One of South Africa’s most legendary swimming coaches is not only changing clubs, but moving to a different country.
The Noosa Aquatic Centre in Sunshine Beach, Australia, announced it has hired Wayne Riddin as its new head coach.
Riddin has been the head coach of the Seals Swimming Club in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa for the past 34 years. Arguably his most noteworthy pupil is Matt Sates, who won gold in the 200 IM and bronze in the 400 IM at the 2022 World Short Course Championships and the 2022 NCAA title in the 500 freestyle for Georgia.
“With decades of coaching excellence and a proven track record of developing top-tier talent, Wayne brings passion, experience, and a vision for high performance that will elevate our athletes to the next level,” the Noosa Aquatic Centre said in an Instagram post.
Riddin will head to Australia after decades of coaching in his homeland of South Africa.
He was the head coach for the South African Team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 World Short Course Championships.
Riddin has also been one of the world’s prominent open water coaches and advocates. He was the race director for the aQuelle Midmar Mile, the world’s largest competitive open water swim held annually in South Africa. It brings roughly 20,000 swimmers of all ages and abilities around the world to South Africa every February.
In 2012 and 2013, Riddin was nominated for the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year award.
The NAC has had recent Olympians train at its facility, such as Brittany Elmslie, Kareena Lee and Nicholas Sloman.
Elmslie was a part of the women’s 4×100 relay teams that won golf for Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, Lee won bronze for Australia in the open water 10km event at the Tokyo Games in 2021, while Sloman had two top-10 finishes for Australia in open water swimming at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships.
Another swimmer who trains at the NAC is Thomas Raymond, who in 2024 won all three open water races at the Australian national meet.
on another note, matt wilson has retired
This is a great fit with the historically strong Openwater swimmers at Noosa.
So I guess this is the beginning of the end of reign for the legendary coach John “JR” Rogers (who is closing in on 90 years young but still at the Noosa pool daily)? End of an era of it is, Australian Openwater Champs won’t be the same without my discussions with this very wise and passionate man that has shaped the lives of so many great Australian swimmers since the 1960’s.