There鈥檚 a sort of symmetric arc to this storyline.
With the recent retirement of two-time Olympic-medallist Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, the former king of Canadian distance pool swimming, has emerged a new distance queen from the Island.
Mackenize Padington of Campbell River, who moved to Victoria to train and graduated from Claremont Secondary, swept the women鈥檚 freestyle 400-, 800- and 1,500-metre events at the Canadian swim trials, which concluded Sunday at the Toronto Pan Am Pool.
Padington emerged as a triple threat for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But first comes the FINA 2019 world aquatics championships July 12-28 in Gwangju, South Korea, at which Padington and national trials men鈥檚 400-metre freestyle-champion Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria will join the 25-member Canadian team that includes Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse and Taylor Ruck.
The world championships will be the stage-setter for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
鈥淲e will run with exactly the same protocols on the team that we will do in 2020,鈥� said John Atkinson, Swimming sa国际传媒 director of high performance.
New to the worlds and Olympic program will be the women鈥檚 1,500 metres.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a really new race for me,鈥� said Padington, who transfered as a teenager from her Campbell River Killer Whales Club to train at the High Performance Centre-Victoria at Saanich Commonwealth Place.
鈥淚 still have a lot of learning to do in it. I definitely think it can be a race I excel in. I can carry speed and I think that will work in this race [the 1,500],鈥� added Padington, who swims in the NCAA Big Ten for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Danielle Hanus, named this year as University of Victoria Vikes female athlete of the year across all sports, and Faith Knelson of Ladysmith via Victoria are headed with the national 鈥楤鈥� team this summer to the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, based on their results at the national trials.
Don鈥檛 look on it as a consolation prize, said the Canadian coaching staff.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a balancing act,鈥� said Rob Pettifer of Richmond, who will coach the Pan Am Games swim team in Lima.
鈥淧an Ams will allow them to have a Games experience in a smaller capacity and provide them with the opportunity to race internationally in a very competitive environment.鈥�
The dream of Tokyo 2020 is not over for Hanus or Knelson.
鈥淭here will be a number of [Pan Am Games] athletes that will have very realistic shots to make that team in Tokyo next year,鈥� Pettifer added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about moving that line forward.鈥�
Named to the Lima Pan Am Paralympics team from the trials was Nicholas Bennett of Qualicum Beach.
DIVING: Tokyo Olympics-hopeful Celina Toth of Victoria Boardworks, winner of the women鈥檚 10-metre at the first 2019 FINA Grand Prix event of the season in February at Rostock, Germany, was unable to repeat and placed sixth Sunday at the second Grand Prix event of the season in Calgary.
