David Neale Parrington was born on July 28, 1955, in Wallasey, Merseyside, Great Britain. Like other athletes in this section, he had a successful career in South Africa, before emigrating to start a new successful career in another country. 

His father was appointed pool superintendent at the Mabelreign Municipal Pool in Salisbury, Rhodesia in February 1959, David where he attended Mount Pleasant High School. David participated in swimming, water polo, and diving, in which he excelled. He represented Rhodesia in diving competitions against South Africa. After independence was achieved in Zimbabwe, David also competed in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

After finishing high school, he spent four years in the BSAP, before getting a scholarship to the University of Houston, in 1978. David became the diving coach at Houston, until 1990, when he moved to the University of Tennessee, where he is still the Head diving coach in 2024.

Tennessee divers during the Parrington era have competed at the Olympics, World Championships, World University Games, World Diving Cup, Pan American Games, the Commonwealth Games, and the African Games. During the 1999 and 2000 SEC championships meets, Parrington coached Gabi Chereches to an SEC Commissioners Trophy, awarded to the swimmer or diver with the highest point total at the meet.

David coached Zimbabwe's Olympic team in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as well as the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Other Olympic service includes two stints (1998, 2008) as a judge at the U.S. Olympic diving trials and a selector for the USA Olympic team selection camp hosted at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center. He also served the United States diving team as a coach for the 1997 World Cup qualifying and championships rounds and was rewarded with the USA Diving Coaches Award of Excellence. Parrington was named the head coach of Team USA at the 2014 Fina World Series in London, England.

His mother was British Olympic swimmer Lillian Preece, and his grandfather was International Swimming Hall of Fame Honouree (ISHOF) Frank Parrington.

His father, also known as Frank Parrington, was a swimming coach, with Lillian, in Rhodesia and South Africa. His brother Martin Parrington won Springbok colours playing water polo for South Africa.

1974 Rhodesian and SA divers: Les Smith, Don Liebermann, Adrienne Wilson, Gina Lawrie (SA), Dave Parrington, Jennie Lundie (SA), Joe Thewlis (SA), Martin Lundie (SA).

UT diving coach’s grandfather holds record in former Olympic event

Aug 15, 2016

KNOXVILLE – Some Olympic events are more popular than others, while some are just odd. One of those is the plunge for distance. Athletes don’t complete in it at the games anymore, but UT’s head diving coach says his grandfather holds the world record.

Plunge for distance was an Olympic event in only one summer: 1904.

“The competitor simply dives in off the side of the pool, and then floats and glides in a streamline body position as far as they can in one minute,” said UT head diving coach David Parrington.

It’s all done while holding your breath. Parrington says his grandfather holds the world record. It was achieved in 1933 at 86 feet and eight inches, farther than the distance of UT’s pool. Some of UT’s swimmers decided to try it out, but only went about half the distance.

“He had great breath control, but also important to work on the angle of entry,” said Parrington.

His grandfather, Frank Parrington, could even go father if allowed to glide for more than a minute.

Frank Parrington was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1986 and won several championships in Britain.

“He has always had legendary status within our family. He was a World War I and World War II veteran, so he was always a hero in our minds,” said Coach Parrington.

Now his grandson is trying to carry on his tradition as a diving coach at UT. David Parrington says he has tried the plunge for distance several times. Just a few years ago, he was able to glide to 75 feet in one minute.

Frank Parrington (GBR)

Honor Pioneer Diver (1986)

FOR THE RECORD:  Frank Parrington, “Plunger” extraordinaire, was a Liverpool policeman, wounded and gassed in WWI and killed in WWII during the blitzkrieg.  Between wars he was the all-time greatest plunger, setting the World Record several times and winning 11 British National Championships between 1926 and 1939.

The Plunge for distance is how far a man can propel himself from a dive in 60 seconds.  Parrington’s greatest rivals were Teddy Abrams (USA) and Arther Beaumont (GBR) but neither approached Frank Parrington’s world Records.  The event was finally discontinued in 1947.  Parrington’s World Record of 86 ft. 8 inches set in 1933 has never been broken.  The second, third, and fourth best distances were also his, 85 ft. 10 inches in 1927, 85 ft. 4 inches in 1929, and 85 ft. 6 inches in his first championship plunge in 1926. 

