David Lyles started his coaching journey as a university student, before accepting his first coaching role in 1989. Across his 35 years as a coach, Lyles has gained a wealth of experience coaching club, university and national high performance programmes, and working with swimmers at a variety of different levels. He has been an international swim coach for three countries, selected on teams for Great Britain, China and New Zealand during his career.

Within a few years of his first coaching role, Lyles coached his first swimmer on to an Olympic team in Barcelona 1992 – a feat that he repeated six consecutive times between 1992 and 2012.

Having started at club level, Lyles was given the opportunity to help set up and develop a new scheme at the University of Bath in the south west of England in 1997. With a brand new facility and the ability to attract top swimmers, it was not long before the centre was home to the first British Swimming National training centre. During his eight years at the University of Bath, Lyles coached 20 international swimmers and produced finalists at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Lyles next career move was to China, initially working for the Shanghai Sports Bureau, before being appointed to lead the Shanghai provincial team in 2007. Success quickly followed, with Shanghai named as top team at the Chinese National Championships for five consecutive years between 2008 and 2012. Lyles also guided all nine of his swimmers to major pinnacle competitions each year between 2010 and 2012, and was named as a coach on these teams. Lyles coached swimmers on to the Chinese team for Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and was a national team coach between 2009 and 2012.

With seven of his swimmers selected onto the China team for their home World Championships in Shanghai 2011, and five of his swimmers selected for London 2012, Lyles was a constant member of one of the world’s strongest swim teams.

In 2013, Lyles moved to New Zealand, taking up the role of Head Coach at the National Training Centre in Auckland. During his time in this role, swimmers in the programme achieved success at the 2013 FINA World Championships (three medals), 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Championships (two medals) and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

As recognition for some of these coaching achievements, Lyles was awards the Swimming New Zealand Coach of the Year in 2014. During his three years working for Swimming New Zealand, Lyles coached on multiple New Zealand teams.

In 2016, Lyles established the NZL Swim learn-to-swim business in which he remains a director of to this day. Lyles then founded Phoenix Aquatics in 2018, where he continues to work across both his learn-to-swim business and the club. Over the past eight years, Lyles has coached swimmers on to the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships and 2018 Commonwealth Games teams, as well as being selected as a coach for latter event on the Gold Coast.

More recently, Lyles coached Hayley McIntosh (Aquablack #271) to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games team in the 1500m freestyle. He guided Hazel Ouwehand (Aquablack #283) to her Aquablack debut the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, as well as the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) and the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.

In 2024, Ouwehand broke the New Zealand record multiple times in the 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly, with her performance in Hawke’s Bay earning her selection for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. As Ouwehand attends her first Olympic Games, it marks the eighth time Lyles has coached a swimmer selected to represent their country at an Olympic Games.

Lyles has been selected as a team coach for the New Zealand team in Paris, where he will attend the Olympic Games as a coach for the fourth time in his career.

Outside of coaching, Lyles completed a Bachelor of Arts in Leisure Management with honours in 1989, and has contributed to the growth of swimming through his involvement in the past two Swimming New Zealand Competition Reviews (2020 and 2024). Lyles is also a member of the current Swimming New Zealand Events Advisory Committee.

💥 Selected to fourth Games campaign as team coach

Paris 2024 will mark Lyles’ fourth Olympic Games, having attended Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and London 2012 as a team coach.

Moreover, he has coached swimmers on to Olympic teams at eight separate Games (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024).

💥 Magnolia Award for contribution to city of Shanghai

Lyles was awarded the Shanghai Magnolia Award for his contributions to the city of Shanghai, after guiding swimmers to win more than a dozen medals at Asian, World, and Olympic Games as the head coach of the Shanghai provincial team in China.