Australian coach Peter Bishop has been appointed head coach to The Netherlands, his contract with the national swimming federation, the KNZB, set to run to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

The hire makes Bishop, 55, the first Australian to lead the Dutch team since Forbes Carlile, the late mentor to the legendary Shane Gould, back in the 1960s in the era of 'Madam Butterfly' Ada Kok.

Bishop will work chiefly in Eindhoven at the National Performance Centre alongside coach Patrick Pearson, whose contract was extended by the KNZB recently.

With a long record of producing podium placers for Australia, Bishop made headlines Down Under in the past year for reasons never fully explained.

Coach to Kyle Chalmers, the Olympic sprint champion of 2016 and silver medalist at both the 202One and 2024 Games as well as top German sprinter Josha Salchow, top Aussie 'fly sprinter Matt Temple and the mentor who guided Matthew Cowdrey to 23 Paralympic medals, including 13 gold, Bishop was stripped of his regular coaching duties by the South Australian Sports Institute.

What happened next rules out a whole list of serious misdemeanours: they gave coach Bishop a job in youth development. In a statement last month, the national federation noted: “Swimming Australia has been informed of a recent investigation and findings by the South Australia Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing into South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) high performance swimming program.”

Speculation about Bishop suggested that he may have broken team protocol on national team trips in 2023, while a senior source close to Swimming Australia indicated to SOS that there had been a falling out between Bishop and his top sprint charges. None of the parties involved, including Swimming Australia, commented further on what it was all about.

At NSW titles in Sydney in March, Chalmers was asked whether Bishop's removal and loss of a probable place on the Olympic staff would impact his campaign in Paris. He told this writer and other media on poolside:

“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll think much of it until after the Olympic Games. For me it’s getting on with the job. It’s too close for me to use my energy where it’s not needed at the moment, so I need to just focus on what I’m doing and what Peter has prepared me for until this point. We’ve been through some massive highs and lows together and I’ve been able to overcome so many challenges in the past.”

The KNZB was aware of the "integrity case" involving Bishop when they hired him. Sjors Lommerts, technical director of the KNZB:

“We have been extensively informed about this, both by Peter himself and Swimming Australia as well as his last employer. They have all confirmed to us in writing that this case was closed to everyone's satisfaction during the previous Olympic cycle.”

Verhaeren's blessing

The Dutch swim site Zwemkroniek of Jos van Kuijeren and team reports that Bishop arrives in the Netherlands on the recommendation of former Netherlands and Australia head coach Jacco Verhaeren.

Mentor to his own string of Olympic champions, Verhaeren "was impressed by the knowledge and qualities of Peter Bishop as ‘team director’ of Swimming Australia from 2014 to 2020," Zwemkroniek notes.

Verhaeren, who returned to the KNZB as a ‘Performance Strategist Top Swimming’ consultant on September 1st told the site that he “worked very well with Bishop” in Australia.

Bishop will start his new role on the first day of 2025 at a time when the Dutch national-team plan is to concentrate all top coaches, swimmers and support in Eindhoven on the way to LA28.

The facilities at the pool named after one of Verhaeren's big stars, the "Eindhoven Express" - the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium - are undergoing a big upgrade, including the addition of another 50-metre pool.

Lommerts tells Jos VK:

“We are very happy that we can add Peter to our coaching staff. His CV is very impressive and all the references we requested, both professional and personal, were exclusively positive. In addition, the experience that Jacco had with him also weighed heavily of course.”

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