Garston Swimming Club’s Simon Rothwell has been appointed the new President of the Amateur Swimming Association.
Simon joined Garston SC in 1980 when he started at Liverpool University. He had begun his competitive swimming career at Lytham St Annes SC in 1970.
He was enrolled at Garston by the late and great Olympian, Austin Rawlinson MBE a friend of Simon’s coach at Lytham, John Yates. Austin was to become Simon’s great mentor through his early years and beyond. In Simon’s early years, he trained as a swimming instructor at Garston and qualified as a technical swimming official.
Simon has followed in the footsteps of this great man and has also gone on to become President and Chairman of Garston Swimming Club. He became Club Secretary in 1986 a position he held until 1995 and then became Club Vice Chairman in 2000. Simon then became Garston Swimming Club President and Chairman. He has also held prominent posts with District, County, Regional and National governing swimming bodies.
Simon has a wealth of experience in organising bodies / committees and has been involved in Commonwealth, European, Olympic and World championship events, representing England and Great Britain as a representative of the ASA and European swimming bodies.
Most notably, Simon served on the Aquatics Committee for the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games at which he was Deputy Competition Manager for Aquatics and Technical Director for Swimming having served on many organising committees for national and international events. His first major international appointment being his selection to represent England at the XVI Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998.
As President and Chairman of Garston Swimming Club, he has lead and helped successfully develop the Club to what it is today. He has overseen the Club’s involvement in a flagship and groundbreaking partnership from 2010 with Liverpool City Council / Garston Lifestyles, to deliver schools and community junior and adult swimming lessons. This partnership was also key to Garston SC being awarded Liverpool Club of the year for 2010.
This now highly successful partnership, embodies and blends the true values of a not for profit / voluntary run community swimming club with the modern business reality of a local authority and paves the way for similar cooperative community ventures in other sports and community activity.
The partnership in cooperation and with close working relationships with Centre Manager Lyn Cain and Liverpool City Council Operations Manager Don Hurst, now delivers weekly swimming lessons to nearly 600 children each week, and in addition , swimming lessons for adults and to schools in the area.
Simon Rothwell is a tireless worker for swimming locally, nationally and internationally and quoting the ASA, “Being made ASA President is a fitting reward for someone who has the sport in his blood and for whose workload is unfathomable, whose enthusiasm is unbounded and whose dedication is unsurpassed”
