Jordan Sloan, a longstanding and highly valued international senior swimmer with both Ireland and Northern Ireland has announced his retirement from Performance swimming in recent days. Sloan has held a number of Irish senior records during a long and illustrious swimming career and was regularly selected for European Championships, Commonwealth Games and World Championship teams in recent times. Most recently training with the National Centre (Ulster) in Bangor, Jordan has been a longstanding member of Bangor Swimming Club throughout his career and has featured in European, World and Commonwealth Finals during his time racing at the highest levels of our sport.

Recently completing his Level 2 Coaching Certificate, Sloan has aspirations to commence a coaching career in Ireland and, in the first instance, will now work as an assistant coach and athlete mentor within the National Centre (Ulster) and with Bangor Swimming Club. Jordan is also making himself available to Irish swimming clubs across the island who may wish to engage with him for swimming clinics and/or athlete talks and education sessions – the latter which he can deliver in person or via online means.

Jordan was to say, “I have been very lucky for the opportunities that swimming has given me and to be able to travel the world through my sport. My highlight is still that of breaking my first Irish record, and then to go on and swim against many great swimmers on the world stage. I want to give a special thanks to my family, Bangor Swimming Club , Swim Ireland, Swim Ulster, Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland for the years of support and encouragement that they have given me. I am still actively involved with Bangor Swimming Club and have aspirations in coaching. I very much hope to be on poolside at major Irish meets in the near future.”

National Performance Director Jon Rudd commented “Jordan has been such a stalwart of Irish swimming for so long that it will be a very different place without him when we next set foot on Irish senior teams. His contribution to National Team swimming in recent years is hard to quantify, particularly as he always provided such a strong backbone to so many Irish relays as part of this journey. We will miss him but are also delighted that his love for the sport will see him undertake coaching roles within Ulster. I strongly recommend that Irish clubs out there take him up on his offer to bring his experience and energy into their daily environments and help provide inspiration to those who would look to achieve all that he has across his competitive swimming years”

Swim Ulster Operations Manager Stephen Cuddy added ‘I would like to thank Jordan for his contribution to Swimming in Ulster over the years, in particular the many times he represented Ireland and Northern Ireland around the world. Throughout my time with Swim Ulster, I have only ever heard good things about Jordan, and this is testament of his training ethic and how good a teammate he has been to so many people. It is difficult to think of a more modest high performing athlete and I am so pleased to hear that Jordan intends to stay in the sport and bestow that work ethic and attitude to our up-and-coming swimmers. Thanks for the great memories you will be greatly missed in the pool, but we look forward to seeing your next chapter as coach and mentor.