Nugent named Australian swim coach
MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) -- Australian Swimming (AS) have appointed Leigh Nugent as head coach for this year's Athens Olympics.
Head national youth coach for the past two years, he will take charge of a strong team that includes gold medal favorites Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett.
Nugent took over as acting high performance director of the team on December 12 last year from Greg Hodge and the position was made permanent on Friday.
His appointment as head coach follows a restructure of the AS coaching programme which includes the abolition of the part-time head coach positions held by Brian Sutton (men) and Scott Volkers (women).
AS executive director Glenn Tasker said in a statement: "Australian Swimming wants to first of all thank our two head coaches Brian Sutton and Scott Volkers for their efforts in their part-time roles over the past 12 months.
"But Australian Swimming believes the best way forward is with a national head coach and we welcome Leigh Nugent into that role and we are confident he is the man to take the Australian Team into this Olympic campaign."
Australia will name their team for the August Olympics after the national championships in Sydney which end on April 3.
