Olympic champion Goodhew on the coach who changed his life

FOR Olympic champion Duncan Goodhew, it was his first coach who took him from a child 'drowning' in a classroom to a global star in the pool. Goodhew, 65, won swimming gold and bronze at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow but admits it would have been impossible without his school PE teacher. Ad/> And the three-time Commonwealth Games medalist is now returning the favour and supporting UK Coaching's fresh recruitment drive and #Born2Coach initiative, encouraging people back into coaching and supporting others being active after the pandemic.

Swimming'Devastated' Peaty to miss World Championships after training accident11/05/2022 AT 13:59 The new campaign will see UK Coaching engage with seven of the nation's leading sports over the next ten years to recruit more coaches and ensure the nation is fully supported to become more active, more often. And Goodhew said: «They [coaches] made all the difference in my life. „My first coach Tony Roberts, was a PE teacher, they took me straight into the pool, into a club, and the rest was history.

“Given that I was literally drowning in the back of the classroom, dyslexic, really struggling at school, he threw the life preserver to me that changed my life. »He made me feel as if I was important. He made me feel I had something to work for that I could be good at.

I learned, I developed, I improved. He gave me a way of improving myself that I could measure and understand." Latest Sport England data showed a decline of more than 3.1 million people giving up their time to lead activity sessions. And to combat the alarming drop, UK Coaching is announcing a nationwide drive to expand the coaching workforce to mark the start of UK Coaching Week, the annual national awareness campaign which