Don Talbot

Donald Malcolm Talbot AO,OBE, (born 23 August 1933) is an Australian Olympic swimming coach and sport administrator. He has coached national teams for Canada, the United States and Australia.

Talbot was born on 23 August 1933 as the second of six children in the New South Wales township of Barnsley, near Newcastle. His parents were both of English descent; his father, Arthur Talbot, was from a family of coal miners from Yorkshire, and started work on the mines in Newcastle when he arrived with his brothers and sisters in Australia in 1914. His mother, Elsie Francis Channel, emigrated from England to Australia in 1909. When Talbot was three his father had a mining accident that ended his career, and subsequently moved the family to the Sydney suburb of Bankstown. He began working in a garage adjoining the family home, and worked as a toolmaker in the Sydney CBD during World War II.

Talbot's first contact with water involved a near-drowning accident at the age of four and a half at Stanwell Park. After the accident, his mother enrolled him and the rest of the family in swimming lessons. He later took up competitive swimming under the wing of leading coach Frank Guthrie, who waved his customary fee of £1 per week because Talbot's parents could not afford it. He won the New South Wales Under 14 backstroke championship and broke the New South Wales under 14's record for the 165-yard (150 m) individual medley. He attended Bankstown Primary School, Bankstown Technical School and Homebush Boys High School. He failed his high school leaving certificate, but took a scholarship at Wagga Wagga Teacher's College. After graduating from teacher's college, he taught physical education at Revesby General Primary School.

Talbot was a young teacher when he started coaching in 1956. While working with Guthrie at Bankstown Swimming Pool in Sydney, he took over the coaching of two young Latvian immigrants – brother and sister John and Ilsa Konrads. While he was coaching these swimmers, both broke world records with John winning Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medals and Isla Commonwealth Games gold medal.

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