About Us

Norwood Swimming Club was established in 1972 and is recognised as one of South Australia’s top swimming clubs.

Our swimmers are trained through our alliance partner, Norwood Swim School at Beulah Park. We pride ourselves on having squads for all abilities. Our 10 squads range from Junior Squad Bronze, with a focus on turns, dives and a basic training structure, to our High Performance Squad, for swimmers looking for selection on National teams. 

As a member of Norwood Swimming Club, your child is able to compete in all Swimming SA-run competitions as well as club-run carnivals throughout the state. 

There is no mandatory number of competitions for our swimmers – some swimmers compete almost every weekend while some others might only compete a few times each year. 

The swimming season throughout Australia runs from October each year with long course competitions over summer and short course during winter. However, swimmers are welcome to join our club at any time of the year and can begin competing immediately.

Our Values

The Norwood Swimming club is committed to producing great swimmers and great people – for life. 

Excellence

in what we do

United

in a love of swimming to achieve our common goals

Inclusive

and welcoming to all

Enjoyment

and fun through participation

Respect

caring and supportive for each other

Our People

Shaun began his swimming career at Norwood Swimming Club in 1995. He swam with the High Performance Squad until 2005 before moving onto playing State Water Polo and taking up a coaching position in 2007 with SASI Water Polo and SA Water Polo. 

Shaun joined the Norwood Swim School coaching team in 2005, beginning as junior coach before becoming permanent assistant coach to (then head coach) Peter Bishop in 2008. Shaun became Head Coach in 2012 and has gone on to represent Australia as a coach. 

Shaun is passionate about the ‘TEAM’ culture across the whole swimming club. Each swimmer, parent, official, coach, committee member has a crucial role in the team. The goal of each person involved is to see swimmers improve and reach their ultimate potential. This will lead to National champions, State champions and, most importantly, great club representatives.

Swimming brings so many skills to each individual, which goes beyond the technical aspects and into life skills that are taught through the commitment and dedication required to be a successful swimmer. 

Shaun’s philosophy is based on a strong focus of technique, skills and teamwork to give swimmers a solid foundation for long term development as an athlete into their senior swimming years.


Ed is currently studying Exercise and Sport Science at uni SA. He’s been coaching swimming for seven years and with Norwood since 2019. He enjoys the competitiveness that swimming ignites, and the teamwork culture that is promoted at Norwood. Having enjoyed his first two years with the club, Ed is excited for what the future holds!

Swimming has been a huge part of Aphra’s life. Growing up in Scotland she started swimming at the age of 5. Aphra joined the Norwood Swimming Club in 2011 when she moved to Australia and then began working here as a teacher and coach in 2015. You’ll probably see Aphra around the Swim School doing anything from teaching in the learn-to-swim program, to coaching junior and development squads, or teaching adult learn-to-swim classes.
Aphra believes swimming is such an important life skill and it is great to see people of all ages developing this skill whilst also getting to be a part of a team and most importantly; having fun.
At university Aphra studied Exercise and Sport Science and is hoping to pursue some further study in biomechanics.

Our History

Norwood Swimming Club was founded in 1972 by Peter Bowen Pain. Pool owner and swim coach Ern Reddaway offered swim coaching three days per week under two professional swim coaches. By the 1973/74 season, the club held its first carnival and had its first representative on a State team.

During these informative years, a strong club spirit was already beginning to develop and was the envy of other swimming clubs in South Australia. In the 1980s, the club continued to grow and in 1987/88 finished 4th of 120 clubs at the Australian Age Championships held in Adelaide. The club’s success in the pool continued and in 1991/92, Norwood won the Interclub Final for the sixth consecutive year.

Over the ensuing years a strong relationship continued to develop between Norwood Swimming Club and Norwood Swim School. In 2003/04, Fran Adcock became the Norwood Swimming Club’s first Olympic team member and Matthew Cowdrey the first Paralympic team member. In the same year, the club finished 3rd at the Australian Open Championships and 11th at Australian Age.

Over the following years, the club was well represented at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific and World championships. In 2007/08 Hayden Stockel, Matthew Cowdrey and Shelley Rogers qualified for the Australian 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic teams. In 2008/09, the club won the National Australian Short Course, the first time a South Australian swimming club had won a National event.

In 2010/11, the club was awarded the Swimming Australia Centre of Excellence. Shaun Curtis was appointed as Head Coach in 2011/12 as the club continued to build a culture that is admired by all.  In 2011/12, Matthew Cowdrey and Hayden Stockel qualified for the London 2012 Paralympics and Olympic teams.

