming Canada’s High Performance Centre – Ontario in 2022. Previously he was associate head coach from 2019-2022, after serving as head coach at HPC – Victoria. The Montreal native moved from Pointe-Claire Swim Club to Victoria as the NextGen coach in 2013. He took over the HPC program under difficult circumstances following the death of Randy Bennett in 2015. He went on to coach Ryan Cochrane to his then Canadian record eighth career medal at the 2015 FINA World Championships, and coached Hilary Caldwell to 200-m backstroke bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“I coach because there’s nothing like trying to be the best in the world at something,” Mallette says. “Nothing comes even close to working with other people and trying to be the best in the world at something.”

His athletes have won medals at every major championships and Games, including the Budapest 2022 World Aquatics Championships, where he coached Summer McIntosh to four medals – two gold – and three world junior records. Other HPC-Ontario highlights in Budapest included three medals – one gold – for Kylie Masse, three medals for Josh Liendo, including his first two in individual events, and Penny Oleksiak’s ninth career medal to surpass Cochrane’s record. HPC-Ontario swimmers also featured prominently on all four relay medals, including silver in the women’s and mixed 4×100 freestyle.

He was Canada’s head coach at the Fukuoka 2023 worlds, where Canada won six medals, including two gold, and women’s head coach at the Doha 2024 championships. He has been a member of Canada’s coaching staff at every major championships since 2014, including head coach roles at the Windsor 2016 and Melbourne 2022 World Swimming Championships (25m), the latter of which saw Canada win 14 medals, including three gold.

He and his wife Laura live in Whitby, Ont., and have two daughters.