Brendan Flynn (born 30 December 1953) was an Olympic women's basketball coach and Australian sports administrator. Flynn was a leading women's basketball coach in South Australia in the late 1970s. He was appointed the Australian women's national basketball team (Opals) Head Coach in 1981, a position which he held until 1984. At the

1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

, he coached the team to fifth position. From 1982 to 1985, he was Women's Head Coach of the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

basketball program. He coached the team to third place in the 1983

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Baske ...

. After coaching, he transferred to the Australian Institute of Sport's management area. In 1987, he moved to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to manage the establishment of the Australian Institute of Sport Cricket Academy, which had its headquarters at the Del Monte Hotel, Henley Beach in Adelaide. As well as cricket, the facility also housed AIS cyclists. In 1998, he was General Manager of Sport at the Australian Paralympic Committee based in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. Following the resignation of Scott Derwin in 1999, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer the Australian Paralympic Committee. He held this position until 2003. His successor was Darren Peters. During this period, he was responsible for managing the Committee in the lead-up to the

2000 Sydney Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

. Australia had its best ever Games, finishing first on the medal tally, winning 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze medals. In 2001, there was a controversy about intellectually disabled athletes at the 2000 Games, which resulted in athletes being stripped of their medals. Flynn was one of the Australian Paralympic Committee spokespeople who talked to the media about this issue and its impact on Australian medalists. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer at

Odyssey House Odyssey House Texas, located in Houston, Texas is a private not-for-profit organization established in 1989 to provide treatment and education to youth and families whose lives have been devastated by drugs, alcohol, and Child abuse, abuse. At tha ...

in Sydney. His brother Michael is the National Performance Director for

Triathlon Australia AusTriathlon (formerly Triathlon Australia) is the governing body responsible for the management of sports such as duathlon, aquathlon and triathlon within Australia. History Triathlon came to Australia in the early 1980s but the first state Ass ...

References

Australian Sport Commission Australian Institute of Sport coaches Australian Olympic coaches Living people Australian sports executives and administrators Paralympics Australia officials 1953 births Australian chief executives Chief operating officers Australian women's basketball coaches {{Australia-athletics-bio-stub