Hilary Caldwell pumped her fists after touching the wall first Sunday with the fourth-fastest time in the world this year (2:07.96) in the women鈥檚 200-metre backstroke.
She earned that moment of celebratory relief, gutting it out on the last day of the Canadian trials, to join fellow Island Swimming clubmate Ryan Cochrane in qualifying for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
The pair from the High Performance Centre-Victoria, who train at Saanich Commonwealth Place, will join 25 other pool swimmers on the Canadian Olympic team this summer in Rio. Also qualified, in open water, is Richard Weinberger, the University of Victoria/Pacific Coast Club product, who won a breakthrough bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Two-time Olympic medallist Cochrane is the most decorated Canadian swimmer of his generation 鈥� with 22 international medals at the Olympics, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games, world championships and Pan Pacs 鈥� and is the clear leader of the 2016 Olympic team. Other veterans include world championship medallists Caldwell, Martha McCabe of Toronto and Emily Overholt of West Vancouver. Audrey Lacroix of Pont-Rouge, Que., like Cochrane, qualified for her third Olympics.
The youth wave is led by Olympic debutantes Penny Oleksiak of Toronto and Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., who tore through the trials by setting national records. There is even a legendary name from the past re-emerging. Ashton Baumann, son of Canadian swimming great Alex Baumann, qualified for Rio.
Named as a Canadian Olympic team coach for Rio is Ryan Mallette, who took over the High Performance Centre-Victoria at Saanich Commonwealth Place from the late Randy Bennett, who died last year.
Cochrane said he was 鈥渉eartbroken鈥� not being able to pull more Island Swimming and Victoria High Performance Centre freestylers to Rio with him, as clubmates Jeremy Bagshaw, Peter Brothers and Eric Hedlin fell shy.
The qualifying standards were high, with no second chances, but that was necessarily so, said Cochrane.
鈥淭he Olympics is one chance. If you can鈥檛 do it here [at the trials], you can鈥檛 do it at the Olympics,鈥� said the Islander, before the meet.
鈥淵ou have to be able to perform when it counts,鈥� added Cochrane, in a statement Sunday.
鈥淲e want to bring an Olympic team that knows it can make second swims, not just hoping to get a hand on the wall to get a best time. I think it鈥檚 about more than that.鈥�
Cochrane won the 1,500-metre final Sunday in 15:00.75, well under the Olympic qualifying standard of 15:14.77. Island Club swimmers were also second and fourth, with Brothers across in 15:21.19 and Hedlin in 15:32.27. Jon McKay of UVic/Pacific Coast was fifth in 15:35.23. The latter three are young enough to be thinking about Tokyo 2020.
Rio 2016, meanwhile, is likely Cochrane鈥檚 farewell Olympics. The 27-year-old UVic psychology graduate has targeted medals this summer in both the 1,500- and 400-metre freestyles, the latter he also won comfortably at the trials.
Now she only has to wait for Rio.
