Former Australian head coach Don Talbot has taken up a consultancy role to British Swimming and has confirmed he will be working alongside Bill Sweetenham according to reports in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
Talbot, who is one of Australia’s most successful coaches and an inductee to the International Swimming hall of Fame, retired from his position with Swimming Australia after the 2001 world Championships, where Australia were the number one team. He was previously linked to the British National Performance Director role in the mid nineties before Deryk Snelling took the reigns; Talbot having opted to remain down under.
“I’m retired but I don’t want to lose touch with what’s going on.” Talbot told the Telegraph, “If anyone in the world wants to use me as a consultant I’ll do that because I need the income.”
“Swimming coaches don’t get much of a superannuation [pension] programme.”
When pressed on the issue of loyalty, he was equivocal. “I don’t see any conflict of interest it’s just me doing my job” he said. “My preference is to stay in Australia but if they haven’t got anything for me I can’t starve in the name of loyalty.”
Talbot was, however, keen to stress he will not be working full time on pool deck. “I’m going over as a consultant. I’m not getting back into a full blown coaching role – I don’t want that stress again.”
Meanwhile Current Australian Head coach Alan Thompson was unperturbed by the revelations. “I’m not really concerned” he said, “I’m happy for Don and he has been a great asset to our team over the years. I’m also happy with the current coaching staff and structure.”