Noosa’s swim coach to the elite John Rodgers was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List for his significant service to swimming as a high-performance coach.
For 58 years, the quietly spoken, straight-talking JR (as he’s always known) has trained swimmers, fulfilling a dream many times over to be an Olympic coach.
On Monday when most of the country, but not Queensland, marked the official King’s Birthday with a public holiday, JR spent the day as he does six days a week, training morning and evening at Noosa Aquatic Centre (NAC), and swimming his own laps at lunch time.
He didn’t mention the award at NAC but when asked what it meant to him he said it “was quite exciting“ but “hadn’t sunk in yet“.
“You don’t do it for those reasons,“ he said. “I’d like to thank the people who went to bat for me.“
Growing up in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra where his family had the pool for 18 years, JR’s life was destined in involve swimming. While his brother Barry was a champion iron man, JR chose the pool and became an Australian champion.
He took over the lease of the Maroubra pool and head coach position in 1969.
His students have included Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes such as Max Metzker, Graeme Brewer, Ron McKeon (father of Olympian Emma McKeon) and Moscow Olympic Gold medallist, Michelle Ford, and he continues to keep in contact with many of his former students.
“I like to think not only was I a coach, we had a good relationship,“ he said.
JR has been Olympic and Commonwealth Games’ team coach for Australia and Olympic Games’ team coach for Canada.
He has coached athletes who have competed at Olympics in 1976 Montreal, 1980 Moscow, 1984 Los Angeles, 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2020 Tokyo, 2024 Paris and Commonwealth Games in 1982 Brisbane and 1998 Kuala Lumpur.
After an impressive career in Australia, JR was offered a job as a high performance coach in Canada and took that country to the London Olympics.
On his return, he and wife Jenny came to Noosa with an aim to retire from coaching, then the position came up at NAC.
“The manager of the pool who was a friend of mine said, I’ve got a job for you. That was 15 years ago,“ he said.
There’s something about an Olympic athlete that JR can spot from an early age. It’s their stroke, their technique, their mindset.
“It’s a gift,“ he said. JR’s skill lies in his ability to guide and motivate them to reach the highest level.
“They’re all individuals. I give them a plan but I still don’t do everything exactly the same.“
JR wasn’t able to attend the Tokyo Olympics due to Covid and sent former Olympian turned coach Kareena Clark (nee Lee) in his place at the Paris Olympics, saying now he’s aged over 85 the travel insurance costs have become too expensive.
But he has experienced many Olympics as a coach, all “exciting“.
Berlin was an experience that enabled him to see a grim East Germany before the wall came down and one of the world’s greatest swimmers Kornelia Ender, who was the first woman to win four gold medals at a single Olympics.
“Montreal was hard because it was straight after the Munich massacre,“ he said, “People were walking around with guns.“
“LA was awesome, just a good Olympics. I had three swimmers in the team. Moscow was good. We came away with five medals,“ he said.
“It’s my life. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s been a full life, an amazing life.“
JR’s day revolves around the pool. He rises early at 4am and is at the NAC at 5am for training until 7.30am. His Olympic swimmers attend school or university and other training sessions in the gym, returning for their afternoon training sessions at NAC.
He now has a squad of 40 swimmers, some international, with three champions preparing for the next Olympics in LA in 2028.
In addition to the Olympians, international ironman and iron women and world class triathletes regularly check into Noosa to be trained by this great coach who for the past four years (2020-2024) has been named Australian Open Water Swimming Coach of the Year.
JR feels fortunate to have a wife he has “walked hand in hand“ with through life who also share a love of swimming. Each day JR swims three kilometres at NAC, “in the middle of the day when it’s nice and warm“, Jenny prefers the ocean.
JR has coached a long list of swimming greats including the following:
Australian Olympic Team, Paris 2024 – Nick Sloman, 10km Open water.
Australian Olympic Team, Tokyo 2020 – Kareena Lee, 10km Open Water, bronze medal.
Australian Olympic Team, Beijing 2008
– Bronte Barratt 200m, 4 x 200m freestyle relay, gold medal, World Record set.
– Kylie Palmer, 4 x 200m freestyle relay; gold medal, World Record set.
– Leath Brody 4 x100m, silver medal; 4 x 200m silver medal.
Australian Olympic Team, Los Angeles 1984 – Graeme Brewer, 200m & 4 x200m relay.
Australian Olympic Team, Moscow 1980
– Michelle Ford, 800m, Gold medal, 200m butterfly.
– Graeme Brewer, 200m freestyle, silver medal; 4 x 200m freestyle, gold medal.
– Max Metzker, 1500m, bronze medal; 4 x 200m freestyle, gold medal.
– Ron McKeon 200m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle, gold medal.
Other Olympic Swimming
– Canadian Swim team, London Olympics, 2012.
– Max Metzker, 1500m, Montreal Olympics, 1976.
Australian Commonwealth Games Team
– Rebecca Creedy, Kuala Lumpur, 1998.
– Swim team, Brisbane, 1982.
Open Water Swimming
– Trent Grimsly Open water – World and English Channel records.
– Nick Sloman, 6 x Surf titles and 6 x Australian Open water titles.
