Don Talbot (born 23 August 1934) OBE[1] is an Olympic swimming coach from Australia. He has coached national teams for Canada and Australia.[2]
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Since the 1950s Talbot has coached Olympic champions and World Record holders for a thirty year period. The list of his students include John and Ilsa Konrads, Ian O'Brien, Bob Windle, Kevin Berry, Beverley Whitfield, Gail Neall, Mark Tewksbury, Alex Baumann, Tracy Caulkins and Ian Thorpe.
He was the national head coach for Swimming Canada during its greatest period of success in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, and some have credited Talbot with its success.[3] He was dismissed by the Canadian Olympic Committee in 1988 after demanding more rigid qualification standards and was replaced by Dave Johnson.[3]
In 1989, Talbot took the position of National Head Coach at Australian Swimming. He was an outspoken critic of the use of steroids in swimming, notably during an incident during the 1998 World Aquatics Championships which resulted in the expulsion of a Chinese athlete from the competition.[4] He retired as Australia's head coach after Australia topped the swimming gold medal tally at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka.[5]