Richard Campion is a former Olympic pool swimmer, renowned administrator, tireless marathon swimming coach, prolific documentarist and global promoter of open water swimming with a well-established legacy. He was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honoree Administrator.

Richard played a side variety of roles, including being a multi-time world championship individual and team gold medal coach, promoting open water swimming since 1967.

After he competed in the 1960 Olympics in the pool, he sent on to compete on the professional marathon swimming circuit in Italy (1975 and 1976 Capri-Napoli Marathon Swim), Canada (1975 Traversee Internationale du lac St-Jean, 1975 Lac La Tuque 24-hour Swim, 1976 lac Chibougamau Marathon), He won the 1976 Australian Open Water Swimming Championships in the year he was elected President of the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation. He also served as the President of the Australian Marathon Swimming Federation from 1977-1979 and was a member of the Australian Open Water Swimming Committee from 1988-2001 during which time he wrote the Open Water Swimming handler and trainer’s 25K manual, suitable for 25k, adopted by Australian Swimming and organized the 1999 Pan Pacific Open Water Championships. From 1989-1998, he was the national open water swimming coach for Australia where he coached swimmers to gold, silver and bronze at the 1991 and 1998 World Swimming Championships, the 1991 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships and several international competitions in Italy, France, Canada and the USA. He designed the Australian Swimming 16K Grand Prix Series and, from 1990-1996, he was the Chief Presenter of Open Water Swimming Coaching at Australian National Coaching Conferences and coached a 93K world record 4-person relay from Malta to Sicily in 1996 and English Channel and Manhattan Island Marathon Swim athletes.

For more information, visit the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame website.

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