Paolo Di Paola has been involved in swimming for over 40 years, as a swimmer first and then as a swimming teacher and coach of both adults and children. He has been working for the Aer Lingus Swimming Club since 2007 after moving to Ireland in 2005.

He holds a Level 3 Coaching qualification both in Italy, where he was born, and here in Ireland, as well as a Level 4 qualification with the American Swimming Coaches Association and a Level 2 Swim Ireland/ASA Teaching qualification. As a coach he has an extensive experience in the field of swimming skills acquisition, in developing Age Group Swimmers, and has been Performance Manager and assistant coach of the Irish National Youth Squad in 2012/2013.

Paolo has also worked in Swim Ireland, the National Governing Body for Irish Swimming, between 2011 and 2014, as Education and Child Learn to Swim Programme Officer first and then as Education Manager.

A qualified Swim Ireland Tutor, he delivers training courses for Swimming Teachers and Coaches as well as Continuous Professional Development Seminars such as Long Term Athlete Development and Child Learn to Swim up skilling. He also delivered presentations at the Lifesaving Foundation Conferences in 2013 and 2016 as well as up skilling courses for Dublin City University Sport staff and for other facilities and institutions.

Because of his longstanding involvement in learn to swim programmes in conjunction with his coaching career, he has always been a keen advocate of focusing on the acquisition of proper core aquatic skills at the early stages of learning to swim, as opposed to just teaching strokes, in order to be safe in the water and to enjoy a lifelong involvement in the aquatics.