As reported at the time, former High Performance Director of Swimming Australia, Michael Scott, resigned in February of this year to take on the new role of Chief Executive Officer at Rowing Australia. Since that time Swimming Australia has been on the hunt for a high performance replacement, but has come up empty-handed.
The Courier Mail is reporting that Swimming Australia will end its search for a new high performance director and instead redirect its entire approach to leadership structure as an organization. Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren told The Courier Mail that he himself “would not assume the duties of the high performance boss, but that the sport was preparing to take a ‘slightly different direction’ with the job in the coming days.”
There is some concern that Swimming Australia will leave itself in the same leadership hierarchy as was in place prior to the 2012 London Games. Leading up to London, Head Coach Leigh Nugent took on the additional High Performance role when David Crocker resigned from the position in 2011. After the lackluster performance by Swimming Australia at those 2012 Games, the Australian Sports Commission “ridiculed the move”, saying Nugent was “under considerable pressure to balance the skills required to fulfil administrative responsibilities with those required in the head coach role’’. (The Courier Mail)
Swimming Australia CEO Mark Anderson is expected to make an official comment on Monday.
Dear Stakeholders
You will be aware that Swimming Australia had undertaken a recruitment process for the Performance Director role to replace Michael Scott, who has been appointed to the CEO role at Rowing Australia. As per our previous messages, we wish Michael all the very best in this role and thank him for his very significant contribution to Swimming Australia and our teams over the past two years.
Given the timing of the vacancy and the fact we are only 15 months out from the Rio Olympics, we were very mindful throughout the recruitment process of ensuring that we had the right individual that could immediately insert themselves into our high performance environment to ensure a very positive… Read more »
Head Coach, CEO, High Performance Director of Swimming, Chief Engineer of Lane Line Installation and Removal, Head of Water Bottle Squeezing, Tech Suit Drying Manager, Associate Kick Board Stacking Director, Head of Locker Room Door Attendants, Superintendent of Towels, Autograph Administrator, Warmup Music Conductor, Head Whiteboard Washer…
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