Susie and Ron McKeon are farewelling an Illawarra institution which has created great athletes and great people. Photos: McKeon’s Swim School.
An iconic Illawarra swim school which has produced national and world champions and created memories for more than 40 years has been sold.
Marking the important milestone of moving on, Ron and Susie McKeon shared an experience of many students before them as they rang McKeon’s Swim School’s “leveling up” bell this week.
“It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” Susie said.
“We’re really excited about the future and the fact that the legacy that we’ve built has got a future and will be ongoing beyond Ron and my direct involvement, but of course there’s that sadness as well.”
The McKeons have been synonymous with swimming in the Illawarra for more than four decades, from representing at the highest levels to providing the very first experience some have in the water. Of course, their daughter Emma is the country’s most successful Olympian. Her brother David is a gold medallist at both Olympic and Commonwealth Games levels while sister Kaitlin was a swim school coach for many years.
“Ron and I were competitive swimmers ourselves, so Ron went to two Olympics and I went to a Commonwealth Games,” Susie said.
“We’d finished that part of our careers and started a relationship together, getting married and looking for what we might do and we just had that love for the sport.
“Ron had a love for the coaching and wanted to create opportunities for local swimmers to become elite.
“I just wanted to pass that love of the water onto the next generation.”
The school first started taking shape when Ron’s father Ric took over the coaching licence at Unanderra’s Western Suburbs pool in a time before heated facilities were in the region.
The opening of Wollongong Surf Leisure resort a few years later gave them a place to train during the winter months and then by 1991 their squads moved out to Towradgi with Ron and Susie going all in, leaving their day jobs and officially starting what is now known as McKeon’s Swim School.
“We didn’t have dreams to think it would be what it is today,” Susie said. “We were just trying to get by week-to-week.
“Even when we built our centre here in Unanderra which was in 2005, we were doing everything ourselves – you couldn’t afford to have cleaners come in so every weekend we were down here doing the gardens and the extra cleaning bits and pieces.
“Our kids were just young at that time and just spent most of their weekends at the pool while we were doing what needed to be done.”
Over the years they have taught thousands of kids the crucial skill of swimming but have also created work opportunities and life lessons for many young people from the Illawarra.
“We have teachers who start with us and they’re 16 and in Year 11 and they often stay with us right through their university degree,” Susie said.
“To just see them grow into good, valued people with a good work ethic and making a real contribution – you’re really proud of the impact you’ve had on those people.
“We develop swimmers but we develop people as well.”
And although the McKeons are at the core of everything they’ve built, Susie insists they haven’t done it alone.
“We’ve got an amazing team behind us, it’s not just us,” she said.
“We couldn’t have done it without the amazing teachers and coaches we’ve got and the ones that have come before them as well – they’ve all built this business with us.”
That impact and community culture is planned to continue with new owners Aquabliss.
“[We] wanted to secure the long-term future of the business and just create new opportunities,” Susie said.
“Our number one goal really was to find someone that had like-minded values for learning to swim and for how they treat their staff and how they run a business.
“They’re not making any changes, it’s still going to be called McKeon’s Swim School and we’re really proud that the name is going to continue onto generations to come.
“All the teachers and coaches are still staying, the program is still going to be exactly the same, so when someone walks through the door they won’t see any changes.”
Since announcing the sale, the McKeons have been overwhelmed with tales and comments from the community, with so many having a connection to the business which has spanned generations.
“Some of the posts and the people who have contacted us swam with us in the 90s,” Susie said.
“There’s been a buzz down the pool at the moment just with people coming up to you and telling their little story of their time, or their children’s time or their grandchildren’s time.
“It’s been wonderful.”
As for Ron and Susie, their next steps are still up the air but family is set to be at the forefront.
“People keep on asking me that, I’m really not sure.
“We have recently become grandparents so there’ll certainly be lots of grandparent duties and hopefully more grandbabies in the future.”
And as continuing ambassadors and advocates for the centre, they’re sure to never be far from the water.
“We live in the community, just five minutes from our centre in Unanderra and we’ll certainly be around all the time,” Susie said.
