In this episode, Sherry Bevan talks with Tom Duggan about leadership, high-performance sport, and what it really takes to build environments where athletes and teams can thrive.
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Episode 13: Leadership, High Performance and Building Trust in Elite Sport
Guest: Tom Duggan, Performance Director – Paddle Sport
Sherry Bevan: Welcome to today’s episode. I’m delighted to be joined by Tom Duggan.
Tom has more than 20 years’ experience working in sport, from sports development in local authorities and national governing bodies through to elite sport with the UK Sports Institute, squash, archery, and canoe slalom across Commonwealth, Paralympic and Olympic settings.
He was Team Leader for Archery at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021 and again in Paris in 2024. Since April last year, he has been Performance Director at Paddle UK for the Canoe Slalom and Kayak Cross World Class Programme.
Tom, a very warm welcome.
Tom Duggan: Thanks for having me.
Tell us about your career journey to where you are today.
I think my journey started at school. I played lots of sports growing up and originally thought I’d become a PE teacher. I had a conversation with my PE teacher when choosing university courses, and he actually advised me not to specialise in teaching straight away. He suggested studying sport first and deciding later whether to do a PGCE.
I followed that advice, but by the end of university I’d forgotten to apply for teacher training. I took a gap year and volunteered with the local authority in an Active Sports Partnership role. That experience made me realise I wanted to pursue sport professionally.
I then completed a Master’s degree to help differentiate myself in what was a very competitive field. It led to a Sports Development Officer role in local government, which involved everything from organising participation opportunities for children to marketing and community engagement.
From there, I moved into national governing bodies — first England Squash as a Regional Development Manager, then Badminton England, where I spent around six years.
During that time, I became increasingly interested in high performance sport. I was fortunate to secure a secondment with the English Institute of Sport at Bisham Abbey during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
What started as a six-month placement became 18 months, working with several programmes including hockey and synchronised swimming. That experience made it clear to me that elite sport was the direction I wanted to pursue.
After that, I returned to squash to oversee the talent pathway before eventually becoming Performance Director for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Following Rio, funding changes meant my role was made redundant, which actually gave me an opportunity to look at what was next. I moved into para-archery in 2017, despite not having a background in the sport itself.
That eventually led to becoming Performance Director and Team Leader through to Paris 2024.
Now I’m at Paddle UK working in canoe slalom and kayak cross — and it’s been almost a year.
One thing that really struck me listening to your career history is how varied the sports are. How important is that variety when moving between roles?
The sports have all been very different. Squash and badminton obviously shared similarities as racket sports, but beyond that the environments have varied hugely.
People sometimes assume that working in sport means being deeply technical in the sport itself, but my role is much more about leadership, strategy, people and culture.
The coaches are the technical experts. My job is to create the environment that enables athletes and coaches to thrive.
That said, I’ve always made a real effort when entering a new sport to understand what it takes to win. I don’t need to become the technical expert, but I do need enough understanding to have meaningful conversations with athletes and coaches.
In some settings, like archery, I’ve supported athletes directly in competition environments, but usually from a psychological perspective rather than a technical one. In high-pressure moments, athletes often need belief and calm more than technical instruction.
I imagine there’s an advantage in not coming from within the sport itself because you can step back and see things more objectively.
I think so.
In smaller sporting communities, people can carry perceptions about athletes or staff based on history — what someone was like five years ago, for example.
I tend to approach things with a clean slate. I’d rather form my own view of people and situations.
Not being emotionally attached to a sport’s traditions or politics can help you focus on what really matters: creating the right environment for people to perform.
You moved from Archery GB to Paddle UK last year. What does starting in a new leadership role look like for you?
I was very aware that I was the first Performance Director in the programme to come from outside the sport.
I was also stepping into a programme that had just delivered a very successful Paris Olympics, bringing home four medals.
So from the start, I was very clear that this was about “evolution, not revolution.”
I wanted people to understand I wasn’t arriving to tear everything up and impose my own way of doing things.
The team had also been through a period of uncertainty after Paris, with people covering interim responsibilities and carrying additional workloads. There was an opportunity to pause, recalibrate and establish direction for the Los Angeles cycle.
A big part of those early months was getting to know people.
On my first day, I was asked to speak to the staff and tell them a bit about myself — not just professionally, but personally too.
A few weeks later, one of the senior athletes asked whether I’d do the same session with the athletes because they’d heard about it from staff.
That was a really important moment.
I talked about my background, my family, what drives me, and how my experiences shape my leadership approach.
I think that openness helped build trust early on.
Over time, it was also about small things — team meals, creating opportunities for connection, helping people feel valued and settled.
Ultimately, it’s about creating the right environment for athletes and staff to perform.
I think getting to know people as human beings first — rather than simply by their role — is fundamental to building trust.
