Having been at the helm for nearly 5 years, British Swimming Chief Executive Jack Buckner has announced he will be leaving his post later this year. Buckner will be taking on a new role as CEO at UK Athletics, coming full circle since having won World and European Championships medals as a middle-distance runner in the 1980s.
On his journey in aquatics, Buckner said, “The last five years have been a wonderful adventure with British Swimming. It’s been a tremendous privilege to work with so many great athletes and colleagues across the aquatics world.
“The resilience and determination shown over the pandemic was extraordinary. I’ll never forget the stunning results in Tokyo. Thank you for all the support from the British Swimming board and every single person I have met poolside.
“I wish everyone connected with British Swimming all the best for the future, and I cannot wait to see our athletes, staff and teams go from strength to strength in the lead-up to Paris 2024 and beyond. Before then, though, I look forward to seeing many people at next week’s British Swimming Championships and helping our aquatic disciplines build towards a busy summer, including June’s double of World Aquatics Championships and Para Swimming World Championships.
“I’m equally excited to continue my sporting journey at UKA, where I know there are so many great people doing amazing things in Olympic and Paralympic sport. Many thanks to UKA for giving me this opportunity. Athletics has been a huge part of my life since I was a teenager, and I can’t wait to be trackside later in the year.”
British Swimming Interim Chairman Adele Stach-Kevitz said: “Jack’s time as British Swimming CEO has been hugely successful, both for him personally, as well as with our performance teams – and there have been some fantastic aquatics moments to remember.
“It will be a sad juncture when Jack departs British Swimming, but he leaves behind an experienced team who, alongside the board, will now work with him to manage the transition until a new CEO is appointed. We wish Jack all the very best when he takes up his new role with UK Athletics and look forward to welcoming him poolside when his athletics schedule allows!”
The announcement follows several higher-up coaching changes within British Swimming that were revealed last December. The revamped leadership changes symbolized a collaboration across departments, with the ultimate target of supporting strong athlete development, culture and medal-winning performances at Olympic, Paralympic and World Championship level.
As we reported, Chris Spice, the National Performance Director for swimming since 2013, who oversaw British Swimming’s most successful ever Olympic campaign at Tokyo 2020 – took on the new role of Performance Director of this new World Class Leadership Team, responsible for driving a consistent culture and performance across the three World Class Programmes.
Tim Jones was named in the Associate Performance Director role, directly supporting Spice across the disciplines. Matt Ashman will lead and strategically manage the development of a world-leading sports science and sports medicine (SSSM) programme as the Associate Director of SSSM, while Tina Ryan continues as the Head of Performance Systems. Adam Clarke is the Associate Director of Performance Strategy & Operations, responsible for leading policy development and logistical management for the World Class programmes across Para-swimming, Olympic diving and Olympic swimming.
Jack has no backbone or integrity….
Responsible for starting a restructure over the Christmas (2021) period putting peoples live’s on hold not knowing if they can afford Christmas as their jobs are at risk. Many people have lost their jobs and livelihoods. Jack was nowhere to be seen during the restructure and possibly doing his homework for the new job. Who sets the wheels in motion and then walks off halfway through… spineless.
Jack was responsible for commercial revenue and sponsorship bringing in very little but still maintaining his job, how did he not lose his job during the restructure British Swimming Board????
Also I’ve heard on the grapevine that one of the sponsorship deals is not even supported by… Read more »
Was utterly terrible, at a time when British Swimming had such success he spent his time idly, bringing in little or no investment.
His social media, more busy with athletics content than aquatics. With the successes of Tom Daley, Adam Peaty etc. it was not unnoticed within the disciplines that he simply didn’t want to or know how to capitalise.
Hear, hear!
Personally I didn’t object to him as much as David Sparkes, but it’s not a high bar.