War on water: Swimming Australia poaches coaching guru from rivals ahead of Paris Olympics

The Poms will be filthy after Swimming Australia pulled off a massive coup by poaching the driving force behind British super star breaststroker Adam Peaty, less than a month from the start of the Olympic Games.

Swimming Australia has pulled off a major coup by enticing British super coach Mel Marshall to Queensland, all but ensuring the Dolphins will soon have a female trainer on the pool deck at major events.

True to his word, SA’s forward thinking new CEO Rob Woodhouse has delivered on his promise to recruit a high-profile international female coach to help fast-track the development of Aussie women coaches.

There is no greater trailblazer in swimming than Marshall, who won six medals for England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne but is perhaps best known as the driving force behind English swimming superstar Adam Peaty, a once skinny and shy teenager that she transformed into an Olympic legend.

Melanie Marshall with her star pupil Adam Peaty. Picture: Supplied

Together they have conquered the world, with Peaty winning back-to-back Olympic titles in 100m breaststroke and a third gold medal in medley relay, but it can now be revealed they will part ways after Paris when Marshall switches her allegiances to the Dolphins.

“Swimming Australia is committed to best practice, and this includes our coaching appointments,” Woodhouse told this masthead.

“Mel Marshall is highly respected globally, including in Australia where she has brought her team out for training camps for many years.

“Mel’s coaching successes speak for themselves, and we’re delighted that she will be coaching in Australia in the future.”

The Poms should be filthy at losing their greatest swim coach to their oldest sporting rivals but hold Marshall in such high regard that they wished her all the best regardless.

“Aquatics GB can confirm that Mel Marshall has decided to step down from her role as Aquatics GB Loughborough Performance Centre Lead Coach after the Olympic Games and ahead of the 2025 season to take up a role in Australia,” said a spokesman for Aquatics GB.

“She will go with our full thanks, having been influential on our sport’s biggest stages, first as a swimmer and then as a world-class coach over the past decade and more.

“For now, the full focus of Mel, her athletes and everyone on the Olympic team is on delivering memorable performances in Paris later this month.“

Melanie Marshall holds up a sign thanking Australia after she won a silver medal for England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

It is expected the 42-year-old Marshall will base herself on the Gold Coast after master coach Michael Bohl revealed to this masthead that he was stepping down from his job in charge of the Griffith University squad, which includes Paris Olympians Emma McKeon, Kaylee McKeown, Lani Pallister, Brendon Smith and Moesha Johnson.

It’s known that Swimming Australia wanted a high-profile replacement for Bohl, who is taking an extended break from the sport and is undecided whether he will ever return with his clipboard and stopwatch in hand.

Woodhouse has made no secret of the fact that he also wants to appoint more women to senior coaching roles, recognising there’s an alarming imbalance at the elite level.

While half the Australian swimmers – and the majority of gold medal contenders – that have been picked for the Paris Olympics are female, all eight coaches that were selected for the pool events are men.

Swimming Australia CEO Rob Woodhouse. Picture: Delly Carr

The last time Australia picked any female swim coach for the Olympics was in 2004 when Tracey Menzies was Ian Thorpe’s mentor at Athens, prompting complaints it was becoming a boy’s club.

Renowned as a can-do man who isn’t afraid to swim against the tide, Woodhouse took over as CEO of Swimming Australia in April, vowing to make major changes to the way the sport is run.

The recruitment of Marshall is proof he will make the big calls.

It will have helped that Woodhouse, an Olympic swimming medallist from the 1984 Olympics, has known and worked with Marshall for years while he was based in the UK.

He was the general manager of the London Roar franchise, which competed in the rebel International Swimming League.

Coached by Marshall, the Roar included five Aussie swimmers: Kyle Chalmers, Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell, Minna Atherton and Woodhouse’s niece Emma McKeon.

“I know Mel will also be fantastic in developing the skills of many of the outstanding young female and male coaches here in Australia,” he said.

“Additionally, we want the best coaches in the world working with our best talent to develop our current and emerging talent ahead of the LA Olympics and Mel ticks all these boxes.

“But for now our focus is on the Paris Olympics.”