Olympic silver medalist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor of Great Britain has announced she is changing training homes, leaving the National Centre for Swimming at Bath and moving to National Centre for Swimming at Loughborough.
“It’s time to say goodbye, however, I’m really excited to start afresh in a new place next season,” writes the 23-year-old versatile swimmer.
“It’s obviously been a tough decision, but I want to thank every single person who was a part of my journey in Bath – staff and swimmers – because it just wouldn’t have been the same without my second family.”
O’Connor will be leaving Lead National Coach Dave McNulty and heading toward the Loughborough coaching staff of Lead National Coach Mel Marshall, National Coach Dave Hemmings and Support Coach Andrew Wallace. She says she will be starting at her new training location in September.
Loughborough is a perpetual hotbed of talent, home to the likes of Adam Peaty, James Wilby, and Molly Renshaw, just to name a few.
O’Connor has been at Bath for the past 12 years and earned an Olympic silver medal to bring back to the club, taking runner-up behind Katinka Hosszu in the 200m IM in Rio. She finished 7th in the same event at the 2017 World Championships, followed by 2IM gold at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
Most recently at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Korea, O’Connor finished 7th in the 200m IM event after having taken the British national title.
Georgia Coates, Jessica Fullalove, James Guy and Calum Jarvis are among the swimmers who train at Bath.
SwimSwam has reached out to O’Connor for further comment on her move.
Thank you Bath💖 pic.twitter.com/CnGVp4DQDV
— Siobhan-Marie O'Connor (@SiobhanMOConnor) August 14, 2019
Off subject a bit, any National USA teamers switch programs this fall?
“I’ve had an incredible time here at Bath, but like any red blooded, straight woman, I need to be as close to Adam Peaty’s pectorals as possible”.
Ngl, I thought this was a real quote. Who wouldn’t wanna be close to Peaty’s pectorals??
Best of luck to Siobhan – Here’s hoping the change can bring some better luck with her health. I wonder if a real crack at breaststroke is on the horizon; No better place for it than Luff and she has huge potential as a breastroker.
Her breaststrokes could be great, shes been 1:06 low, 1:05 high could medal in Tokyo…
Who will coach her, Marshall or Hemmings?
That is my question too! It seems each of their centers have a couple programs going on.
I just don’t understand. Why does Wilby train with Hemmings and Peaty with Marshall? Shouldn’t they just train together
You would if you saw the difference in training schedules!
What is the difference in training schedules?
University squad vs national centre. Think of it like the Florida set up at the moment, with the pro group with Troy and Varsity squads sharing a facility, but on a larger scale.
Not sure how they split the coaching though, Dee has more insight than me.
Loughborough has 2 “National Centre” squads led by Marshall and Hemmings followed by a number of University squads all with different focuses and coaches. It allows British Swimming to economise on support staff by having 2 main centres as opposed to having athletes spread across say 5 different centres.
I very much doubt she would move to work with Mel
I would like to see her have move to the centre in sterling as she is the female version of Scott
I have no doubts she could have medalled in the 100br in 2016.
It always helps to enter .