UoE Sport bids a fond farewell

It is with regret that University of Edinburgh will be bidding a fond farewell to Elite Performance Swim Coach Shannon Rollason.

Shannon, who took up the role in January 2017, has made the difficult decision to leave his post and return to Australia for family reasons.

The past year at the University of Edinburgh has been a great one for me both professionally and personally.  The swim program is outstanding, with fantastic people, vision and support.  Its holistic values create an environment where swimmers can achieve both in the pool and with their academic endeavours, and all set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It’s really great.  I wish Chris, Mat and all the swimmers the very best for the future

During his time at the University has contributed to the continuing success of the Performance Swim Programme at Edinburgh and has passed on his knowledge and expertise to both athletes and coaches.

We are naturally sorry to see Shannon return to Australia but he has had an extremely positive impact here with us in Edinburgh.  Swimmers and coaching staff alike have gained greatly from his experience and winning ways at world level, and we’ve savoured every moment of his time with us.  We will be keeping in touch with Shannon and look forward to continuing our relationship with him.  I wish Shannon and his family all the best with their re-start back in Australia.

The University, the Performance Swim Team Coaches and Athletes and Scottish Swimming would like to thank Shannon for his fantastic work over the past year and wish him all the success in the future.  We are also indebted to Scottish Swimming for their support in enabling us to attract a coach of Shannon’s world class pedigree.

We are disappointed to see Shannon leave however we understand and respect the reasons behind his decision. Edinburgh continues to further establish itself as an excellent performance environment and we will continue to work closely with the University in this regard.

Shannon and his family plan to return to their native Australia in April.