Recently retired Australian swimming coach Michael Bohl in shock move to Chinese Swimming Federation
Just months after retiring from the Australian swim team, legendary coach Michael Bohl is moving to China. It could have massive repercussions for Australia in the pool.
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China’s obsession with wanting to become the world’s sporting superpower has taken an ominous turn with Beijing secretly poaching legendary Dolphins coach Michael Bohl.
In a surprise development that will send shockwaves around the swim world, Bohl has backflipped on his plans to retire by agreeing to accept a job with the Chinese Swimming Association.
One of Australia’s greatest swim coaches who oversaw the careers of Olympic superstars including Stephanie Rice, Emma McKeon and Kaylee McKeown, Bohl had only just finished his long standing role with the Dolphins after the Paris Olympics.
In his early 60s, he had said he wanted to put his feet up after more than 37 years prowling the pool deck, but has had a sudden change of heart, opting instead to join the Chinese as an adviser at their high-performance centres in Shanghai and Beijing.
Highly respected within Australian swimming, senior coaches inside the sport did not want to comment publicly on Bohl’s shock decision, leaving the national body to issue a statement saying it was disappointed to lose one of its most revered figures to a major overseas rival but the door for a possible return to Australia would not be shut.
“Swimming Australia is aware that Michael Bohl has accepted a role in China,” the statement said.
“Michael has been influential on the sport’s biggest stage for more than three decades and while disappointed to lose a coach of his calibre, Michael’s international experience and global learnings will always be welcomed back on pool deck.
“Swimming Australia’s High Performance structure and coaching support is world leading and as such, will continue to attract international attention.”
Bohl’s decision to lend his expertise to one of Australia’s biggest rivals in the pool comes just eight months after he announced he was quitting coaching after Paris, where McKeown won the 100m-200m backstroke double.
While he didn’t rule out making a comeback, ‘Bohly’ - as he’s affectionately known - said he needed a lifestyle change after four decades without a break.
“I’m in no hurry to work out what I want to do so I just want to stop and smell the coffee a little bit for 12 months,” he said.
Bohl did not respond to a request for comment on his sudden about turn, but it’s understood he was only approached by the Chinese and given an offer he couldn’t refuse once news of his pending retirement got out.
While his appointment had been kept under wraps, it’s no secret that the Chinese have bold ambitions to sink the American and Australian swims teams at the 2028 Los Angeles and 2032 Brisbane Olympics so are actively headhunting top coaches.
Denis Cotterell, one of Bohl’ closest friends and former mentors, already has a long association with the Chinese, guiding Sun Yang to becoming an almost unstoppable force in men’s long distance freestyle events.
But Bohl is a much bigger coup for the Chinese because he has a proven track record of success in both men’s and women’s swimming, across freestyle, butterfly backstroke and medley.
But while it’s not uncommon for coaches to join foreign swim teams, Bohl’s decision to join China will still be heavily scrutinised and he can expect to cop plenty of flak, especially on social media.
Other coaches who have gone to China have been branded as traitors, even though Australia has recruited overseas trainers, including Dutchman Jacco Verhaeren as the Dolphins’ head coach for the Rio Olympics, and more recently British coach Melanie Marshall.
The obvious attraction for Australian coaches to go to China is the eye-watering salaries on offer, with unconfirmed reports of some getting paid up to $1 million a year, more than five times what they get for doing the same work in their homelands.
Australia’s Ken Wood took the money on offer to coach China’s Liu Zige to win gold in the women’s 200m butterfly at 2008 Beijing Olympics, beating Australia’s Jessicah Schipper, who Wood had previously trained for a decade.
Slammed for sharing Schipper’s training program with her opponents, Woods said he only joined the Chinese for the cash: “They pay good money, big money. I wouldn’t help them for nothing,” he said.
Cotterell also struck it rich when he coached Sun to win gold at the London and Rio Olympics. Cotterell parted ways with Beijing when Sun was banned for tampering with his blood and urine samples before they could be tested for drugs but is now back with the Chinese team.
Bohl is no stranger to working with Asian swimmers in the past, particularly from Korea and Japan.
He coached Korea’s Park Tae-hwan to win gold at the Being Olympics. They parted ways in 2015. Park was later banned after testing positive for steroids.
The Chinese have been at the centre of many doping scandals over the years, with Australia among their most outspoken critics.
Right now, more questions than ever are being asked about the Chinese after this masthead broke the story last year that 23 top swimmers escaped punishment before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the same banned heart drug that Sun once got caught with.
The Chinese have denied any wrongdoing, saying the positive results were caused by swimmers eating contaminated food, and the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted the explanation, but the furore continues.
A former swimmer himself who represented Australia at the 1982 Commonwealth Games after controversially missing selection for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Bohl has been at the forefront of Australian swimming for years.
His swimmers have represented Australia at eight of the last eight Olympic Games, dating back to Barcelona 1992 with five collecting gold – Stephanie Rice (2008), Emma McKeon (2016, 2021), Madison Wilson (2016), Emily Seebohm (2021) and Kaylee McKeown (2024).
One of Australia’s greatest swim coaches who has overseen the careers of Olympic champions including Stephanie Rice, Emma McKeon and Kaylee McKeown, Bohl has backflipped on his plans to take an extended break and decided instead to join the Chinese as an adviser at their high-performance centres in Shanghai and Beijing.
Swimming Australia said in a statement to this masthead that it was saddened to lose Bohl to an overseas rival but the door for his return would never be closed.
“Swimming Australia is aware that Michael Bohl has accepted a role in China,” the statement said.
“Michael has been influential on the sport’s biggest stage for more than three decades and while disappointed to lose a coach of his calibre, Michael’s international experience and global learnings will always be welcomed back on pool deck.
“Swimming Australia’s High Performance structure and coaching support is world leading and as such, will continue to attract international attention.”
Bohl’s shock decision to join the Chinese comes just eight months after he exclusively told this masthead he was quitting coaching after the Paris Olympics.
While he didn’t rule out making a comeback, ‘Bohly’ - as he’s affectionately known said he wanted a break after coaching non stop for 37 years.
It’s not uncommon for coaches to join foreign swim teams - Australia’s hired Dutchman Jacco Verhaeren as head coach for the Rio Olympics, and more recently poached British coach Melanie Marshall, but Bohl’s decision to join China will be heavily scrutinised.
He’s not the first senior Australian coach to work for the Chinese, who offer much high salaries than most other countries.
Australia’s Ken Wood took the better money on offer to coach China’s Liu Zige to win gold in the women’’s 200m butterfly at 2008 Beijing Olympics, beating Australia’s Jessicah Schipper, who Wood had previously trained for a decade.
And Denis Cotterell, one of Bohl’s close mates, also struck it rich when he coached Sun Yang to win gold at the London and Rio Olympics before Sun was banned for smashing his collected anti-doping samples before they could be tested for drugs.
Cotterell is back working with the Chinese.
More questions than ever are being asked about the Chinese, however, after this masthead revealed last year that 23 top swimmers had escaped punishment after testing positive to a banned heart drug before the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The Chinese have denied any wrongdoing, saying the positive results were caused by swimmers eating contaminated food, and the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted the explanation.
Bohl, 61, has been at the forefront of Australian swimming for years. His swimmers have represented Australia at eight of the last eight Olympic Games, going back to Barcelona 1992.
Ten different swimmers have won Olympic medals including five who have collected gold – Stephanie Rice (2008), Emma McKeon (2016, 2021), Madison Wilson (2016), Emily Seebohm (2021) and Kaylee McKeown (2024).
Originally published as Recently retired Australian swimming coach Michael Bohl in shock move to Chinese Swimming Federation
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