Loughborough Sport dipped into its alumni base to appoint its new Director of Swimming, as Andi Manley will be taking the reins of the storied program. Loughborough has been a major powerhouse at the British Universities and Colleges Swimming Championships (BUCS), having won the team title for the past 20 years.
The directorship role was rendered available once Lead Coach and Programme Manager Stephen Bayley announced his departure last October after having served 15 years in the position.
Prior to Loughborough, Manley served as Head Coach at Ontario Swimming Academy and has already been involved in the coaching of multiple swimmers who have set British and English records.
Of his new role Manley said, “I am delighted to be offered the position of Director of Swimming here at Loughborough, following in the footsteps of some outstanding coaches. Being a graduate of the University myself and having been a swimmer on the team here for many years, I have always had aspirations of taking up this role since I began my coaching career.
My aims for the programme going forward are to ensure we continue the legacy of being the dominant force in British Universities Swimming, whilst continuing to develop world class athletes and results, backed up by world class coaching and high performance support systems.”
Loughborough Sport’s Performance and Development Director Richard Wheater added, “We are very excited at the appointment of Andi Manley as the new Director of Swimming, bringing a great depth of international experience to the role. Andi fully understands the culture of swimming at Loughborough University, as an alumnus himself, and has the vision and leadership qualities needed to ensure we don’t stand still but continue to be at the cutting edge of swimming at both a domestic and international level.”
We recently published a ‘Who’s Training Whom’ post, with Loughborough coaches and affiliated athletes listed within.
All quotes courtesy of Loughborough Sport.
I thought Mel Marshall was in charge there?
AdamLB – Loughborough has an interesting structure where there are several different groups of pros under different coaches that aren’t ranked, they’re just ‘different.’ 2 groups are made up of only Loughborough students and alumni, the other two are a part of the British Swimming National Centre and are a mix of students and full-time (pro, effectively) athletes. Mel Marshall coaches Peaty, Edward Baxter, Charlotte Evans, Luke Greenbank, Sarah Vasey, Harriett Cooper, and Imogen Clark at lest check.
Here’s an article on the subject that I did in April:
https://swimswam.com/whos-training-whom-in-loughborough-national-title-onslaught/
Cool… Pretty confusing!