Man City appoint LTA's Timson to lead performance strategy
Timson has been the LTA's Performance Director since 2016
Written by Simon Austin — March 13, 2020
SIMON TIMSON, the Performance Director at the Lawn Tennis Association, is joining Manchester City in the summer to head up their performance department.
Timson, 49, is one of the most experienced and respected performance chiefs in British sport. He made his name as Team manager and Performance Director for British Skeleton from 1996 to 2006, using lateral thinking to turn the sport into one of Britain’s most successful Winter Olympics disciplines.
He persuaded Amy Williams and Shelley Rudman to take up the sport and worked with engineers from aerospace firm BAE Systems to develop the best sled in the world.
The result was medals at every Winter Olympics from 2002 onwards, culminating in Williams's gold at Vancouver in 2010.
From 2006 to 2012, Timson worked for the England and Wales Cricket Board, initially as Head of Science and Medicine and then as head of their development and talent recruitment programme. This stint coincided with a period of considerable success for England's age group teams.
For the next three years, he was Performance Director for UK Sport, helping Team GB become the first nation to surpass its medal total from a home Olympics.
Timson joins City from the LTA, where he launched a decade-long vision to make 'Great Britain one of the most respected tennis nations in the world for player development' by 2028.
Two national academies, in Loughborough and Stirling, were opened last September as part of the plan.
Timson said he was looking forward to working with Head Coach Pep Guardiola and Director of Football Txiki Begiristain at Manchester City.
“I am incredibly excited about being able to join one of the world’s foremost sports teams and working with Pep and Txiki,” he said. “It is too early to talk specifics.
“I am going to be here until the summer and my focus is on leaving the performance plan and the team in the strongest possible place. We have established a firm foundation for sustainable success (at the LTA), so I leave with a heavy heart. It is a unique opportunity I can’t turn down.”
Sam Erith is Head of Human Performance at City. He joined the club in the summer of 2011 as Head of Sports Science and was promoted to Global Lead for Human Performance with City, overseeing their network of clubs. He worked with England at Euro 2016.
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