John has been involved with Stirling Tri Club since the early days in the late 80’s and has seen the club grow from around 20 enthusiastic triathlon geeks to the large, organised club you see today.
With over 30 years coaching experience in swimming, cycling, running and triathlon John was also the Head Coach at Stirling Tri club for 20 years until 2013, when he stepped down due to other commitments. John started training & competing when he was 8 years old as a swimmer. He moved on from swimming competatively when he left school and starting teaching and coaching swimming in 1985 under the guidance of Olympic swim Coach Danny McGowan, moving into triathlon as both an athlete and coach in 1989 when the sport was just being discovered in Scotland.
John has raced over 200 times at every distance possible in triathlon from super sprint to Ironman, was part of the Scottish Triathlon squad for 6 years from 1995 and has represented GB & Scotland several times over multiple distances.
As a volunteer, he also coached the swimming discipline to other National Squad members and was part of the coaching & support teams for many of the early elite triathletes who led the way in Scotland. He was the Triathlon Team Manager for Scottish Team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and again in Glasgow in 2014.
He helped develop the first triathlon qualification in the UK and was the first employed development manager for the sport in Scotland for 4 years. He is a Level 3 triathlon Coach, tutor, assessor and verifier and has individual coaching qualifications in coaching & teaching swimming.
Having been involved in the sport for so long he has seen a huge change from its original origins as a small minority sport to the Olympic and Ironman events that everyone has heard of today. He believes that sport has something for everyone and helping people achieve their personal goals, develop healthier lifestyles and pushing back the boundaries of what they think they can do is just the start of journey!