Swimming New Zealand has announced that Gary Francis has been appointed their new Targeted Athlete and Coach Manager. I think Gary is a good choice. He is a great guy. More than that, his pedigree in swimming and his academic background are beyond reproach.

In 1988 he graduated from the US International University with a BA in Psychology. In 1991 he went on to study Physical Education at England’s prestigious Loughborough University. The history of that University is steeped in sporting excellence. Students include Sebastian Coe, Paula Radcliffe, Clive Woodward, Gerald Davies, Caitlin McClatchey and Sarah Price. In 2016 over 80 students, graduates and Loughborough-linked athletes competed in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the Olympic competition Loughborough athletes secured 12 medals, including 5 golds, meaning if Loughborough University was a country it would have finished two places ahead of New Zealand in 17th place on the medal table. With a degree in Psychology and study at Loughborough, Swimming New Zealand will have the benefit of a well-trained sporting education to call on. I hope they realise that and use it wisely.

And since graduating Gary has been involved in swimming from junior learners through to international competitors.

In New Zealand his involvement in swimming began in 2007 when he was appointed Head Age Group Coach for the North Shore Swimming Club. In 2010 Gary was promoted to Assistant Head Coach and finally in 2014 he transferred to Paralympics New Zealand as their National Development Coach. The thing I admire about that experience is that it involves working at the coal-face. It has meant years of walking around a swimming pool actually teaching the skills of swimming fast. In 2008 he was quoted in the press as saying his mantra for success was, “work hard and attention to detail.” Gary is no office junky who has brown-nosed his way to a top job. He knows about 5.00am mornings, of 70 kilometre weeks and all day swim meets. For years he has experienced the exposure of taking swimmers to championship meets where six months work are about to go under the microscope.

But Gary’s experience is even deeper than that. Both his daughters were very good swimmers and Chloe was exceptional. I have been fortunate enough to have lived with a wife and daughter who were both national champions, open record holders and national representatives. Without question having members of your family compete at that level and living with them through it all, teaches you more about the life of an elite athlete, in a shorter time, than any arm’s length experience. Gary’s daughter could swim times like 1.02 for 100 IM, 1.09 for 100 breaststroke, 2.00 for 200 freestyle, 59 for 100 fly and 2.13 for 200IM. That’s class swimming. The fact that Gary was her coach and she swam that fast and I imagine still speaks to her Dad, says all I need to hear about his knowledge and understanding personality.

And so do I have any reservations about his appointment? Just one, is the answer. And strangely enough my reservation lies in one of the first sentences used in this blog. “He is a great guy.” We know that the Swimming New Zealand Chairman, Bruce Cotterill has been accused elsewhere of applying the term “It’s easy to soar like an eagle when you surround yourself with turkeys.” My worry is that Cotterill and Johns may have taken the mild manner and polite reservation of Gary Francis as a sign of weakness, a sign that Gary will be amenable to any policy direction they choose.

I hope that’s not true. Gary needs to remind himself constantly that he has forgotten more about swimming than Cotterill and Johns together have ever known. His academic and practical training in sport are light years ahead of theirs. For the good of New Zealand swimming Gary Francis needs to lead. We have already seen what happens when policy is set by the other two. It has not been good.

If ever proof was needed, just look at the personalities of three men who turned around the swimming fortunes of their countries; Don Talbot in Australia, Mark Schubert in the United States and Bill Sweetenham in the UK. All three were absolutely uncompromising, tough, swimming knowledgeable and driven by a self-belief in a personal philosophy and direction. Oh, and all three left swimming in their countries stronger and more successful than it was when they began.

Does Gary Francis know as much about swimming as those three? Yes and in some respects he knows more. His background includes administration, junior swimming, elite swimming and para-swimming. He knows about swimming all right.

Has he served his time on the side of a pool like they have? Yes. All four are very experienced in the coal-face of the sport.

Has the scope of his swimming experienced matched theirs? Yes with the possible exception of experience at the top of the sport’s national federation. Gary is going to get that now.

Is his academic training the equal of theirs? No, it’s better.

Is he as tough and uncompromising as they are? This I don’t know. Certainly Gary comes in a more polite, more dignified package than the other three. Whether there is an uncompromising core of steel inside, we are about to find out. I hope so. A good guy is being thrown into a den of unsuccessful bureaucrats who know only a fraction of what he knows about swimming. The reality is that like Schubert, Sweetenham and Talbot, his job will be to lead the organisation. Whether Cotterill and Johns have the brains to let him do that, we will see. Whether Gary has the courage to do what’s right and ignore the political fallout; I hope so.

And so Gary. Good luck and God speed. If you do what is necessary, I predict the next couple of years are going to be difficult. Your job will be at risk many times before you turn this lot around. But the sport needs you. And for that you begin with all our best wishes.