BILL SWEETENHAM AM
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Bill (William) Sweetenham was born in 1950 in the country part of Australia
and grew up in small mining townships. He completed Grade 12 at the
Mount Isa State High School in 1967. Being a competitive swimmer during
his schooling, he turned to coaching at an early age and had his own
swim school in Mount Isa. He progressed from country to city to elite
level coaching, and was Australia's national coach for many years.
Highlights of Bill's career are Stephen Holland, Michelle Ford and
Tracey Wickham's many world record swims, becoming Australia's first
State Director of Coaching (Queensland), his position as the first Head
Swimming Coach at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, Head
Swimming Coach at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, the many times he
led the Australian Swim Team at Olympic and Commonwealth Games, and
being awarded the Order of Australia in 1989 and the Prime Minister's
Award in 1991.
In 1991, Bill's last season as Head Swimming Coach at the Australian
Institute of Sport, the team included a current world champion (long
course), a world record holder (short course), 2 future Olympic silver
medallists, 3 future Olympic bronze medallists, 6 Commonwealth gold
medallists, 4 double Pan Pacific gold medallists, 5 world record breakers
(short course), 9 world champions (short course) and 9 Commonwealth
record holders (long course).
There were 10 Olympians selected on the 1992 team from Bill's group
of AIS swimmers. He has placed 63 swimmers on National Open major teams
with 27 of them winning medals in long course major meets and he has
worked with 9 world record holders in both long and short course meets.
Until recently, Bill was National Youth Coach for Australian Swimming
Inc. and his task involved traversing Australia, preparing up and coming
swimmers with talent for the 2000 Olympic Games and beyond. Equally
important in this role was to educate, motivate and prepare a select
group of coaches for the same purpose. From this program, there have
been 4 world champions and world record holders etc., along with several
new national coaching staff appointments.
During the inaugural (1995-2000) period of the National Youth Program,
the performance of major national team rookies has gone from below 20%
to currently well over 90% with the 1999 Pan pacific Team performances
where 11 rookies and a total of 17 members of the Youth Program scored
well over 90% personal bests where the team average was 46%.
Bill has been selected Head Coach of 4 Olympic Games and Coach on 5
Commonwealth Games teams, and has enjoyed being personal coach to world
record holders, Olympic and world Champions. Under Bill's guidance,
Australia had its best ever Age Nationals in Perth 2000.
Bill considers his best coaching effort was placing 9 swimmers on the
1989 Pan Pacific Team with a 100% strike rate for improved heats to
final performances and 100% personal best times strike rate. He continues
to lecture, publish and conduct clinics on a variety of subjects world-wide.
As of November 2, 2000, Bill has been appointed the National Performance
Director of the Amateur Swimming Federation of Great Britain.
Reference: Australian Swimming Ltd
Champions
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