Newyddion

03/09/2020 00:00, I Mewn Blog /

British Athletics has today announced Christian Malcolm as the newly appointed Olympic Programme Head Coach.

Malcolm, who since January 2019 has been Head of Performance and Coaching at Athletics Australia was appointed following an open recruitment process and will take up his post later this year. As Head Coach, Malcolm will work alongside athletes and coaches to support performances across all disciplines and event groups, as well as lead the Great Britain & Northern Ireland senior teams at major championships.

Following an impressive competitive career, Christian Malcolm retired in 2014 and joined the Board of Welsh Athletics as a non-exec director. He was inducted into the Welsh Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016. Malcolm had previously been British Athletics technical lead for sprint relays, a position he held from March 2015 to December 2019. The highlight of that was the double sprint relay medals won by the 4x100m teams at the home World Championships London 2017. The women’s team won silver, whilst the men’s 4x100m team won a global gold sprint relay medal for the first time since the Athens Olympics in 2004. This achievement saw Malcolm named jointly Coach of the Year at the 2017 BBC Sports Personality awards, alongside Stephen Maguire and Benke Blomkvist.

As a coach to individual athletes, he has also enjoyed success in the para-athletics programme, most notably in his role as a Performance Coach at Disability Sport Wales for just under three years. He coached Welsh athletes, Jordan Howe to T35 100m silver and Rhys Jones to a personal best - finishing fourth in the T37 100m - at the World Para Athletics Championships London 2017.

Before his 2014 retirement, Malcolm had represented Great Britain & Northern Ireland to the highest level. His World junior sprint double gold in 1998 heralded his credentials to the sport, going on to compete in four Olympic Games. With European Indoor gold and silver, World Indoor and European Championship silver, Commonwealth silver and bronze, as well as two World bronze medals as part of the GB & NI 4x100m relay team, his competitive career has certainly helped underpin his success in the coaching ranks.

At Athletics Australia Malcolm was tasked with ensuring the coaching structures were world-class, working with the high-performance team to support elite athletes and their coaches towards major championships.

Christian Malcolm said:

“Words can’t describe how excited I am to have the opportunity to take this role on and be part of a new start for British Athletics. As an athlete I knew I wanted to give back to the sport when I finished competing. In all my coaching and advisory roles so far, I have wanted to help athletes avoid the errors I made and support them and their coaches to get the best out of themselves. I’ve worked with some world class coaches throughout my career whilst competing, as part of the GB relay set up and whilst at Athletics Australia. They’ve all helped me to grow in various ways, but I know my first coach Jock Anderson would have been the most pleased to see me take this role and use all that he taught me about helping athletes prepare.

 

“I’m very excited to be re-joining British Athletics at this time. Jo (Coates) and Sara (Symington) have a great outlook as to what the sport can achieve from playground to podium. There is a new energy and drive and I’m looking forward to helping athletes and coaches towards success in Tokyo, Paris and beyond.”

James Williams, CEO at Welsh Athletics, said:

"Everyone at Welsh Athletics is delighted to hear of Christian’s appointment. His credentials speak for themselves, and he has always demonstrated his passion for the sport at all levels, and we look forward to working with him once again following his return from Australia. UKA and the Home Countries are committed to working closely together to implement a sporting pathway from playground to podium, and I have no doubt that both Christian and Sara Symington will be in constant close communication with our own performance team in the months ahead."

Joanna Coates, CEO at British Athletics, said:

“I am really pleased to appoint Christian to this role. His credentials are numerous but most impressive was the energy and vision he had for the Head Coach role during the recruitment process. The panel were incredibly impressed by both his technical knowledge and approach to high performance – putting the athlete first, championing welfare and also a change in culture that will really enhance the World Class programme. Alongside Sara, Christian will bring a fresh new approach to the performance team as we head towards Tokyo and future Olympic cycles