Bond University has revealed that high-profile coach Chris Mooney has been appointed its Head Swimming Coach, effective as of October. Mooney, coach of multi-Olympic gold medalist Kaylee McKeown, will be taking over the position from Richard Scarce, who we revealed would be moving to Miami Swimming Club.
Mooney will be leaving his post as head swimming coach at Spartans Swimming at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Prior to that, he was a coach at the University of Hawaii.
“There is some unbelievable talent in the Bond program,” Mooney said. “We have three years of opportunity (until the 2024 Olympics) and we want to make that daily training environment the best it can be.
“There will be no pressure on the results, there’ll be just a little bit of pressure on the process to make sure we get those day-to-day things right.”
Bond University Director of Swimming Kyle Samuelson said of Mooney’s appointment, “He brings an immense amount of experience for our swimmers to learn from and we can’t wait to have him on deck at the university.
“I look forward to working with Chris on driving the program through to the next level for the Paris 2024 Olympics and beyond.”
The university’s Executive Director of Sport Garry Nucifora said “Chris Mooney is a coach of exceptional standing and we are very excited about the contribution he will make to the swim program’s exciting story.”
“His values align very well with those of the university where excellence in swimming complements the academic pursuits of our elite student-athletes.”
McKeown earned a total of 4 medals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, including gold in the 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke, as well as the medley relay. She was a member of Australia’s mixed medley relay that won bronze as well.
Mooney was our Swammy Award winner for 2020 Oceanic Coach of the Year. We’ve reached out to him for comment on taking on the Bond University head coaching role.
from a coach-athlete standpoint, the past 9 months have shown that their partnership is working. mooney is the only elite swimming coach on the sunshine coast, so kaylee moving cities is a logical step. with taylor already swimming under bohl, that may nudge kaylee towards the gold coast. and unless something happened between kaylee and chris since the olympics (high unlikely), I’d figure kaylee would follow him.
If she doesn’t follow Id guess it would be due to something that existed before the olympics and she/they both felt that the past olympics was the end of their time together regardless. Wouldn’t say anything negative about either if this was the case, sometimes it just feels like it’s time for change.
Not speculating this is the case to be clear, but if she doesn’t follow I’d doubt it would be due to something that came up overnight.
I admittedly don’t know a lot about how the Australian college athletics system works, but I find the 17 days on/4 days off training program that Coach Mooney used with Kaylee very interesting and wondering if he can and will train his college athletes in the same manner?
While there are some swimming programs based at universities there isn’t really a college athletics system system like in the US and these programs aren’t limited to athletes studying at that particular university and can also include juniors.
When Chris ran the masters workout in Hawaii, we knew we were gonna get something special. I have great memories of that time and the summer Kids Aqua Camp. Bond is lucky to have him. I wish Chris and his family all the best
Chris has shown that he is an exceptional coach at many levels and is willing to put himself in positions to learn from other coaches. His wife, Erin is extremely supportive and I wish them all the best. He also understands the university student-athlete and the balance needed to excel at both. Can’t wait to watch the program develop.
There must have been aspects of this new position for him that were massive improvement from the previous one to take this job without the guarantee that Kaylee will follow. She’s just entering get prime, and a talent like that might never come again in a coach’s career.
I’d like to note that Chris was Melanie Schlanger’s coach . I was mocked here ( re Clyde Lewis moving to Bond) when I wrote that Bond had worked very co operatively to work with Melanie & her family obligations for her to become a MD. I believe she has moved back to the Sunshine Coast with hubby Chris Wright & kids.
Whilst there may be other candidates,I’d love to see Coach Chris Wright take on that program including Kaylee.
Its great for Chris Mooney from having Australian Crawl competition squad being dumped from their local pool to hanging in strong & now a plum job .
More pay offer probably I’m assuming especially Kaylee’s success in Tokyo
Don’t worry, some pretty amazing age group talent at Bond to keep Mooney excited if Kaylee doesn’t follow. Also with the TSS (not too far from Bond) senior group athletes losing all their coaches recently, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of a few of them join Mooney at Bond post October.
So Kaylee’s moving with him?
Great question.
An article just posted at SWM says she’s undecided and will consider her future direction during the next 7-8 weeks. I’m not sure this consolidation of so many elite coaches on the Gold Coast is a good idea.
watch her move to train with boxall
Thanks for mentioning that. Also a good video interview with Titmus. Said she was incredibly relaxed before 400. Conceded she was fatigued after the 200 final and felt like she got hit by a bus. Difficult to wake up and swim the relay. No regrets about the relay. Lost nap time every day especially before 800 prelims. Felt mentally and physically drained before 800 but was encouraged by result and will continue to swim event. Finally learning how to swim it. Now will rest until October, then 6 months hard training. Apparently has a crush on some celebrity named Sean
You must be talking about the Brett Hawke interview. I’ve listened to a couple of her interviews and that was by far the best. Brett knew all the right questions to ask. The crush must be Shawn Mendes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkh8UtuejGw
yeah it’s shawn mendes: https://youtu.be/GkP0BpzFWeU?t=166
https://7plus.com.au/olympic-games-tokyo-swimming?video-id=7SWM-S8SS7-NZZ9R
Lol I feel like this is becoming a content war between SwimSwam and Brett Hawke
Brett Hawke > any other swim podcast
Off the blocks is really good.
You may have noticed already but an interview with her was posted by OTB today and she’s gonna stay on the Sunny Coast if she can and only move if the coach that replaces Mooney isn’t working out. I already got the impression from following her that she’s quite attached to living on the Sunny Coast and I hope this doesn’t derail her at her peak. Her reason for preferring Sunny over Gold Coast basically rules out Brisbane.