Coach Furber Switches Cycling For Swimming
Chris Furber has been announced as the new national performance director of British Swimming’s disability programme, following success as the lead coach of British Cycling’s Paralympic team at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Furber takes over the role from John Atkinson who becomes director of high performance at Swimming Canada.
Furber said of his appointment: ‘This is an incredibly exciting move for me. I love disability sport and the opportunity to lead the sport of swimming, which has 148 opportunities to win Paralympic gold, is an incredible one that I could not ignore. I’ve been at British Cycling for 13 years and, while I’m sad to be leaving, I believe the opportunity with British Swimming is ideally suited. I feel the impact I can make will help the team to move up the medal table while building on the good work done by the previous performance director John Atkinson.’
David Sparkes, chief executive of British Swimming, said:’We’re delighted to welcome Chris to our successful Paralympic swimming team as the new national performance director. Chris has been a critical factor in the success of the Paralympic cycling team, witnessed by all in London last summer, which embraced many of the characteristics of the successful Olympic cycling team. I’m sure Chris will bring with him some interesting and exciting ideas from cycling which will drive the future success of the Paralympic swimming team and build on the foundations laid by successive national performance directors.’
Furber will begin his role on 13th May where his first challenge will be the 2013 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Swimming World Championships in Montreal before he can start putting in place plans for more medal success at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
