Brett Naylor

Brett Naylor was a fine swimmer, but an even better coach.

Naylor, born in Invercargill in 1957, started swimming as a child to help him deal with his asthma. He loved it and was soon being coached in Invercargill by John Beatson, with promising results. He attended Southland Boys’ High School until his coach, in a wonderful gesture, suggested he moved to Dunedin and work with elite coach Duncan Laing.

So Naylor moved to Dunedin, boarding at Otago Boys’ High School. Training under Laing at Moana Pool certainly brought results. He joined a squad of accomplished swimmers and learned about hard training.

He’d already had a taste of the next level of swimming when he was funded as part of a development programme to attend the Australian winter nationals in 1972.

Still only 16, he was selected to swim in three freestyle races – 100m, 200m and 400m - at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

For a young man still making his way, he did well. In the 100m he swam 56.01s but did not advance to the final. He had more joy in the 200m, when his heat time of 1min 59.65s secured a place in the final. He ended up with a 6th placing after swimming 1min 59.35s in the final.

In the 400m, his heat time of 4min 09.50s qualified him comfortably for the final. He was slower in the final, and his 4min 10.88s placed him 5th.

Iron man Naylor found himself in three relays. In the 4 x 100m freestyle, John Coutts, Michael Johnston, Ashley Fogel and Naylor were 5th in the final. Naylor, Johnston, Coutts and Mark Treffers had a shot at the 4 x 200m freestyle and also grabbed 5th. And in the 4 x 100m medley relay, Phil Thorogood, Brent Lewis, Michael Toomey and Naylor took 6th place in the final.

After Christchurch, Naylor set himself for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Laing’s squad built up as other swimmers turned up in Dunedin, looking for the extra boost a top coach can provide.

At the 1975 world champs in Colombia, he didn’t advance past his heat in the 100m, 200m or 400m freestyle events. His best showing was in the 400m, where his time of 4min 09.24s placed him 11th overall.

In the 400m freestyle at Montreal the following year, Naylor’s heat time of 4min 00.38s earned him second in the heat, but was only the 10th fastest overall, and he was edged out of a place in the final. In the 1500m, Naylor’s time of 15min 52.68s placed him 15th of 31 starters.

After Montreal, Naylor took up a swimming scholarship at the University of Iowa. He stayed there five years and emerged with what he termed a “hard-earned” B Sc in Physical Education.

Naylor took time out to compete in the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games, where he placed 6th in the 400m freestyle final. He qualified with a time of 4min 03.22s and in the final was fractionally slower, with 4min 03.59s. Naylor swam 53.94s but didn’t make the 100m freestyle final and his 1min 58.36s was not quick enough to advance him to the 200m freestyle.

Naylor was involved in two relays this time. Barry Salisbury, Paul Rowe, Ian Bullock and Naylor were 5th in both the 4 x 100m freestyle and 4 x 200m freestyle events.

From 1974-77, Naylor utterly dominated the freestyle events at the national champs.

He scooped the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m events in 1975, 76 and 77, and in 1974 he won the 50m, 100m and 200m. In all he won 27 individual titles.

On his return from the US, Naylor coached with Duncan Laing in Dunedin for a year. When his wife Colleen became pregnant, they moved to Christchurch to be near her family. Naylor worked for a timber company in Rangiora before a coaching position at Avon Aquatics became available.

In 1988, he founded AquaGym. It started with a competitive team and developed into a leading edge Learn to Swim programme and swim centre.

He was involved in New Zealand teams – Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific champs – between 1988 and 2000, sometimes as head coach. Probably the most outstanding swimmer he coached was backstroker Anna Simcic, a hard worker who won gold and silver at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games and was a finalist at two events at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

In 2000, he stood down from his Games coaching roles and focused on developing AquaGym, which grew ever more successful. Following on from the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011, Brett and Colleen made the bold decision to expand AquaGym to include a new swimming pool.

In 2022, Naylor returned to elite level coaching when Paralympic superstar Sophie Pascoe, having parted with her previous coach, asked him to help her prepare for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

In 2003 Brett received the honour of Master Coach from Swimming New Zealand.