He won British Championships in 1926, 1927, 1928, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939.  Beaumont beat him in 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1932 then Frank came back never to lose again.

Parrington died during the Liverpool Blitz on 8 May 1941, at age 42.

Zimbabwe’s Frank Parrington, 85

By Glen Byrom, Swimming World African correspondent

HARARE, Zimbabwe, July 15. FRANK Parrington, affectionately known as Mr. P and the doyen of Zimbabwe swimming, has died at the age of 85. He passed away at home in Harare on Tuesday night (13 July) (2010) after suffering kidney and heart failure following a recent leg amputation. He is survived by his son David, who is a leading diving coach at the University of Tennessee , and who arrived in Harare just five hours before his father passed away.

This year the Liverpool-born Mr. P celebrated an astonishing 80 active years in swimming and on his 85th birthday on 5 June this year he remembered his first gala with total clarity. It was the day his Dad broke an official aquatic world record, for an unlikely event called The Plunge.

Mr. P has left a rich legacy as Africa's guru of swimming and he has lived in Zimbabwe and South Africa for more than 50 years.

On his recent birthday many friends and swimmers gathered to reflect on his formidable achievements – surely of Guinness Book of Records proportions for 80 active and unbroken years of service to swimming – including the fostering of several notable champions.

"I learnt to swim at the age of five and I have been mad on swimming ever since," he recalled. "My introduction to coaching was as an eight-year-old when I used to help my Dad as a plunger. My first gala, at the age of eight, was when he set the world record on 23 September 1933 at the Bootle Baths in Liverpool. I came third in a two-length handicap and got a fountain pen as a prize."

His father, Francis Winder Parrington, was Long Plunge champion of England from 1926 to 1939 and won it 11 times. His world record of 86ft. 8in. was never beaten and, as the event is now obsolete, it will stand in perpetuity. The last English championships took place at Brighton in 1946 and were the first and only after World War 2.

The Plunge required a standing take-off at deck level and then floating motionless with arms extended. The distance was purely from the power and impetus of the take-off. For his world record, Francis Parrington was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 1985, more than 50 years after the achievement. He was wounded twice in World War 2 and killed during the War in Banbury, Liverpool, as a member of the Liverpool City Police Force.

Son Frank (born Francis Ward Parrington in Liverpool) was a member of the British Olympic swimming squad in 1948 as was his girlfriend, Lillian Preece.

"We started dating in 1947 and we were married in March 1948," he said on his birthday. "We had to break our honeymoon to go to the final Olympic trials at Loughborough. She won the 100 metres freestyle trials and made the team, but I didn't."

Lilian reached the semifinals at the Wembley Olympics and then, coached by husband Frank, was captain of the England team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, before retiring in 1954 and also turning to coaching.

Their African experience started in 1959. "I was manager of a pool in Manchester," said Frank, "but it had crowded facilities, there were housing shortages, and we liked the idea of sunshine, open spaces and the pioneering spirit.

"The Hodgkinson family from Zambia showed me some cine films of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and then there was an ad in the local paper seeking a manager for a new pool at Mabelreign in Salisbury (now Harare)….I got the job without even being interviewed and we sold and came."

The Parringtons arrived in Harare on February 23, 1959, and he remembered looking out of the plane window at 07h45 on landing and thinking that it would still be dark in England. "It was good to be in the sunshine and light and we never ever thought of going back."

During his time in Zimbabwe, Frank founded three swimming clubs, including Mabelreign in 1959 with 400 members. Then came Mount Pleasant (1968) and Spartans in 2005, Zimbabwe's champion club from the moment it was born.

The birthday messages of goodwill that flowed from a stream of his former swimmers around the globe were testimony to Mr. P's status and respect as a high calibre coach. African champions he coached include the formidable butterfly trio of John Keyter, Guy Goosen and David Lowe. Eight have been Olympians.

Lillian Parrington died in Harare in July 2004 and their son Marty, a South African international water polo player, passed away in Durban in 2003. Eldest son David Parrington (54) was a Zimbabwe diving champion and is now head diving coach at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is rated among the top dive coaches in the USA and was on the selection committee for the US team to the Beijing Olympics.

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/passages-zimbabwes-frank-parrington-85/