Congratulations to Clive Power for being made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for his services to swimming. Clive has been instrumental in the success of Para swimming in New Zealand for many generations. Very well deserved.

King's Birthday Honours 2025 - Citations
Mr. Clive Power has been a pioneer of Swimming in New Zealand, dedicating more than 50 years to coaching and mentoring, both coaches and swimmers at all levels.

Clive has been instrumental in the success of some of New Zealand’s top swimmers and swim coaches. Starting his coaching career in Te Awamutu in 1967, he has held several positions at regional, national and international levels including as New Zealand swim team coach for several tours, Commonwealth Games, Olympics Games and Paralympics Games.

He was head coach at the first FINA Youth Championships in 2006, following which he implemented the foundations for Swimming New Zealand that drove the high-performance template ‘Mining for Gold’.

He was instrumental in creating a development programme prior to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, which achieved outstanding results for the following Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, with New Zealand winning ten medals, 21 finals reached, and more than half the swimmers achieving personal bests.

He prepared the New Zealand swim team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, serving as interim head coach from 2015 to 2016. He was Paralympics New Zealand selector for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Clive has won Coach of the Year awards at local, regional and national levels almost every year between 1999 and 2014.

Article added: Monday 02 June 2025