End of an era for John Keppie OAM

Swimming Australia
Published: Jul 10, 2012 09:14:31 AM Updated: Jul 9, 2012 09:18:29 AM

As the 2012 Australian Age Swimming Championships drew to a close, so too did the career of Swimming Australia’s Technical Manager John Keppie OAM.

John’s technical official profile spans three decades and includes over 40 high profile swimming events including the 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A devoted and admired Technical Official, John, who was a qualified FINA Referee from 1997 to 2008, has refereed at every Swimming Australia Championships since 1990 and was appointed Technical Manager at the Australian Swimming Championships from 2004 to 2012.

His commitment to swimming became evident through his continuous efforts to improve the standards of professionalism within the Technical Official division and he was awarded Swimming Australia Technical Official of the Year for 2004.

It was John who initiated and implemented a Technical Official’s Assessor Program in addition to driving a restructure of the Swimming Australia Technical Swimming Committee.

Over the course of just two years, between 2005 and 2007, he was named Chairman of the Panel responsible for the new restructured Swimming Australia Technical Official’s Education and Accreditation Program which included a defined career path for all Swimming Technical Officials.

Following this, John was Appointed Swimming Australia’s mentor for Referees and Starters in the Australian Sports Commission’s Scholarship program for Sports Officials.

Swimming Australia’s General Manager of Community Sport Adam Pine said that John was an integral character in the education and training of technical officials across the country.

“Australia is recognised internationally as having some of the best officials in the world. I have no doubt that this can be attributed to the high standards that John expects of himself and of all other officials that he trains and mentors at an international, national, state and grass roots level,” Pine said.

Swimming Australia would like to thank John for his commitment and enthusiasm to swimming and officiating over the years and we wish him all the best for the future.

His dedicated service to the sport is an inspiration and it is volunteers like John that make swimming in Australia as successful as it is.

Swimming Australia undertook a comprehensive process to appoint a new Technical Manager and would like to thank all of those who expressed an interest in this position.

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Robert Gregg, an experienced mentor and assessor at a national level, has been appointed the new Technical Manager and will take over from John.

This new appointment has allowed for further changes that better service the needs of the sport and its events.  Queenslander Karen Macleod has been appointed as Pool Assistant Technical Manager and Bill Ford from New South Wales, has been appointed as Open Water Swimming Assistant Technical Manager.