Jon Rudd Moves On & Up: Plymouth Leander Boss Is New Performance Head For Ireland

Jon Rudd, mentor to Ruta Meilutyte, Ben Proud and a host of other internationals from several countries, is the new National Performance Director for Ireland.

Swim Ireland made the announcement today and Rudd will leave his role as head of the Plymouth Leander programme in England at the close of the year in readiness for a new start on the Emerald Isle come February next year.

Rudd said: “I am honored to take on this role for Swim Ireland as it is an exciting opportunity for both them and I.

“I am obviously sad to be leaving something that I have created and built over what is almost three decades and it also hurts to be leaving behind such great athletes and a wonderful workforce. But Plymouth Leander is way bigger than any one man and my thoughts will soon be with my colleagues and athletes in Ireland, where I will now build a world class team around me that can help Ireland find that elusive podium finish at World and Olympic level.”

Ben Proud – by Gian Mattia D’Alberto / lapresse

There are no better plaudits for a coach than those that come from the athletes he or she works with. The 2012 Olympic 100m breaststroke champion, 2013 World Champion and current world record holder, Meilutyte, of Lithuania, said: “I’ll very much miss working with Jon, of course, as we’ve been through so much together over the last 7 years.

“I really hope that we get the chance to work together in the future and I know that he’s always on the end of the phone if I need support and guidance. I’ll now evaluate what I want to do with my swimming from this point as there are a number of world class swimming programmes out there that I can consider for my own future. I sincerely wish both Jon and Swim Ireland all the very best for the times ahead and thank him for the massive part that he has played in my life”.

Double Commonwealth sprint champion for England and close to the Olympic podium for Britain in Rio this past August, Proud said: “The start of every Olympic cycle is always the time to hit the reset button, so although Jon’s move is quite sudden, it is probably the best time for these changes to happen.

“In the five years that I have been working with Jon, I have learnt everything I need to know in order to improve myself going forward. He has easily been the most influential man in my career and will undoubtedly continue to make his mark in the swimming world throughout his career.”

Swim Ireland noted: “Rudd is world renowned for his system building and leadership abilities, having built the British superpower that is Plymouth Leander Swimming over a 27-year period. Over the last 11 years of this tenure, he has also worked as Director of Swimming for Plymouth College, offering swimming placements in the school to athletes from over 30 different nations around the world and across all continents. Both Plymouth University and the University of St Mark & St John have now mirrored this system somewhat in recent years to help make Plymouth Leander one of the most successful clubs in Europe.”

Rudd’s leadership skills came to wider prominence when he led the England team to a roaring success at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the squad’s pre-Games camp at the London Aquatics Centre playing a key part in exorcising the ghosts of a home Games that did not deliver on promises.

Twice awarded the British Swimming Coach of the Year Award and the current British Swimming Coaches Association Chairman, Rudd has served as a head coach to England, Britain and Lithuanian swim teams. He will now lead Ireland to Tokyo 2020 and beyond.

Rudd & Meilutye – 2013 WR

Speaking on the appointment, Swim Ireland CEO Sarah Keane said: “I am really excited by the appointment of Jon. He is very driven and determined and I think that he will be a strong leader. Jon has the relevant skills and experience to be our National Performance Director and has the ambition to help us attain our vision.”

Neil Glasson, Chairman of Plymouth Leander, looked at a glass of Guinness both half empty and half full in the situation, noting: “It is clearly not going to be a happy day for us when Jon gives his final farewells, but we are so grateful for all that he has done to make this what it is and we can celebrate his work over the next weeks as he makes this transition to Ireland.

“They will be aware how fortunate they are in recruiting him to this role and I’m also sure that we can sit back and watch Irish swimming very much come to the fore over the ensuing years”.

Rudd’s planning and delivery of an integrated sport and college, school and university, system that linked Leander to Plymouth College, Plymouth University and the University of St Mark & St John, drew plaudits from the College Headmaster, Jonathan Standen:

“Jon has a wealth of experience in coaching world class athletes, having been part of the Plymouth College High Performance Swimming Programme for over a decade. A Performance Director for a National team is the natural progression for Jon and we wish him all the success.”

From The Archive – some hints about what Ireland can expect of its new man

Rudd: Anti-Doping Crusader

From the archive – long before the events involving Mack Horton, Lilly King, Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps unfolded at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Jon Rudd called on FINA to get it right for Olympic year 2016. They did not. Here is one of the articles on the road to Rio, five months out:

Ruta Meilutyte and Ben Proud: world-class athletes who want clean and fair sport so that they never have to wonder what they might have achieved in the absence of cheats

Jon Rudd, head coach to England’s Commonwealth Games team in 2014 and supremo at Plymouth Leander, believes that swimming is “one stroke away from allowing money, politics and bad influence to unlock the key to drugs cupboard and allow a free for all”.

