The Hong Kong Sports Institute posted a job listing this week seeking a new National Team head swimming coach.
The position lists a salary of between HK$714,388 to HK$1,724,390 based on performance, which converts to between $91,000 and $222,000 a year.
Hong Kong swimming has some very good young talent, though much of it has committed to move to the United States to train within the American collegiate (NCAA) system. That includes World Junior Champion Siobhan Haughey.
Hong Kong’s women’s team took bronze medals in the 400 and 800 free relays, and the 400 medley relay at the 2014 Asian Games: the country’s major championship of the year. That gives them an important claim as the third-best women’s program on the continent, at least if the primary measure is four-swimmer relay depth.
The listed requirements of the position include holding national level coaching certificates, having 10 years’ “proven experience and achievement in coaching Swimming at international level,” and “demonstrated ability to utilise sports science and medicine to add value to the training and coaching process.”
I am a swimming coach in South Africa ? I would love to give the national team a run for the money but my family ? will not come with me. So what do I do about that.
The salary is not too high at all if it needs to support a family in Hong Kong. I travel to HK for business all the time – one of my favorite places, but things are expensive there. Hope it finds a great coach!
It’s good but not great. Remember the cost of housing in HK is extremely high, and the coach will need to be based probably on HK Island near Wan Chai where the team train in the mornings. Living near the sports Institute further out would cut costs, but not ideal to live in for other factors if the coach brings family with him/her.
Sincerely hope we can get strong leadership in. HK has so much talent but not much success converting our top guys into international contenders, especially when they stay in HK.
I’m not a swim coach or organised swim faculty but, is that a good salary? Seems like a lot of money especially if the perks are thrown in. Would other SwimSwam readers out there who know about this give me an idea if this amount of money is the norm for national coaches. Thanks.
pkdds – I think it’s a good number for a small federation like Hong Kong. The U.S. National Team head coach will make significantly more, but it sort of depends on how the performance bonuses are structured (which wasn’t detailed in the listing). If $220,000 is attainable, that would be a huge amount for a smaller federation. It’s possible, though, that the 220k is only achievable with 4 Olympic gold medals, or something along those lines, that is unlikely for Hong Kong in 2016.