Old scholar to guide Australian Dolphins at World Championships

It’s been a long journey from Blackfriars swimming carnivals to the world aquatics stage for Shaun Curtis.

On the back of last week’s Australian Swimming Trials, Mr Curtis (BPS’04) has been selected as part of the Australian Dolphins coaching team for the 2025 World Championships in late July.

He joins the likes of Dean Boxall and Mel Marshall as one of just 11 coaches from around Australia chosen to lead the Dolphins in Singapore, where he will make his World Championships debut.

Mr Curtis is the current coach of Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion Kyle Chalmers, who will contest the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly in Singapore.

“I am so proud to be part of this World Championships team,” said Mr Curtis, who is the Head Coach at Marion Swimming Club.

Mr Curtis, a former Horten House Captain, swam competitively while a student at Blackfriars, winning many swimming carnival age champion medals along the way, although finishing in third place in his final carnival in 2004. (For the record, Luca Vezzosi, of De Vitoria, was the Open Champion at Blackfriars’ 2004 Swimming Carnival.)

He also played water polo for the school and spent many years with Blackfriars Old Scholars Football Club.

But his career path meant he was never far from the water. After leaving Blackfriars, he played state-level water polo and, in 2007, took up a coaching position with Water Polo SA and the South Australian Sports Institute.

A qualified teacher, he had also joined the Norwood Swim School coaching team in 2005, beginning as junior coach, before becoming an assistant coach at Norwood Swimming Club in 2008 and Head Coach in 2012.

In 2022, he was named Head Coach of Marion Swimming Club, South Australia’s largest swimming club.

While with Norwood, Mr Curtis coached two swimmers to Paralympic level – Isabella Vincent, who, at age 15, was the youngest Australian swimmer selected for the Tokyo Paralympics, where she won silver and bronze medals; and Liam Bekric, who was part of team at the 2016 Rio games, finishing fourth in the 100m breaststroke.

He was also selected as one of five Australian coaches for the 2016 Oceania Championships, in Fiji, and as part of seven-strong coaching team for the 2019 Junior World Championships, in Hungary.

Mr Curtis said his years as a student at Blackfriars helped prepare him for his later success.

“Those school water polo games as well as all the school swimming carnivals and inter-school swimming events stand out as highlights of my time at Blackfriars.”

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