They also confirmed former Hockey Australia boss Mark Anderson takes over from Kevin Neil as chief executive, as reported by insidethegames last month.

Scott becomes Swimming Austalia's first high performance director since 2011, and the decision to instate a full-time director in this role was made after former head coach Leigh Nugent-who stepped down last month in the wake of the revelations regarding behaviour and performance at London 2012- held the role alongside his coaching role; a move which has since been condemned by the Australian Sports Commission.

Scott - who is already based in Australia - stepped down from his role as performance director of British Swimming after receiving widespread criticism following Great Britain's underwhelming performance in the pool at London 2012, mustering just one silver and two bronze medals compared to the two gold, two silver and two bronze won in Beijing four years earlier, despite over £25 million ($38 million/€29 million) of public funding being pumped into the sport for the 2012 Olympic cycle.

Following a review, British Swimming decided that the performance director must be based in the UK, and Scott chose to step down from the role stating this factor as his primary reason, despite signing a new four-year contract in April last year.

Scott was expected to take over a similar role with Athletics Australia, but he opted to link up with Swimming Australia instead.

Member's of Australia's men's relay team were forced to publicly apologise after news of their behaviour at a pre-London 2012 camp came to light

Anderson takes the role of chief executive of Swimming Australia after leading the Australian men's hockey team to bronze at London 2012, defeating old rivals Great Britain 3-1 in the bronze medal match.

"We've gone through an exhaustive process to find the right people to lead our sport and we know Mark and Michael have the skills and acumen to take the organisation forward," said Swimming Australia President Barclay Nettlefold.

"In our new director of high performance Michael Scott, we have a career sports administrator with more than a decade of high performance swimming experience and knowledge.

"Mark has had some outstanding success with hockey over the last four years, at both a governance and high performance level, and his commercial experience in both elite and professional sport will be of huge benefit to Swimming Australia.

"These appointments are just another positive step in setting up the best leadership structure to enable athletes and coaches to perform at their best.

Scott said: "I have a great passion for swimming and know that Australia has the athletes, coaches, facilities and drive to be a huge success in the pool,"

"We've always been a proud swimming nation, and we have a legacy of high performance to uphold in the sport. I'm sure everyone is aware of the challenge ahead, and I'm just looking forward to assisting the athletes and coaches wherever I can to meet that challenge."

A date has yet to be confirmed as to when Scott will begin his new role, but it has been announced that Anderson will take up his role as of May 6.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]

Related stories: 
March 2013: Swimming Australia turns to hockey for new chief executive
March 2013: AOC appoints top barrister to investigate Australian swim team's drug use at London 2012
February 2013: Australian Olympic swimming team could lose funding after admitting to using banned substance
February 2013: Failure of Australian swimmers at London 2012 down to "toxic culture" review claims
November 2012: Swimming Australia chief executive quits after poor London 2012 performance