Pro-Chancellor, David McNulty MBE is one of the world’s most respected and successful swimming coaches, having guided athletes to medals at five consecutive Olympic Games, as well as to World, Commonwealth and European titles.
His extensive experience and holistic approach to training, allied with his innate enthusiasm and larger-than-life personality, has inspired a host of swimmers to achieve their full potential and excel at the highest level.
David has also contributed vastly to the University of Bath’s sporting culture during the 17 years he has been based on our campus. He sets the standards for others to aspire to, is a fantastic advocate for the University and is a hugely popular figure around the Sports Training Village, always taking time to acknowledge the support he and his athletes receive from staff and from the University.
A former competitive swimmer, David gained his first part-time coaching experience aged 20 in his native County Durham and, over the next 18 years, rose through the ranks to become Head Coach of Durham Aquatics.
He made his senior international debut as a coach with British Swimming in 2001 and attended his first Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Four years later he coached Jo Jackson to 400m freestyle bronze at Beijing 2008, one of only three medals won in the pool that year by Team GB.
A month after that achievement, David moved to the south-west to become Lead Coach at the newly established Bath National Centre, one of two set up during a restructuring of British Swimming with the aim of producing Olympic medallists. The programme put in place by David and his staff quickly began producing results, with Bath graduate Michael Jamieson – who joined the National Centre in its second year – winning a superb 200m breaststroke silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games. More silvers were to follow at Rio 2016 for Jazz Carlin (two), Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Chris Walker-Hebborn.
A triumphant Tokyo Games, where seven gold medals were won by Bath-based swimmers, fully demonstrated David’s coaching strengths. He helped his swimmers overcome the disappointment of the Games being postponed in 2020 due to Covid, highlighting the positives that could be taken from an extra year’s preparation, and put in place a programme that produced outstanding results.
Tom Dean and James Guy were both crowned as double Olympic Champions, while Freya Anderson, Calum Jarvis and Matt Richards also brought home gold. Those successes led to David being named as Coach of the Year at the 2021 Team GB Awards. Tom, who went on to win a third Olympic gold at Paris 2024 alongside training partner Kieran Bird, says there are three main attributes that make David an exceptional coach and mentor.
“The first is his incredible depth of knowledge and experience; secondly there’s his attentiveness and care for his athletes, you can approach him with any question be it in or out the pool. Thirdly, is his prowess on the world arena. When Dave walks out at an Olympic Games, he is so comfortable and that confidence is infectious.”
David was inducted into the University of Bath Hall of Fame for Sport in 2022 and awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2024.
David is a passionate advocate for the University, saying there is no better environment for high performance swimming in the world than the Sports Training Village.
Pro-Chancellor, a pleasure and a privilege to work with and an inspiration to all, David is a worthy recipient of this recognition as an honorary Doctor of the University (DUniv), honoris causa.