One of the top swimming coaches in the world will be the guest speaker when the Harbour Swim Club celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend at the site of some of Bermuda's earlier swim meets -- the Belmont Hotel.

American Jack Nelson's list of credentials is as impressive as it is long and he can expect to have an attentive audience of about 150 when he speaks at tomorrow night's banquet.

Nelson is considered one of the pre-eminent coaches in the world.

Nelson, an Olympic and Pan American Games coach and former collegiate all-American as well as world record holder and Olympian, is the director of the nationally and world ranked Fort Lauderdale swim team. He has coached 36 Olympians, including gold medallist Joel Thomas, Paige Zemina, Dave Edgar and Shirley Stobbs and he boasts 30 state team championships and instructed over 460 all-Americans.

Also, Nelson has accommodated Bermuda teams at his Hall of Fame pool in Fort Lauderdale on the way to events in the Caribbean in the last 10 years and recently hosted the Commonwealth Games team which went to Puerto Rico in 1992.

"He's a friend of swimming in Bermuda,'' said Jim Ferguson, public relations officer of the Harbour Swim Club and vice president of the Bermuda Amateur Swimming Association. "He cares about it and has seen it develop.

"He's a real motivator, that's his strongest point. His talk on Saturday evening will be of a motivational nature and what swimming has done for kids over the last 20 years.'' World and US record holders Andy Coan and Laurie Lehner and American record holders Maggie Moffit, Ann Marshall, Bonnie Brown and Tom McAnenay all achieved their marks under coach Nelson.

Nelson was been coach of the US National teams from 1974-76, 1979, '81, '83 and '90 and was the US women's head Olympic coach in '76.

He has the distinct honour of being inducted into four Halls of Fame -- the Greater Fort Lauderdale Sports Hall of Fame, the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the State of Florida Sports Hall of Fame.