Hood will take up the role immediately after serving as senior manager of events at Swimming Canada since 2012.

Prior to that, Hood spent 15 years as general manager of Swimming Alberta and was recently inducted into the Alberta Swimming Hall of Fame as a builder for his work in the province.

His experience as a coach and administrator includes roles as integration officer for the Canadian Paralympic Committee and as Swimming Canada's technical coordinator for swimmers with a disability from 1994 to 1997.

His national team experience includes serving as Canadian swimming team manager at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and head coach of the 1992 Paralympic team in Barcelona.

He has been involved as a technical delegate or classifier for every Paralympics since Atlanta 1996.

"I'm excited to be going back to my roots and being able to have an impact on the direction high performance is going," said Hood, who is also an honoured member of the Ontario Aquatic Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in Para-swimming.

"I'm looking forward to linking with our domestic programmes in the country as we strive towards podium performances at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympics."

As part of his role, the Edmonton resident will report to Swimming Canada high performance director John Atkinson and Para-swimming national team coach Craig McCord.

"The Para-swimming programme is fortunate to have appointed James Hood into this role," said Atkinson.

"He brings a wealth of experience into the role and specific Para-swimming experience that will continue to move our Para-swimming programme forward."

Paralympic champion Benoît Huot will be one of the Canadian athletes that James Hood will be working with in the build-up to Rio 2016 ©Getty Images



McCord added: "The addition of James Hood to the Para-swimming High Performance unit brings the programme to another level.

"His vast experience in coaching, Para-swimming development and classification, sport administration and as an Olympic manager will make our already solid technical staff even stronger.

"The rest of the Para-swimming team is very excited and we are looking forward to working with James in the preparations for the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games, Rio 2016 Paralympics and beyond."

Swimming was the most successful sport for Canada at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, accounting for 16 of the country's 31 medals.

Canada picked up four gold, nine silver and three bronze medals at the Aquatics Centre in London including two wins for Summer Mortimer in the women's S10 50 metres freestyle and 100m backstroke.

Valérie Grand'Maison triumphed in the women's SM13 200m individual medley, while Benoît Huot topped the podium in the men's SM10 200m individual medley.

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