British Swimming Hires Jonty Skinner as World Class Technical Advisor

LOUGHBOROUGH, Great Britain, September 28. BRITISH Swimming has appointed one of the sporting world's leading lights in athlete development through the application of science.

South African-born Jonty Skinner, a former Director of Performance Science and Technology with USA Swimming, has been appointed British Swimming World Class Technical Advisor.

Skinner, who has 30 years of coaching experience including 17 gold medal winners in Olympic competition, is regarded as a pioneer of incorporating science in swimmer development through the art of applying scientific data to day-to-day training.

The British Swimming role of technical advisor will entail working with the World Class Programme's team of scientists and coaches to ensure they are at the forefront of applying leading edge science and technical principles into the daily training and national team environments.

National Performance Director Michael Scott is delighted with the appointment of Skinner into this "crucial" role within British Swimming.

"The technical component of swimming has always been critical and one that British Swimming needs to improve upon going forward," said Scott. "The forthcoming changes to swimsuit rules will see the focus of the sport shift from being technology driven to being technically driven and we need to be at the forefront of scientific and technical applications," said Scott.

"This challenge is a priority and essential if we are to achieve the performance standards required in London 2012."

While with USA Swimming, Skinner managed the testing and tracking of national team athletes while developing their performance abilities and impacting on results at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

More recently, Skinner developed the Athlete Intelligence Consulting business in Colorado which looks at the impact the brain has on performance coupled with training methods to enhance this area for both swimmers and coaches.

As a swimmer in 1976 Skinner set new World Records for the 50m and 100m Freestyle, the latter of which went on to stand for five years. In 1985 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Skinner began his coaching career at the University Aquatic Club in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1978 before taking up the head coach role of San Jose Aquatics, California in 1981. In 1988 he was made assistant coach of the University of Alabama and three years later took on the head coach role.

In 1994, Skinner was appointed Head Coach of National Resident Team for USA Swimming before becoming Director of Performance Science and Technology from 2000 to 2008.

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