Born in Australia and hailing from Melbourne, Taylor’s swimming journey – which started when he was just five years old – has seen him travel around the world and gain a wealth of swimming and coaching experience.

His path began on the small Micronesian island of Nauru. His family made the move for his father’s work when he was a child and it’s where he first dipped his toes in the water and learnt to swim. From there, the family relocated to America – once again for his father’s career – and that’s when Taylor started to swim competitively, during college at California State University, Northridge.

In 1985 he was awarded a visiting scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport and nine years later in 1994 and post his college days, Taylor moved back to Australia permanently to pursue his coaching career – a direction he fell into and loved, culminating in leading the most successful Australian Olympic swim team in history in Tokyo.