The four-time New Zealand swimming coach of the year is the long-serving coach of Paralympic superstar Sophie Pascoe.

Under Crichton's direction, Pascoe has swam to 10 Paralympic medals including three golds at Beijing 2008 and the same again at London 2012.

Crichton, a Paralympic champion in his own right after success at the 1984 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, was expected to break his partnership with Pascoe prior to London 2012 to coach in Timaru, but broke off the engagement at the last minute citing it as "crazy" to leave his coaching duties with the young Pascoe.

His roles in this new position will predominately involve leading Pascoe to Rio 2016 but will also involve providing support to the Paralympics New Zealand head performance coach, Jon Shaw, and the yet to be appointed Para-swimming national development coach.

This support will include coach and athlete mentoring and provision of coach support at camps and competitions.

"I am thrilled to be a full time coach with Paralympics New Zealand and am really looking forward to being able to focus 100 per cent on my coaching," said Crichton.

"This role will allow me to provide increased coaching support to Sophie and also enable me to input into the larger Para-swimming programme and the athletes within it."

Roly Crichton is the long-serving coach of multiple Paralympic medallist Sophie Pascoe ©Getty Images



Paralympics New Zealand high performance director, Malcolm Humm, has indicated that the new full-time role will not only have a positive impact on Pascoe's potential to deliver at Rio 2016, but will also impact on development coaches and their athletes at future Paralympic Games.

He added: "As part of the Paralympics New Zealand Para-swimming strategic plan we committed to having full-time performance coaches leading campaigns such as Sophie's.

"This will allow athletes to be exposed to the high performance coaching environment they require.

"With the announcement of Jon Shaw as the Paralympic New Zealand Para-swimming head performance coach last year, Roly's recent appointment and the upcoming appointment of a full-time national development Para-swimming coach, Paralympics New Zealand's vision of delivering a world leading Para-swimming programme is about to be realised."

Crichton is set to start in this new role immediately.

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