Our Story…
Melbourne H2O Swimming Club began its story in 1985, as an offshoot of Powerpoints Swimming club. Over the years it has changed its name twice.
Anita Killmier, Head Coach of Powerpoints Masters (1983 -1997), also coached the children of many of her adult swimmers. The original intent was to create one club that all ages could swim under, but in those days it was not allowed as 2 seperate organisations who were at odds with one another, could not resolve their differences. Hence our club was affiliated with, but separate from the Masters Club of the same name. To distinguish ourselves we were known as Powerpoints Juniors.
At that time the Juniors trained from Christian Brothers College pool in East St Kilda, while our adult counterparts trained at Prahran Aquatic Centre. When they were capable, the faster swimmers trained with the adults at Prahran who served as great role models to the kids, motivating them to train better, smarter and harder.
In the mid 1990’s with Swimming Australia still opposing the idea of the one club concept, the club decided to rename itself to reflect and align our branding, more in keeping with our squad provider H2O Swimming Works we became H2O Swimming Club.
We moved some of our sessions to South Yarra Sports Centre in 2010 and merged with another club from there, Melbourne Emperors.
This merger prompted us to combine club names into Melbourne H2O Swimming Club. Finally in 2013, 25 years after its foundation, Swimming Australia and Masters Swimming Australia finally gave the green light to work together to allow us to become a true ONE CLUB allowing us to provide pathways for swimmers of every age.
Although a few other clubs have embraced adults, we were the first and the most successful, boasting squads in Melbourne and Geelong with many of our Swimmers swimming State and National competitions. This was a wonderful growth period for our Club.
Following the challenges of a pandemic and lockdowns in 2020, Melbourne H2O Swimming Works parted ways after a long and rewarding association. It was here Melbourne H2O, also now know as MH2O became exclusively for those over 18 years of age.
Fittingly, the Club provided coaching and training for our last junior swimmers, including Col Pearse, in the lead up to his first Paralympics. In 2021, Col won his first Paralympics medal and went on to win more medals in 2022’s World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Thanks to a wonderful Committee and Head Coach, Anthony Kattan, MH2O has continued to thrive, now with a record membership and 15 sessions a week. This includes a new All-Abilities session targeting those living with disabilities or other challenges.
To cap off an extraordinary year, Melbourne H2O came first in the Masters Swimming Victoria Relay Championships with over 60 swimmers taking to the pool. It’s been a challenging but rewarding time for our Club and we are hopeful we can continue grow and provide a wonderful social environment for all our swimmers.