SWIMMING at two Olympic Games provided Andy Clayton with experiences he will never forget.

And now the dual Olympian has set his sights on producing a City of Oxford swimmer to create similar waves after taking over as coach at the Temple Cowley-based club.

The 29-year-old was a member of the Great Britain team which finished a highly-creditable fifth in the 4x200m freestyle at both Atlanta in 1996 and at Sydney four years later.

"It was an absolutely fantastic experience," he says. "Both times we got the British record and swam really well."

The two Olympic Games appearances were the pinnacle of an illustrious career for the Leeds-born swimmer, who swam for his home town club before moving to Bath at the end of 1996. He also won an impressive clutch of nine medals at other major competitions - including gold in the 4x200m freestyle at the 1997 European Championships in Seville.

Competing at two Commonwealth Games, he also collected a brace of bronzes at Victoria, Canada in 1994 and a silver and bronze at Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

After retiring from international competition in 2001, he spent a year coaching Wantage and Abingdon.

Now Clayton, who lives at Witney, has moved on to City of Oxford with a three-year contract - and he has high hopes for the club.

"I have a similar ambition as to when I was swimming - I want to be an Olympic coach," he says. "I have been at the grass roots with Wantage and Abingdon and now I have stepped up to join City and I want to train them into Olympic swimmers, so I can go to the Olympics with them.

"There is a lot of work that needs to be done. I think they need their enthusiasm picking up. They have swimmers with amazing potential and swimmers that can go to the Olympics.

"They need belief instilled in them because Oxford has not produced any world class swimmers for a while.

"They think that because they are from Oxford they are not going to do it, but if they get their heads around that, they can go to the Olympics." Club chairman Matthew Gomez says Clayton's arrival had given the club a big lift.

"His enthusiasm is infectious and it is an exciting time. We are looking to develop the club and hopefully with Andy here we can keep hold of him and it augurs well for the future."