On the heels of overseeing his fourth Olympic Games, Aquatics GB Head Coach for Olympic swimmer Bill Furniss announced his retirement.
Furniss retires as the most successful head coach in the history of British Olympic swimming, amassing 19 medals over the Rio, Tokyo and Paris Games.
At this year’s edition, Aquatics GB collected 5 medals, including a monumental repeat gold in the men’s 4x200m free relay.
Prior to his current post which he entered into in February 2013, Furniss helped guide Rebecca Adlington to 2 Olympic gold medals at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
“After nearly 50 years of involvement in this great sport, it is now the right time for me to retire and spend more time with my family. The job is an all-consuming one, but one that I have loved – it is a privilege to have worked with so many dedicated athletes, and to work so closely with a great number of driven, world-class coaches and support staff as well,” Furniss stated.
“I have enjoyed a close working relationship with our Performance Director, Chris Spice, throughout the past decade, to bring about a change of culture and belief of achievement on the world stage. That is something I am immensely proud of.
“While the time is right for me to step away personally, it is also the right time for Aquatics GB. A new Head Coach will have the full Olympic cycle to build towards LA 2028. I feel the sport in this country is in a strong position, and I will enjoy watching future successes across upcoming World Championships and European Championships, and then into the Olympic pool in LA.”
For his part, Spice said “It is hard to sum up the impact that Bill has had on the sport in this country – but it is safe to say he has been influential in the unprecedented achievements our athletes have secured in Olympic and World Championship pools over recent years.
“Bill’s ability to work with each athlete and coach on an individual level is unmatched, and it shows not only in the results in the pool, but the cohesive culture that has become a central part of our swimming team in the last decade. While we have seen plenty of our athletes become multiple Olympic and world champions, forge consistently world-class relay combinations and play their part in memorable racing year in and year out, we have also seen plenty more become much more comfortable and ambitious within the biggest and most intense arenas our sport has to offer, and that is in no small part down to Bill and his work with our incredible coaching staff as well.
“We must also acknowledge his ground-breaking work with Becky Adlington leading into and beyond Beijing 2008, when she became Britain’s first double Olympic champion in the pool for a century, which helped redefine what Team GB could do in the Olympic pool.
“We will miss Bill on poolside, with his direct and performance-focused approach, both at major events but also across our Performance Centres and other training environments, working on a daily basis with athletes and coaches to make sure they are well catered for and in the best position to perform. Our programme owes a large debt to Bill’s leadership and we have a responsibility to build on his legacy as we move towards LA and beyond. For now, we say a big thank you and wish him well in his next chapter.”
Quotes courtesy of Aquatics GB.
So who’s in the running…
What is the difference between a National Team Head Coach and Performance Director in this case? Honest question.
Probably the same difference as between a college swim coach and the director of aquatic operations.
I’m sure there’s a degree of overlap when looking just at job descriptions, but…. In Aquatics GB, my understanding is that Bill is the “head of the coaches” while Performance Director is more around leading the high performance programme.
Notably the current Aquatics GB Performance Director is a former international hockey (field) player and previously worked in rugby and basketball without any swimming experience.
The job description for the new head coach is clear that they need swimming experience at an elite level
clear as mud
The performance director is in charge of pushing us to win the number of medals necessary for aquatics to Maintain its status as one of the sports receiving massive funding from UK sport/National lottery. This is also the person that is often in charge of setting hilarious yet villainous qualifying times for the British Swimmers often discussed on these boards