The coach of the Sunshine Coast’s renowned para-swimming program has been named to lead the Australian Paralympic swim team.
Harley Connolly, who took the helm at the UniSC Spartans in November, was announced as one of two coaches of the national squad by Swimming Australia. The other is Kate Sparkes.
The former will head the men’s program, while the latter will head the women’s program.
Connolly has previously been a member of two Paralympic campaigns, two Commonwealth Games teams and multiple world championships.
He said he was humbled by the appointment.“With over a decade coaching on the Paralympic team I’m excited to lead the team through our next chapter on the path to Paris,” he said.“I’m humbled for the opportunity to help make dreams come true; to enable athletes, coaches and individuals to perform when it matters the most for themselves and their country.”
Connolly took the head coaching role at UniSC late last year, after coaching at Burpengary.Sparkes was appointed to her first senior team as part of the Tokyo Paralympics campaign and coaches at Yeronga Park in Brisbane.
Swimming Australia high performance director Tamara Sheppard welcomed their appointment ahead of a crucial 18 months of competition.“Kate and Harley have both demonstrated their ability as leaders within our national team environment, not only through their coaching but more importantly the behaviours, values and standards they expect of themselves and their athletes,” she said.“This (head coaches for males and females) is a new model for us, but one aimed at further strengthening the important link between our daily performance environments and our Dolphins campaigns to ensure our athletes are as prepared as possible to execute when it matters most.”“We look forward to seeing this model evolve as Kate and Harley take ownership of the direction of the team across this next critical phase of competition.”
The announcement comes off the back of the launch of Paralympics Australia’s new Strategy for Australian Paralympic Sport to Brisbane and Beyond, leading the delivery of a fair and sustainable sporting system that facilitates world’s-best athletic performance and creates clear and available sport participation pathways for the 4.3 million Australians who live with a disability.Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article.
