At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, long-time member of the Technical Open Water Swimming Committee John West was presented with the 2022 Dennis Miller Award from World Aquatics Bureau Vice President Matthew Dunn OAM OLY.
The Dennis Miller Award is given to honor individuals, groups, or organizations for long-time contributions to World Aquatic’s overall development, particularly in open water swimming community. The recipient can be an organization, person, or group that has contributed to open water swimming for many years, developing and promoting both open water swimming and marathon swimming in a specific region, country, continent or around the world.
West worked for TVNZ for over 31 years as a broadcast professional when he was not planning for, organizing, or officiating at open water swims from his native New Zealand to the Olympic Games in London (2012), Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2020). He also served as the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games Team Leader for New Zealand and operations for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
He also served in a variety of roles from the Head Referee for the women’s 10K Marathon Swim at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games to the XIV Commonwealth Games Timing & Results Systems Manager.
He started out as a cameraman for a range of sport, drama, and entertainment programs early in his career. Now, West has the best view of the sport (of marathon swimming) when he often serves as the Head Referee at World Championship and World Cup races.
Well done and well deserved John!
💪🏼😎