On the heels of the Brtish Swimming leadership changeups announced in December of last year, the organization revealed today that Alan Lynn is set to become its new Head of Performance Development.
Lynn, whose current role is that of head coach of the Scottish national team, will be responsible for leading the strategic development and implementation of world-class Performance Pathways across Olympic and Paralympic swimming and Olympic diving, ensuring the effective transition of British Swimming‘s next generation of junior talent to a platform where they can achieve senior international success across the disciplines.
Speaking of his new challenge, Lynn said, “I am delighted to take up this post and I’m very excited to get started. The challenge of working in performance development across the three disciplines is inspiring, and I look forward to working with partners across England, Wales and Scotland to progress our ambitions.
“The next few years are incredibly busy with international competition opportunities around the world for our developing aquatics athletes. This year in particular will see junior Championships at world and European level for many of our 2024 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls.
“I’d like to thank stakeholders across Scottish Swimming – swimmers, coaches, clubs and partners for their support and commitment in the past seven years. It has been a very successful period for aquatics in Scotland, and I’m grateful to have been a part of the journey.”
Scottish Swimming has seen a surge of talent under Lynn’s time at the helm since 2014, with the likes of Duncan Scott, Kathleen Dawson and Ross Murdoch making noise on all levels of elite swimming.
Lynn’s resume includes a background in the academic side of coaching; in 2010 he developed the UK’s first “online Masters course for performance coaches” while at Stirling University. He also established a program called Coaching Matters, which is a mentoring & support program that has been funded by sportscotland and contributed to the coaching of several medal-winning athletes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Of Lynn’s appointment, British Swimming Associate Performance Director Tim Jones added, “This is an incredibly important position within the new structure at British Swimming, providing strategic leadership for our discipline pathways. We are delighted to make such a strong appointment in bringing Alan into the organisation.
“His wealth of knowledge and experience of the aquatics world will be a fantastic asset in helping us to continually improve.”