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Steve Foley on his Diving career and return to the Australian Team

 

Steve Foley on his Diving career and return to the Australian Team

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AOC
Steve Foley

DIVING: Tokyo 2020 marks the 12th time Steve Foley has been involved in an Olympic Games, having competed for Australia at three consecutive Olympics from 1976 to 1984 before moving into a coaching role from 1988, and then progressing to high performance director from 2002 onwards.

Steve began his career in diving after a doctor encouraged him to take up swimming to help his asthma, and while his true love was AFL, he quickly realised his talent on the springboard.

“I started as a young boy, after a doctor told me to take up swimming because it would be good for my lungs, as there was no such thing as Ventolin back then,” Foley said.

“So, I joined the swimming club and they happened to have a diving pool. My brother tried it out, and I followed along.”

After trying out the sport, Foley began training with a coach in Melbourne and his diving career took off.

At 18-years-old, Steve made his Olympic debut at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games, where he finished 21st.

“That was terrific! I had hardly been in any international competition as there wasn’t much to go to in the old days. So, I turned up and I was competing against people I had read about in magazines,” he said.

“It was a great experience, but I think the biggest thing is that it helped me learn that if I wanted to take the next step, I not only needed to train harder, but needed to move overseas and train with a professional coach.”

From 1979 to 1985 Steve moved back and forth between Australia and America, training for six months at a time in the USA before returning home to work and save money.     

Foley went on to compete at two more Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, where he became the first Australian male diver to final in both the springboard and platform events at an Olympics. He also represented Australia at three Commonwealth Games, claiming silver in the 10m platform and 3m springboard in 1986.  

Following the 1986 Commonwealth Games, Foley retired from competitive diving and moved into a coaching role.  

“It took a few years to adjust to being a coach, to really get to know my athletes and understand what makes them tick.”

“It’s funny, I’ve found a lot of good athletes don’t make good coaches because if things came relatively easy for them, they find it hard to understand why someone else is struggling."

“So, it probably took me about a year or two to understand what they were thinking and feeling because it was so different to my experience as an athlete.”

After attending the 1988 Games as an assistant coach, Foley served as Head Diving Coach and Australian National Coach from 1989 to 1995. At the 1992 Olympic Games he was Head Coach of the Australian Olympic Diving Team.

Foley then moved into a consultant role for British Diving from 1999, before accepting a full-time position as National Performance Director in 2002. Under Foley’s leadership, the British Diving Team secured their first Olympic medal in 44 years, with a silver in the Men’s Synchronised Diving in 2004.

After the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Foley joined USA Diving as their High Performance Director. Continuing his success from Great Britain, Steve was given the task to resurge USA Diving and get the team back on the Olympic podium. The London 2012 Olympic Games was the USA’s best Olympics since 1988, claiming four medals across the Diving program.  

Following his international success, Foley met with Diving Australia and made the decision to return home in 2017, taking on the role of Australia’s High Performance Director.  

“I met with the CEO in Rio, and I really liked his vision and what he was trying to achieve in the sport,”  

“It was really nice, because when you have a CEO with such passion for the sport, even if he never competed in the sport himself, that’s quite infectious. I think that’s really important in his role, and it filters down to the staff.”

“This job is a real challenge, and if it was easy I probably wouldn’t have come back. So I am excited, and every week we work towards making sure Paris 2024 and LA 2028 are great, but at the same time start building the pathway so that the Brisbane home Olympics is something really special.”

Returning to Australia after spending over 17 years overseas working with Great Britain and USA, Steve found the system had changed dramatically since he had left but was excited to jump in and learn the ropes.

“Australia’s system has really changed since 1999, so as a high performance director I just needed to take my time to listen and learn,” he said.

“That way when I know what’s happening, I feel ready to implement, change or do something different.”

“But, at the end of the day you can put the best system in place but it’s only as good as the talent you’ve got.”

“If you’ve got the talent, what you need to do is ensure you let it flourish. It’s very easy for people in these positions, as high performance directors, where we can actually get in the way if we’re not careful,” he continued.

“I think it’s very important to have faith in the athletes, the coaches and the system and strategies you have put together.”

Reflecting on his career in the world of diving, Foley is proud of what he has achieved and rightfully so.

“Who would’ve thought a little boy out of Balwyn, Victoria who suffered from asthma would do what I have done.”

“But without a doubt, my proudest moment was being chosen for my first Olympic Team. I read somewhere that there was only about 5000 Australian Olympians in total, and that’s nothing, that’s a pretty exclusive club, and I think being a part of that is pretty neat.”

As for his role as Australia’s High Performance Director, Foley said his greatest satisfaction is seeing the athletes succeed.

“When I see an athlete and coach have success, and have some of the best performances of their life, whether it’s on the podium or not, just to see the emotion and the smiles and you know what it means to them, then you know you’ve done a good job.”

Taylah O’Neill

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