Our 2023 Swammy Award winner for British Coach of the Year Ryan Livingstone will be taking over as the new Aquatics GB Manchester Performance Centre Lead Coach later this year.
As announced by Aquatics GB this week, the coach of World Championships gold medalist Matt Richards will be leaving Millfield and transitioning into his new post in September. That’s after he’ll be part of the nation’s coaching staff at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Currently a Paralympic swimming performance centre, the Manchester Performance Centre is set to develop into a fully integrated Paralympic and Olympic Performance Centre post-Olympics.
The centre will be added to the two existing World Class Swimming Program Performance Centres of Bath, based at the Sports Training Village at the University of Bath and Loughborough, based at Loughborough University. The former is home to coaches Dave McNulty and Jamie Main while the latter is home to Mel Marshall and Dave Hemmings.
According to Aquatics GB, Livingstone will be working under the overall direction of Aquatics GB Associate Performance Director Tim Jones, working closely with Rob Aubry and Bill Furniss – the Head Coaches for Paralympic and Olympic swimming respectively – as well as Swim England’s Swimming National Technical Lead
The Manchester Performance Centre is also set to provide opportunities for identified Swim England performance athletes, both in its resident programme and as a hub to transition at an appropriate time.
On his new position, Livingstone said, “I’m really looking forward to working at the Manchester Performance Centre leading our Olympic and Paralympic athletes into the LA cycle.
“The integrated approach offers a unique and exciting prospect for all those involved. Manchester is fantastic city with a rich sporting heritage and is an optimal environment for those athletes looking towards Olympic and Paralympic success.
“For me personally it has been a long term ambition to coach in the performance centre set up and I am grateful for the opportunity.”
Aquatics GB Associate Performance Director Jones added, “This is a really exciting time for the Manchester Performance Centre as we look to further align our Paralympic and Olympic swimming programmes and ensure our athletes can get the maximum benefit from this collaboration – and we know that Ryan can play a pivotal role in that process.
“Manchester is a unique proposition for us in Britain, providing a complete pathway within the city with our Aquatics GB Performance Centre, Swim England’s investment into the City of Manchester Swim Team as a Talent Centre, a vibrant club swimming fraternity and excellent Learn to Swim provision. We will be working hard in the coming months to forge even stronger links with the key academic institutions within the city as part of our athlete support package.
“I have no doubt that Ryan’s outstanding qualities as a coach, alongside his proven track record at driving performance improvements in his athletes and his collaborative approach, makes him the right person to take Manchester the next big step forwards, across both our Paralympic and Olympic programmes with Aquatics GB, as well as working closely with the next generation of talent coming through the Swim England pathway. In the coming months we hope to see great interest from athletes wanting to be part of this journey post-Paris 2024″
Richard Blackshaw, Swim England Head of Performance said, “Swim England are delighted to collaborate with Aquatics GB on the development of the Manchester Performance Centre. A unique opportunity to provide a connected and cohesive pathway from grass roots to Performance level swimming. Creating links between Swim England Performance Club, City of Manchester Swim Team and Aquatics GB National Performance Centre will provide development opportunities at many level of the talent pathway. I am confident this collaboration will have a long lasting positive impact on both Para and Olympic swimming.
“Ryan brings a wealth of experience of working at all levels of the swimming pathway. I believe the experience, outstanding skill set and track record he brings to the role will support the further development of a culture and environment in Manchester that will enable the next generation of English and British swimmers to thrive for years to come.”
McNulty is headed to Australia. Probably to Sydney University in NSW, or maybe take over from Peter Bishop at South Australian Institute. Why is Australia recruiting GB coaches? Shouldn’t it be GB hiring all of the Aussie coaches?
British Swimming and Swimming Australia are about the same size in terms of clubs and memberships, so I don’t know that I’d presume one to be any better than the other at producing good coaches.
That being said, Swimming Australia has had a few high profile openings in recent years. Some maybe came open expectedly (Bohl), others unexpectedly via behavior discipline (Palfrey, Bishop). And because of the chaos of the 2010s, the pipeline was already stretched.
So my guess is that at this point, the ‘bench’ isn’t deep enough to fill the seats. They need to bring in experience and talent to maintain the results at the elite level and give the younger coaches more time to develop.
I mean,… Read more »
Good appointment. The Millfield Performance Squad was always a very short term set up for Ryan & 3 or 4 athletes.
The school programme has suffered though & had one of its weakest years (if not its weakest ever!) will be interesting if they can rebuild with great sets ups/coaches at MK & Repton now.
I assume that Matt Richards and Emily Large are gonna move with him. I don’t know whether James Guy has plans to continue past Paris. And is Alex Painter with Ryan or the school squad at Mill field?
Yeah Richards/Large were looking for a place to live in Manchester long before the announcement. It’s been common knowledge it was his job and rightly so!
Guy apparently continuing but had expected more at trials.
Painter is in the ‘performance squad’ but looks to be heading to Florida and Woodburn to Georgia.
Cant see there being much left of the ‘performance squad’ it was always a temporary arrangement and had little to do with the school.