Ben Gathercole

Gathercole was born in Sydney, New South Wales in 1965 and spent his early years in Texas, U.S. where his father had been invited to set up a swimming team by the City of Midland.

[6] In February 1984 while studying for his Higher School Certificate (HSC) Gathercole competed in the 200m and 400m IM in the Australian titles and Los Angeles Olympics selection events at Brisbane's Chandler Aquatic Centre.

[9] After returning from the U.S. at the end of 1987, Gathercole swam under legendary coach Bill Sweetenham[10] at the Australian Institute of Sport[3] in the lead up to the trials for the 1988 Olympic Games, but missed out on qualifying.

He took time out from frontline coaching to manage the ACT Brumbies Super Rugby team[17] (2014–2016) and run the Triathlon Australia High-Performance Program[15] (2016–2017).

[19] Gathercole followed in his father’s footsteps to become an Olympic and Commonwealth Games coach after his athlete Simon Thompson[20] qualified for the Australian team for the 2004 Athens Olympics (placing 10th after falling twice on the cycle leg) and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, where he finished 11th having agreed to play a team role for Australia to support the eventual Gold and Bronze Medal winners Brad Kahlefeldt and Peter Robertson.

[11] Hiring Gathercole was part of Larkham’s strategy to drive organisational change within the franchise which had been suffering dwindling crowds and public criticism.

[33] Gathercole was involved in all aspects of the Super Rugby side’s operational activities including junior development[34] from 2014 until the end of the 2016 season.

Hill credits the upward trajectory in his results during the 2019 season, including his first victory[44] and other podium finishes[45] to Gathercole’s experience and expertise at optimising the human performance of everyone on the team.

[47] After meeting Gathercole, who was presenting at a Menslink Silence is Deadly forum, CEO Martin Fisk reviewed the book for Play magazine quoting Gathercole's lesson that 'core values like honesty, passion, drive, commitment, sense of fair play, loyalty, mateship, pride in yourself, your team and your country can and need to be displayed daily and from the heart'.

[48] In 2018, with then Triathlon ACT Executive Director Craig Johns, Gathercole set up the Active CEO podcast series[49] including interviews with business leaders on how they stay fit and focussed.