Nick received the M.B.E. by ‘Her Majesty the Queen’ during the New Years Honours list 1993 for ‘Services to Swimming’ and most recently was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the University of Sunderland for his contribution to sport and recognition of his sporting excellence and services to swimming and his continuing contribution and support for young and gifted athletes in the North East.

Over the years Nick has worked with the BBC and BBC Radio 5 Live as a commentator and broadcaster, covering he sport of swimming at the 2000 Paralympic Games (Sydney), 2004 World Short Course Championships (Athens), 2004 Olympics Games (Athens), 2005 World Swimming Championships (Montreal), 2006 Commonwealth Games (Melbourne) and the 2007 World Championships (Melbourne).

In 2005 Nick began working with the Youth Sport Trust initially as an Athlete Mentor for the Living for Sport Programme working nationally with up to 30 secondary schools, focusing on behavioural change and more recently as an accredited RAMP Mentor with both the Youth Sport Trust & Creating Excellence working within the community and education across organisations initially within the Governments RESPECT areas who refer young people between the ages of 10 – 25 years in order to develop and sustain positive ‘life change’.

Between 2006 and 2008 Nick was positioned within school sport across a county area and was responsible for systemic change across all inter-school competition having the responsibility for ‘strategic management’ and a-lining his team with change and direction with the National Governing Bodies of Sport. The development and deployment of effective partnership working was also a defining area of work. Nick is therefore well positioned to relay his sporting and professional mind to the issues within and across dynamic organisations.

Between 1996 & 2000 Nick delivered the British Olympic Associations Planning for Success course for many different Olympic squads. The training programme included the principles of goal setting, time management, lifestyle planning and motivation which supported Team GB in their quest for a top 10 medal table ranking.

Nick has contributed to numerous magazine articles and publications over the years. He is the author and publisher of swimZone™ ‘Introduction to Swim Fitness’ and ‘The Swim Fitness Programme’ and was the innovator for swim fitness training and development throughout the UK leisure industry. swimZone™ gained endorsement through the National Governing Body for swimming, the Amateur Swimming Association for its innovation and success.

Nick is an accomplished and successful motivational, inspirational and team building speaker, specialist areas include:

Motivation, Handling Pressure, Creating a Winning Team, Defining Winning as a Goal, Goal Setting & Planning, The Principles of Goal Setting, Fair Play, Personal Excellence, Fear & Failure, The Role Model Affect and Conference Hosting (Experienced and skilled with the delivery of autocue and written scripts).