Absolutely.
Life as an athlete can be incredibly demanding. Careers can be short and intense.
We often talk about athletes needing identities beyond sport, and I think leaders need to role model that too.
For me, I want to be defined first as a dad, husband, son and brother. My job comes somewhere after that.
It’s important to understand what’s happening in people’s lives because those things inevitably affect how they show up in training, competition and pressure environments.
If we want people to thrive, we need to understand the human being behind the performance.
How is the sport performing internationally?
At elite level, we’re in a strong position.
We’ve consistently delivered medals across multiple Olympic Games, and Paris was particularly successful with four medals.
We also have exciting academy athletes emerging and beginning to challenge established senior athletes.
At the World Championships in Australia last year, Joe Clark won his fourth consecutive world title in kayak cross, which is an incredible achievement.
Ryan Westley and Kim Woods also won medals.
One of the challenges for the UK is that canoe slalom remains a relatively small sporting community compared to sports like athletics or football.
Another challenge is geography.
Our waterways are very different from those available to athletes in parts of Europe. UK athletes often develop on man-made courses, whereas athletes elsewhere may gain experience on a much wider range of natural white-water environments.
That variety helps develop different technical instincts and river-reading skills.
So one of our key challenges is making sure athletes are exposed to enough varied environments to broaden their skillset.
The Los Angeles Olympics will be very different for your sport because events are taking place in Oklahoma rather than LA itself.
Yes — we’ll be based in Oklahoma, which is around a three-hour flight away from Los Angeles.
That’s largely because the organisers are increasingly trying to use existing facilities rather than building new venues.
It creates an interesting challenge because part of what makes the Olympics special is feeling connected to the wider Games.
Paris felt incredibly connected. We were right in the centre of the city with iconic venues around us.
Oklahoma will be very different.
That said, having visited the venue earlier this year, I came away much more positive. There’s genuine excitement locally about hosting part of the Olympics.
Softball will also be based there, which helps create more of a satellite village atmosphere.
As team leaders, our role will be to help athletes feel part of the Olympic experience while also keeping things normal enough for them to perform well.
Ultimately, it’s still the same course, the same equipment and the same task — going through the gates cleanly and quickly.
The challenge is making the environment feel special without creating unnecessary pressure.
How connected do athletes feel to Team GB beyond their own sport?
In Paris, athletes definitely embraced that wider experience.
The archery athletes spent time with athletes from other sports, went to watch events, and really made the most of being part of the Games.
That’s one of the things that makes the Olympics unique.
It only happens every four years, and suddenly you’re surrounded by the best athletes in the world across every discipline.
That can inspire people, although it can also create pressure if not managed well.
The key is helping athletes reframe pressure as opportunity.
You don’t suddenly need to become a different athlete because it’s the Olympics. The routines and behaviours that got you there are usually the same things that help you perform once you arrive.
I ask all my guests this question — what’s been your favourite sporting moment?
I can’t narrow it down to one.
Johnny Wilkinson’s drop goal in 2003 is definitely up there.
Super Saturday at London 2012 was incredible. My wife and I had been at the badminton earlier in the day, then watched the evening events with friends in a bar in London. The atmosphere was unbelievable.
More recently, watching the Lionesses win with my children was really special. I now have two daughters playing football who weren’t interested in it before.
I’ve really loved this conversation.
One thing that stands out is how much your role is about leadership and creating environments where people can thrive, rather than technical expertise alone.
I also loved hearing how you introduced yourself to both staff and athletes as a human being first. There’s something all leaders can learn from in that.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks, Sherry. I appreciate it.
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About Tom Duggan
Tom Duggan has more than 20 years’ experience working in sport, from sports development in local authorities and national governing bodies through to elite sport with the UK Sports Institute, squash, archery, and canoe slalom across Commonwealth, Paralympic and Olympic settings.
He was Team Leader for Archery at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021 and again in Paris in 2024. Since April last year, Tom has been Performance Director at Paddle UK for the Canoe Slalom and Kayak Cross World Class Programme.
About your host, Sherry Bevan
Sherry Bevan believes that high-performing teams start with confident leadership. Before running her own consultancy, she spent more than 30 years leading and working alongside technology teams in organisations such as McDermott Will & Emery, Credit Suisse and Arthur Andersen.
Through her coaching and consultancy work, Sherry’s simple approach combines commercial understanding with honest conversations, strong facilitation and practical leadership support.
A former grassroots cyclist and still a runner, Sherry is fascinated by what makes teams perform well under pressure – which is why she draws so much inspiration from sport, leadership and the power of teamwork.
Because whether it’s a law firm, a technology team or an elite sports environment, great results rarely happen by accident. And it’s these ideas she explores with leaders and experts on Team Talk.
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