Swimming Australia Names Michael Scott CEO After He Turns Down Athletics Australia

Former British Swimming High Performance Dir Michael Scott "is expected to become" the new Swimming Australia CEO after turning down the role of high performance director at Athletics Australia, according to Nicole Jeffery of THE AUSTRALIAN. It "has been an open secret for the past month that Scott had secured the AA position" following his return from Britain in December. There was "considerable dismay in the athletics ranks" when Scott informed the organization that he could no longer take the position. Swimming Australia President Barclay Nettlefold "is keen to appoint a new CEO in the next month so the new boss can be part of the panel to appoint a high performance director" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/1). In Sydney, Michael Gleeson noted AA CEO Dallas O'Brien said that Scott "had indicated he was going to apply for a job at Swimming Australia instead." AA "had been working for months to secure Scott and had been working through contractual challenges from the British." These matters "appeared to be resolved," but O'Brien revealed that "an approach from Swimming Australia encouraging Scott to apply for a position there prompted him to turn down the athletics job." O'Brien said that AA now plans to "go back to candidates it had shortlisted when Scott was offered the job" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 1/31).

CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Also in Sydney, Jeffery wrote the Australian team "is about to lose the mastermind" behind its only London Olympics Gold Medal, Australian Institute of Sport head coach Shannon Rollason. Rollason, who prepared the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team in London, "resigned from his post" to become head coach at Denmark's national training center (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/1).