Don Talbot OBE is an Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

 from Australia. He has coached national teams for Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

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Canada

Since the 1950s Talbot has coached Olympic champions and World Record holders for a thirty year period. The list of his students include John

John Konrads

John Konrads is an retired Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won the 1500 m freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In his career, he set 26 individual world records, and after his swimming career ended, was the Australasian director of L'Oréal, as well as campaigning...

 and Ilsa Konrads

Ilsa Konrads

Ilsa Konrads was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won silver in the 4x100 m freestyle relay at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In her career, she set 12 individual world records, and after her swimming career ended, was the Australasian editor of Belle...

, Ian O'Brien

Ian O'Brien

Ian Lovett O'Brien is a former Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1960s, who won the 200 metre breaststroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in world record time...

, Bob Windle

Bob Windle

Robert George "Bob" Windle is a former Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal...

, Kevin Berry

Kevin Berry

Kevin John Berry OAM was an Australian butterfly swimmer of the 1960s who won the gold medal in the 200 m butterfly at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He set twelve world records in his career...

, Beverley Whitfield

Beverley Whitfield

Beverley Joy Whitfield was an Australian breaststroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich...

, Gail Neall

Gail Neall

Gail Neall is a former Australian medley swimmer who raced in the 1970s. She won a gold medal in the 400 m individual medley at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich in world record time.- Early years :...

, Mark Tewksbury

Mark Tewksbury

Mark Tewksbury, MSM is a Canadian former swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100 metres backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics...

, Alex Baumann

Alex Baumann

Alexander "Sasha" Baumann, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian athlete, who won two gold medals and set two world records in swimming at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.Born in Prague , Baumann...

, Tracy Caulkins

Tracy Caulkins

Tracy Anne Caulkins Stockwell, OAM, is a former American college and international swimmer, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and a former world record-holder....

 and Ian Thorpe

Ian Thorpe

Ian James Thorpe OAM , nicknamed the Thorpedo and Thorpey, is an Australian swimmer who specialises in freestyle, but also competes in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian, and with three gold and two silver medals, was the most...

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He was the national head coach for Swimming Canada during its greatest period of success in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, and some have credited Talbot with its success. He was dismissed by the Canadian Olympic Committee

Canadian Olympic Committee

The Canadian Olympic Committee - COC is the private, non-profit organization representing Canadian athletes in the International Olympic Committee and the Pan American Games. It was formally recognized by the IOC in 1907. The COC also represents the selection of Canadian cities in their bid for...

 in 1988 after demanding more rigid qualification standards and was replaced by Dave Johnson

Dave Johnson (swim coach)

Dave Johnson is the former head coach for Swimming Canada, serving in that capacity from 1993 to 2004. His twin brother Tom is currently a coach for Swim Canada. Dave Johnson is currently the head coach of the Cascade Swim Club in Calgary.Johnson became head coach in 1988 after Don Talbot was...

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Australia

In 1989, Talbot took the position of National Head Coach at Australian Swimming. He was an outspoken critic of the use of steroids in swimming, notably during an incident during the 1998 World Aquatics Championships

1998 World Aquatics Championships

The 1998 World Aquatics Championships or the 8th FINA World Swimming Championships were held in Perth, Western Australia, Australia between 8 January and 17 January 1998....

 which resulted in the expulsion of a Chinese athlete from the competition. He retired as Australia's head coach after Australia topped the swimming gold medal tally at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships

2001 World Aquatics Championships

rightThe 2001 World Aquatics Championships or the 9th FINA World Swimming Championships were held in Fukuoka, Japan between 16 July and 29 July 2001....

 in Fukuoka

Fukuoka, Fukuoka

is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...

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