Bud McAllister, the former coach of elite distance swimmers Jazmin Carlin and Janet Evans has left his post at the Wales National Pool in Swansea for a similar role in Australia as a head of one of their High Performance Training Centres.
McAllister, who is an American, has had most of his success coaching women – aside from the two mentioned above, he also has coached international-level swimmers Jemma Lowe and Georgia Davies in the UK. As Australia continues to try and recover from a poor showing at the 2012 London Olympics, by their standards, and perhaps an equally-poor showing at this summer’s World Championships, they’ve made attractive offers to several very high-level international coaches. That includes Jacco Verahaeren, the former head of Dutch swimming; Michael Scott, the former head of British Swimming; and Paulus Wildeboer, the former head of Danish swimming.
Though McAllister’s official statement didn’t say where, exactly, in Australia he’d wind up, he indicated that it would be at one of their High Performance Training Centres that pock the country.
McAllister’s comments indicated that he was dissatisfied with the continued uncertainty about the funding for Wales’ National Training Center, which has been on rocky footing.
Via her Twitter account, McAllister’s most famous current swimmer Carlin said “A couple of days ago I received some bad news, my coach is moving to Australia at the end of February. I was really devastated. My priority and focus is still the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year. My time will be spent in Swansea and Australia for the build up. I’ve been so lucky to have had my coach for the past 7 years and I will be working harder than ever for Glasgow! Thank you for the support!”
Carlin, a three-time British Champion, had her big breakthrough with a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships as part of Great Britain’s 800 free relay. After hitting a patch of health problems, she surged again in 2013 to set personal bests in the 400 free (4:04.03) and the 800 free (8:18.58) at Worlds. Altogether, she holds two National Records: in the 1500 free and as a part of the 800 free relay, both in long course.
I know where he is coaching in Australia.
I heard Perth. Beautiful city but very hot this time of the year!
Not as hot as Adelaide though.
Perth is the most isolated metropolitan city in the world.
The closest capital to Perth is actually Jakarta.
GREAT coach! too bad he hasn’t coached in the USA for a long time.