Gary Vandermeulen, the coach of Scottish Commonwealth Games champion Alison Sheppard, is to be based at the University of Dundee from October as high performance swimming coach for the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport.
This new post, jointly funded by an award of £80,000 over four years from the sportscotland Lottery Fund and additional funding from the Tayside and Fife Area Institute of Sport and Scottish Swimming, has been introduced to lead and direct the development of the performance swimming programme within Tayside and Fife.
Gary will also become a member of Scottish Swimming's high performance coaching team under the stewardship of Tim Jones, the recently appointed performance manager, with the aim of continuing to develop the success of Scottish swimmers on the world stage.
Canadian born Gary, who is the current coach to the Duncan Swim Team in Victoria, Canada, has strong international experience both as a competitor and a coach. He was a coach for Scotland at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and is a regular member of the British team coaching staff including the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Gary said: "This is an exciting new position in Tayside and Fife. By working alongside local clubs and coaches I will be looking to help their athletes progress through from the area Institute to the Scottish Institute of Sport and onto a new level in the international arena.
Brian Ewing, Chairman of the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport said: "It is tremendous coup for the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport that a coach of Gary's calibre is joining performance swimming in the Tayside and Fife area. We are all looking forward to working with him."