Olympic swimming coach Dean Boxall has been named a 2026 QUT Outstanding Sports Alumnus, with the QUT graduate describing completing university as one of the best things he has done in his life.
The honour was announced at the annual QUT Outstanding Alumni Awards last night (October 29) at the university's Gardens Point campus in Brisbane.
Mr Boxall completed a QUT business degree in 2004 with a double major in human resource management and advertising.
“This is an absolute honour for me,” Mr Boxall said.
“I never ever thought that I would get to uni or finish uni. I’m the only person in my family that has done university.”
Mr Boxall is one of Australia’s most successful high-performance swimming coaches, having guided swimmers to multiple Olympic and World Championship medals, including Olympic gold-medallists Ariarne Titmus and Mollie O’Callaghan.
He is head coach of St Peters Western Swim Club in Brisbane, an Australian Dolphins swim coach, and has been recognised as World Swimming’s Coach of the Year in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Renowned for his technical expertise, race strategy, innovative training methods and athlete-first approach, he was named Australian Institute of Sport Coach of the Year in 2024 and awarded Master Coach status by SWIM Coaches and Teachers Australia in 2025.
Mr Boxall said completing his QUT degree was particularly meaningful because his father, who worked at QUT, wanted him to finish university.
“It took me nearly eight years to finish a three-year course because I was deferring, travelling, coming back,” he said.
“My father was working at QUT and he waited for me (on his last day on campus). He took a photo and I walked out and that was my last ever exam.
“But it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, knowing that I had a degree and I finished university and I got to extra education.”
He said he was now encouraging his children to put education at the forefront of their minds.
Mr Boxall said the knowledge he gained through his human resource management studies continued to inform his work at St Peters Western Swim Club at Indooroopilly.
“Human resource management, performance management is the key here at St Peters Western,” he said.
“Training and development at this pool here is very important. It’s probably the main function of my role.”
Mr Boxall said forming individual connections with athletes was central to his coaching.
“If you don’t have a connection, you cannot give them correction,” he said.
“Whatever it is, find the connection.
“Every athlete’s like a lock, and you’ve got about a thousand keys.”
Asked what advice he would give students entering the workforce, Mr Boxall encouraged them to be tough, committed and purposeful.
“If you hold your own and you don’t do the old nine to five and you commit, and you actually get obsessed with what you’re doing, you drive, you push, you’ve got purpose in what you’re doing, but you literally give everything that you can … You look back and then you’re proud,” he said.
“Grind. Grind away.”
Media contact: QUT Media, media@qut.edu.au
