Effective immediately, Rohan Taylor will officially continue leading Swimming Australia as the national head coach through December 2024.
Originally on a one-year stint after Dutchman Jacco Verhaearen left when his contract was up last fall, Taylor helped the Aussies race their way to their most successful Olympic Games in the pool since 2004. The team amassed 21 medals in Tokyo, including 9 gold.
Taylor will be joined by Tamara Sheppard as high-performance director, with both reporting to the CEO. Sheppard was previously serving in the role of general manager high performance also team leader in Tokyo.
As far as the CEO position, we reported how incumbent Alex Baumann revealed he would be soon leaving his post due to health reasons. Swimming Australia is currently undergoing a search for his replacement.
Baumann said the following regarding these coaching announcements, “Rohan has done an outstanding job leading this team through the challenges of COVID and creating an environment where athletes and coaches are able to thrive.
“The Board and I are fully supportive of re-contracting Rohan through to Paris following our most successful Olympic campaign ever.
“In the last 18 months, Tamara has shown great leadership in challenging times and stepping up into the role of High Performance Director is a natural progression for her and extremely well deserved.
“I have no doubt she will work tirelessly to continue to build on our world-leading environment for athletes and coaches to succeed.
On his appointment, permanent head coach Taylor said, “I am so incredibly proud of what we achieved in Tokyo – athletes, coaches and staff included – and the great environment we have built in this team over the past few years.
“With a shorter cycle to Paris now, I look forward to continuing the work with our coaches and athlete leaders to build on this success and maintaining the fantastic culture we have created.”
Sheppard stated for her part, “Being a part of the leadership team in Tokyo was incredibly special and I felt very privileged to be able to witness the success of the team, achieved through the hard work of all the athletes and coaches,” she said.
“I know we have a world-leading high performance program and I look forward to working with our staff and coaches to continue to build on the success of Tokyo.”
