As we wrote just before Michael Scott became Performance Consultant to Britain last year: the Australian has taken over where Bill Sweetenham left off, title and all

British Swimming has appointed Michael Scott as National Performance Director a few short months after the Australian was appointed High Performance Consultant in the wake of Bill Sweetenham's premature departure last year.


Scott, 51, "was originally contracted for six months as High Performance Consultant from October 2007 but has now been positioned to lead Britain's swimmers to this summer's Olympic Games", says British Swimming today.

The new director will lead the British team into the Olympic Games in Beijing while his blueprint for beyond 2008, to be presented to the board of the federation next month, is designed to help Britain make the most of its potential at a home Games while using the event as a springboard to long-term success in the years after London 2012 has waved goodbye to the world. The message of preparing four years ago for the period beyond 2012 was one that Sweetenham repeated like a mantra, though Britain was too slow to respond on some key fronts, the former director believed.

David Sparkes, chief executive of the federation, said: 'We're delighted that Michael is able to stay with us through to the Olympic Games. Not only is he continuing to work with plans developed by predecessor Bill Sweetenham through to Beijing, he is also developing a strategy through to London 2012.

 We're all very excited about Michael's blueprint for the future, as it will see a significant change in gear, and this will be unveiled to the British Swimming board in a few weeks. We look forward to continuing to work with Michael in implementing these plans which will be announced in due course.'

Given that the blueprint is yet to be 'unveiled' to the board, the we in the 'we're delighted' is, we assume, Sparkes and Scott's team of coaches. 

Scott said: 'This is a very exciting challenge for me not only in terms of leading Britain's swimmers to the Beijing Olympics but also in putting in place new systems and structures for the following four years as we look towards 2012 and beyond.'

Where Sweetenham's key strength was on the poolside working with swimmers and coaches, including the developing of the kind of team ethic needed to succeed on the biggest of occasions, Scott's strength is management and organisational skill and the ability to drive change and development at a smart and swift pace. It worked in an Australian environment and in Britain will surely work just as well as far as a great many swimmers and coaches are concerned but it remains to be seen whether problems related to long-established bureacratic and structural systems can be overcome in time to make a difference at London 2012 beyond the difference that has already been made by the change of culture that Sweetenham swept in.

The good news is that Scott, just like Sweetenham before him, will ask for the things that he knows can work wonders. The jury is still out on whether Britain not so much hears the message but finds a way of putting theory into practice in a timely fashion. Over to the board and many more men and women beyond them who are not under the control of British Swimming.