On Monday 31st March, Terry Denison, my coach for the last five years retired. While it’s sad to see him go after a long and distinguished career he truly deserves the rest, especially from the early morning starts. (Some might say he looks like he needs it but not me.) Terry coached Adrian Moorhouse to an Olympic gold medal in 1988 and this was truly my inspiration to become an international swimmer. He is one of the people I have tried to emulate. At the age of 12, little did I know that I would be working with Terry later on in my career. I actually started to train with Terry in 1998 and since then he has helped guide me to many international titles. All in all I’ve won over 30 international senior medals with Terry and broke two world short course records. But my successes have been just a drop in the ocean of successes Terry has had with many swimmers over his 30 years of coaching. The list is too long to go through here but click here if you want to read more about Terry’s many achievements. The City of Leeds will certainly be different without him and so will British Swimming; there will be quite a void to fill! Over the time he coached me he always pushed me to break my limits and go past perceived boundaries. There was nothing that happened in the world of swimming without Terry knowing. I hope he has an enjoyable retirement and that he, and Mona (his wife), get to do all those things you put off because of the dedication required to succeeding with so many swimmers. Thanks for everything Terry and good luck !