Reacting to The Times investigation of swimming’s doping crisis this week, Rudd, mentor to the likes of Lithuania’s 100m breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte and double Commonwealth sprint champion for England Ben Proud, said: “I’m blown away my these revelations. It is like an alien world from that that we in Britain work at and in with passion every day on the deck.

“My gut reaction is that not our voices, not anything at all with work to fight this but for one thing: the only way I feel we can beat this is if the world governing body FINA has our backs.”

With a nod to such statements from the FINA Executive Director Cornel Marculescu that “you cannot condemn the stars for a minor doping offence”, Rudd added:

“Unless FINA take our sport, the sport we love in their hands, nurture it, back clean swimming and treat doping with a robust, impenetrable and fiercely determined approach aimed at cutting out the rot, then we are all banging our heads against the wall and it will continue; another case, another ban, another case …”.

Back in January at the World Aquatic Development Conference in Lund, he urged coaches to stand together against doping, to speak out when bad things happen and do all they could to work for clean sport.

His plea has been heard. Coaching bodies have not only backed the call for a full inquiry in Russian Swimming so that clean sport can take hold in a clean-up of rogue coaches and doctors cited by whistleblowers: they want WADA to launch an inquiry into FINA’s handling of doping matters. Among the coaches signed up o the cause:

The World Swimming Coaches Association (the same body has backed the IOC call for WADA to take on anti-doping controls and for those to be removed from the jurisdiction of FINA, which has a conflict of interest in a constitution that pledges to promote swimming and its stars yet must shop cheats and decide how best to deal with them. Self-policing, say critics, has failed. The American Swimming Coaches Association – ASCA The British Swimming Coaches Association – BSCA The Canadian Swimming Coaches & Teachers Association – CSCTA The head coach to German, Henning Lambertz, and team Andrea Di Nino and the team at the ADN Swim Project

In Britain, said Rudd, “none of us [coaches and elite swimmers] feel that the doping issue should not be tightened up and sorted out”. He added with passion: “There is not a single one of us that is doing anything undercover nor doing something we shouldn’t be.”

He is not alone among coaches to wonder at some of the influences allowed to be on deck at major international competition, including doctors involved with swimmers who have served suspension and continue to work with those who fell foul of ant-doping rules.

Rudd notes, with not a little frustration, that the one accreditation used at major international events for the Britain team doctor covers “a great GP” [general practioner].

“Don’t get me wrong,” he explained, the doctor who accompanies teams is great at their work, it may be a great GP and they are there to patch you up when you need medical help”. Some teams had scores of doctors with them. “Our guys are there to sort out sickness in the camp not performance enhancement.”

He did not cite any particular nation but a trawl of national-team handbooks does indeed throw up some notable differences. In the past decade, China, including its Beijing 2008 Olympic team, has sent between five and eight doctors to major competitions for squads no bigger – and often smaller in size than Great Britain.

There is a big cultural divide in swimming – and FINA has no accreditation process for coaches and others allowed to be in the vicinity of athletes on the big day beyond accepting what national federations allow to happen.

Sun Yang on poolside with the man China’s media says is Ba Zhen, banned May 17, working with China’s top aquatic asset September 22 – ragout from Chinese media sites covering the story of the doctor’s appearance in Incheon

Days before Dr. Ba Zhen appeared with Sun Yang on the deck at the Asian Games in September 2014, the Chinese Swimming Association had informed FINA that it intended to impose no penalty on the Olympic 400 and 1500m freestyle champion but had imposed a one-year ban on Dr Ba Zhen following the swimmer’s positive doping test for a heart stimulant.

Many months later, FINA replied to SwimVortex (a hit and miss process to say the least) questions about Dr Ba Zhen with a note to say ‘he was not accredited for China at the event’. As if that mattered; as if that were even possible.

How many doctors get to freelance with the biggest star of Chinese swimming when China has its official team together on a plane and in the hotel and at the pool on deck? Answer: none. China told FINA that Dr Ba Zhen had been removed from the official team list and was not accredited through the CSA at the Asian Games. Fascinating. How does a freelance doctor get an accreditation to be on the poolside in his track suit at a major international event if not through an official team? One for FINA’s inquiry into doping-related problems when it gets its promised inquiry well and truly underway.

Bottom line: if the CSA had wanted Dr Ba to stay home, that could certainly have been arranged.

Rudd makes no specific allegations against names and nations but he believed too many are crossing a line, noting:

“I draw the line – and so do  those who I work with in Britain, at ‘natural occurring product that doesn’t cause athletes any health issues’. We don’t do men in white coats and bunsen burners – I don’t think we can say that about everyone in swimming.”

His frustration talks to the experience he …

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