Decorated swimming coach Mel Marshall, who has worked with Olympic champion Adam Peaty for almost two decades, says she is relocating to Australia to further her career as she bemoans a lack of “empowerment” in British sport.
The 42-year-old is leaving her post as Aquatics GB lead coach at its Loughborough Performance Centre after the Paris Olympic Games.
She says her move would not stop her from working with breaststroke world-record holder Peaty – who has won three Olympic gold, eight World Championship titles, 17 European crowns and four golds at the Commonwealth Games in the 17 years under her tutelage – if he chooses to swim on after the upcoming Games.
“You always come to a part in your life when you will want change and you want development and you will want to move in a different direction, and this opportunity came when I was looking for that,” Marshall told BBC East Midlands Today.
“There were opportunities and there were offers, and there was a feeling of desire for the skillset I have.
“It’s the right time in my life, it’s a good adventure to take and those things matched with what I want to do in the next stage of my career.”