Rachel Bayley to join Swim England as changes made to water polo staff

Swim England has appointed Rachel Bayley as its new Head of Performance Operations – and confirmed changes to its water polo staff team.

Rachel is joining the recognised national governing body for aquatics from her role as Head of Performance at Welsh Netball – and will start work at Swim England on Tuesday 5 May.

As part of working across Swim England’s talent programmes, Rachel will lead on the implementation of the new-look Diploma in Sporting Excellence, which is being run alongside education partner Loughborough College and will benefit all disciplines.

George Wood, Swim England Sport Development Director, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming Rachel to Swim England.

“She brings a wealth of experience from team and individual performance sports, having worked on the high performance programme at British Gymnastics and at Welsh Netball, which will give a great grounding for her role with us.

“Rachel will work across our talent programmes and co-manage our talent leads for para-swimming and diving alongside British Swimming colleagues, ensuring a joined-up pathway for our athletes.

Reshaping water polo team

“She will also oversee the administration of our programmes, ensuring effective communications and processes are in place.”

Rachel will be the staff member with overall responsibility for the Water Polo Talent Programme working closely with Norman Leighton our Talent Development Officer and key volunteers and coaches.

In light of the new Swim England Water Polo strategy being published shortly there will also be an enhanced focus on the development end of the sport.

These changes have led to the reshaping of the staffing team within water polo and Andy Fuller has left Swim England.

George said “We would like to thank Andy for his hard work and commitment and wish him well for the future.

“Once we have greater clarity about when activity in pools can recommence, we will ensure that we have the staff capacity to drive our development ambitions for water polo forward alongside the talent programme.”