The club was named Swimming SA’s “Club of the Year” for 2015/16 as our swimmer numbers grew to more than 180.

In 2016, Liam Bekric qualified for the Rio Paralympic team, finishing 4th in the SB13 100 breaststroke, aged just 15. Abby Duncan also represented Australia in the 2016 Oceania Championships in Fiji, winning an Individual Silver and Individual Bronze medal. Shaun Curtis worked with the Australian team as Coach during this event.

In 2018, the club won 14 medals at the Australian Age Championships in Sydney and was ranked in the Top 10 clubs in Australia. On the back of some strong performances at that meet, Emily White, 14, was selected on the Australian team for the 2018 Oceania Championships in Papua New Guinea, winning two Individual Silver medals, one Individual Bronze medal, two Relay Gold medals and one Relay Silver medal at the event.

Achievements

Norwood Swimming Club has enjoyed enormous success over the years, with Australia’s most successful Paralympian Matt Cowdrey our greatest achiever and Life Member of our club.

Closer to home, our swimmers have enjoyed great success at the State Age and Open long and short course championships, Division 1, Division 2 and Junior League and State Open Water competitions over many years, consistently finishing ranked one or two. In 2017/18 and 2019, we won both the SA State Short Course and Long Course championships.

The 2020 Australian Age Championships were cancelled due to Covid-19 however we acknowledge our members who qualified for the event.

Male: Blake Bennetts, Lucas Bradley, Noah Caton, Fergus McLachlan, Matthew Pearce, Harry Pontifex.

Female: Arabella Bahr, Emilie Muir, Emily White, Grace McLeod, Indyanna Rashleigh, Katie Simpson, Lillee Hamilton, Lulu Detmold Cox, Mia Slade, Poppy Marshall, Shanelle Hancl, Sophie Healy, Summer Bayment, Izzy Vincent, Brooke Simpson, Sophie Pontifex.

In 2019, the Australian Age Championships were held in Adelaide, where we fielded a team of 27 swimmers. Norwood brought home 16 medals: Emily White (two Gold medals, one silver and one Bronze), Sophie Healy (three silver medals), Fergus McLachlan (one Silver medal), Izzy Vincent (three Silver & three Bronze medals) and Emilie Muir (two Bronze medals).

Shaun Curtis (Head Coach) and Emily White (High Performance Squad Member) were selected to the Junior Australian Team to travel to Budapest in August 2019 to compete at the Junior World Championships.  Emily competed in the 1500m Freestyle and finished 10th in the Junior World.

In 2018, at the Australian Age Championships in Sydney, Norwood claimed an impressive 14 medals and 10 State records. With a team of 20 swimmers, our medalists were Sophie Healy (two Gold ad one Silver), Emily White (two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze), Emilie Muir (one Gold and one Silver), Liam Bekric (two Silver), Emma-Lee Arnold (one Bronze) and Fergus McLachlan (one Bronze).

This was a huge improvement on our 2017 performance, when we finished 11th-ranked club in Australia. (In 2018, Swimming Australia no longer awarded a points score at the Age Championships.) In 2018, we also had 30 finalists from 87 heat swims – an amazing achievement and testament to our great depth of talent.

In 2017, Norwood sent a team of 28 swimmers to the Australian Age Championships in Brisbane. We brought home 10 medals, a Gold to Emma-Lee Arnold and Emily White, 5 Silver medals to Emily White an a Bronze to Mitch Follett, Emilie Muir and Emily White. We finished as the 11th ranked club nationally based on points scored.

In 2016, we had a record 37 swimmers qualify to swim at the Australian Age Championships – the highest number of any SA club. We finished the meet with one gold, two silvers and two bronze medals, with more than 20 finalists, and ranked 18th in Australia and the top SA club.

We had a further 13 swimmers competing in the Australian Open Championships, which doubles as the Olympic selection trIal.

In 2015, we had 25 swimmers compete in the Australian Age and Australian Open championships. Norwood finished the Age championships ranked 34th in Australia and second in SA. Norwood swimmers claimed six medals and contested 17 finals.

Also in 2015, Norwood swimmer Dan Gill represented his birth country of Seychelles at the FINA World Championships. 

Norwood Swimming Club has consistently had the highest number of swimmers from any SA club on the State primary (SAPSASA) and secondary (SSSSA) schools teams.