British Olympic Coach Hugh Hamilton Smith Dies

British Olympic Coach Hugh Hamilton Smith has died. He served as an assistant coach for the 1964 Great Britain Olympic team and coached 10 Olympians and 30 international athletes over his career.

After graduating from University, Smith served as a coach for his former school’s swimming team, and went on to become Scotland‘s head coach at the 1970 Commonwealth games. He later served as the director of the Scottish Amateur Swimming Association for a decade and received a number of awards over that time.

Prior to coaching Smith swam for Paisley in Glasgow, Scotland and taught PE at a local school. In addition, Smith lectured in Physical Education at the University of Edinburgh. He also wrote and published a book titled “Learning to Swim and Dive”.

Further, Smith taught swimming in Canada and went on to become England’s first national swimming coach with the English Swimming Association.

Over his coaching career Smith received numerous awards and accolades. In 1975, he was presented with Great Britain’s ‘Coach of the Year’ award and in 2002 Smith was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the British Swimming Coaches Association (BSCA).