Michael Bohl, One of the World’s Top Swim Coaches, Will Test Retirement After Paris Olympics | SwimSwam

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

One of Australia’s legendary swim coaches will retire after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Michael Bohl, 61, will step away from the pool deck after 37 years of coaching, according to Julian Linden of the Herald Sun.

Bohl described a plan to “slow down and step away for a while” after no breaks for 37 years. He said he plans to stop coaching for 12 months after the Olympic Games, and then in late 2025 decide if he enjoyed being done or return to coaching.

“I’ve been coaching 37 years and I’ve never had a break, so I just want to slow down and step away for a while,” Bohl said.

“I’m in no hurry to work out what I want to do so I just want to stop and smell the coffee a little bit for 12 months.

“And then towards the end of the year (2025), I will just start to seriously question whether it is something I want to keep going on with?

“At the moment, I think after 12 months I might be right to go on again but, after 12 months, I might go, ‘Hey, I think I’m done’.”

Bohl’s approach mirrors one that many of his athletes who took breaks from the pool after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bohl is one of the most successful swim coaches both in Australia and in the world. He has coached 9 swimmers to Olympic medals and 4 to gold medals. Stephanie Rice won the 200 IM, 400 IM, and swam on the winning 800 free relay at the 2008 Olympic Games; Emma McKeon has 5 golds and 11 total Olympic medals, making her Australia’s most-decorated Olympian; Madison Wilson won gold at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games on Australia’s 400 free relays; and Emily Seebohm has three gold medals, but won her most recent at the Tokyo 2020 Games as part of Australia’s 400 medley relay while training under Bohl.

Other Olympians who have trained under Bohl include Madeline Groves, Mitch Larkin, Bronte Barratt, Grant Irvine, his daughter Georgia Bohl, Nick D’Arcy, Leisel Jones (at the 2012 Games), and Nicholas Sprenger.

With the exception of the 2000 home Sydney Games, Bohl has had swimmers on 7 of the last 8 Olympic teams, including a whopping 7 qualifiers for the 2016 Games in Rio.

Bohl is currently the coach of the elite training group at Griffith University. Besides McKeon, he also currently coaches big names like Lani Pallister, popstar-turned-National Teamer Cody Simpson; Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Brendon Smith, and the country’s top swimmer Kaylee McKeown. McKeown joined Bohl’s squad after winning four medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics while training with Chris Mooney.

The son of a rugby player, Bohl wasn’t able to follow in his father’s footsteps after a virus left him with 10% vision in his left eye. He missed out on Australia’s 1980 Olympic Team in spite of finishing 2nd because the country sent a reduced squad to the infamous Moscow Games. He then barely-missed the team in 1984.

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