1 May 2018

Former NZ swimming coach Jan Cameron dies

11:19 am on 1 May 2018

Former New Zealand swimming coach Jan Cameron - a Olympic and Commonwealth medallist for Australia - has died in Queensland, aged 70.

Swimming coach Jan Cameron

Swimming coach Jan Cameron Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2018 www.photosport.nz

Cameron was widely regarded as the driving force behind New Zealand swimming's first - and controversial - high performance programme.

A silver medallist for Australia in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Cameron shifted to New Zealand in 1991, initially working as head coach for the North Shore Swimming Club.

Ms Cameron started with the New Zealand swimming team at the Sydney Olympic Games 18 years ago.

She was the head coach in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008, before going back to Australia to mentor teams there.

Swimming New Zealand chief executive Steve Johns said Cameron lived and breathed swimming.

"She was absolutely unrelenting, with a drive and a passion to get the success out of that programme or the swimmer. She didn't let anyone get in the way, she just got on with the job."

Cameron resigned from Swimming New Zealand in 2011, about three months after the release of a critical report commissioned by Sport and Recreation New Zealand into the high performance programme, with the report describing the performance culture as dysfunctional and unsustainable.

- RNZ