Diving Australia has today announced changes to the way in which Andy Banks, National Coach Melbourne, will carry out his role leading up to and through the Tokyo Olympics.

Whilst remaining, through to the Tokyo Olympics, National Coach Melbourne, Andy will, for personal reasons, base himself and his partner out of the Adelaide Performance Pillar. This change will take effect in December/January depending on other operational considerations.

Andy, along with some of Victoria’s National Squad athletes, will spend a significant amount of time travelling between now and the Tokyo Olympics, which will support the provision of quality training opportunities for synchro pairings. This travel will be better for Andy and his family when conducted from a home base in Adelaide. Diving Australia is indebted to Diving Victoria, the Victorian Institute of Sport and the South Australian Sports Institute for their support of this change. This change will have the effect of a small number of VIS divers spending time training in Adelaide between now and the Tokyo Olympics. Any VIS diver that does train in Adelaide will remain a VIS scholarship athlete and will be supported by SASI whilst training in Adelaide. DA believes that these changes will best enable Andy’s current athletes to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics with him in the best position to support them.

Andy will remain in the role of National Coach Melbourne and will periodically visit Melbourne to lead and guide the high performance coaches and the support team to ensure the quality of support to the athletes based in Melbourne.

Whilst there may be some concern from the Victorian diving community as to the National Coach Melbourne being primarily based in Adelaide through to the Olympics, it is important to clearly state that DA remains committed to diving within Victoria. DA is committed to enhancing training environments for Victorian based divers and will work closely with the VIS and DV to ensure planning for future Olympic and Commonwealth Games cycles provides those opportunities, in line with the broader Australian system.

DA also wishes to strongly commend the leadership being shown by Diving Victoria in supporting all athletes in the Victorian pathway and to give our firm support to the direction being taken by Diving Victoria.

More specific information will be provided over the coming weeks, but in the meantime, should anyone have any comments or questions please do not hesitate to contact Steve Foley (steve@diving.org.au) or David Bell (david@diving.org.au) on 07 3823 1444.