Swim coach Graham Wardell has been handsomely rewarded for the success of the Scottish swimming team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a new gig as the head coach at City of Cardiff.
Wardell was the head coach of Team Scotland swimming over the summer when they won 10 medals, including three golds. Team Scotland only competes as a nation a few times every quadrennial, and Wardell’s full-time roll was as the coach of City of Glasgow. Among the best-known swimmers he has coached there include Olympic finalist Robbie Renwick and Anna Fleming.
Now Wardell will head to Wales to lead the team at Cardiff. which has been the home to many great British swimmers including Mark Foster, David Davies, Gregor Tait, and more recently Ieuan Lloyd, Thomas Haffield and Danielle Stirratt.
Among those who represented Cardiff at the 2014 British Gas Swimming Championships include 400 IM finalist Thomas Haffield, and American-based NCAA Championship qualifier Danielle Stirratt (LSU). but the team isn’t as deep as it once was. That will be among Wardell’s top challenges – returning the program to the lofty stature it once held within British Swimming.
“I think he will be good for the club, he has a positive outlook,” said Stirrat. “He was the head coach for Scotland at Commonwealth Games so coming from that into Cardiff should be great for swimmers at the club who want to swim at that level.”
This is a homecoming for Wardell, who is a Welshman and specifically a native of Cardiff.
“We welcome Graham back to Wales and look forward to him bringing his experience and managerial skills to the programme in Cardiff,” said Swim Wales CEO Robert James. The City of Cardiff is the club where Wardell first learned to swim over 40 years ago at the age of nine.