Rob Greenwood has been the Head Coach of the Stirling Intensive Training Centre for the last five years and today it was announced that he will be leaving that position for the role of Head Coach of Britain’s Para-Swimming program, “I am really excited about taking on the challenge of leading a national team,” Greenwood said. “This is a fantastic opportunity for me to join one of the biggest and most successful teams within Paralympic history and one that I could not resist.”
In London the British Paralympic team brought the largest contingent with 49 athletes competing in the games. The team finished seventh in the medal table with 39 total medals, seven gold, 16 silver and 16 bronze.
At the 2013 IPC World Championships the team’s results were much better. This time they brought only 35 athletes and finished third in the medal table with 55 total medals, 18 gold, 22 silver and 15 bronze.
“For swimming at the Games there are a huge number of medal opportunities and I am looking forward to the challenge of building on the back of London’s success as we head towards Rio. My focus and attention will be on each day between now and Rio, ensuring our athletes, support staff and coaches are the best prepared that they can be.”
Greenwood will be based out of Manchester and will be working very closely with National Performance Director Chris Fuber who is very excited to see Greenwood join the Para-Swimming leadership group, “We’re really excited about the appointment,” Furber said. “Rob has shown himself to be a world class coach in Stirling and will add a lot to the programme. It’s great that British Para-Swimming can attract a coach of Rob’s pedigree to this position and I look forward to working closely with him.”
Since the 2012 Games the British Para-Swimming program has worked at rebranding itself so that everyone realizes that the organization is about elite athletics and having Greenwood take the Head Coaching position drives that point home even further.
In his time at the Stirling ITC he had two swimmers qualify for the 2009 World Championships, six swimmers qualify for the 2010 Commonwealth Games collecting three medals, two swimmers qualify for the 2011 World Championships and Rob Bale qualify for the 2012 Olympic team.
Their most recent results saw Jak Scott, Ross Murdoch and Josh Walsh represent Great Britain at the 2013 World Championships.
The timing of Greenwood leaving the Stirling ITC is not shocking since it was announced earlier this month that British Swimming would be significantly reducing the funding to both Stirling and Swansea ITCs. Although Sport Scotland has been working with the ITC to help keep it up and running this move by Greenwood may be a sign that those discussions are not going in the right direction.