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Hilary Caldwell stood poolside at Saanich Commonwealth Place and said with a beaming smile: 鈥淎ll girl power all the time.鈥�
That statement can be taken quite literally heading into the 2016 world short-course swim championships beginning in Windsor, Ont, on Tuesday.
All of sa国际传媒鈥檚 six breakout swimming medals at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics came from female athletes, including Victorian Caldwell鈥檚 bronze in the 200-metre backstroke.
Before that in the Olympic pool, sa国际传媒 had one bronze at Sydney 2000, no medals at Athens 2004, Victorian Ryan Cochrane鈥檚 lone bronze medal at Beijing 2008 and Cochrane鈥檚 silver and Brent Hayden鈥檚 bronze at London 2012.
鈥淕irls in sports need those role models and that motivation sometimes. We want to keep that excitement from Rio going,鈥� Caldwell said.
Caldwell will be joined in Windsor for the world short- course championships by fellow Victoria High Performance Centre swimmers Jeremy Bagshaw and Sarah Darcel.
Cochrane will be in Windsor as an ambassador for Canadian swimming, but is not competing as he mulls over his future following his sixth-place finish in the Olympic men鈥檚 1,500 metres in Rio.
The short-course worlds are swum in a 25-metre pool while the Olympics, FINA world aquatics championships and Commonwealth and Pan Am Games lanes measure 50 metres.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a different race strategy over 25 metres 鈥� more aggressive 鈥� than it is in racing 50 metres,鈥� said Bagshaw, the SMUS grad and Cal-Berkeley NCAA Pac-12 medallist, who just missed making the Canadian team for the Rio Olympics.
There are a lot more turns, obviously, in 25-metre swimming and that adds unpredictability.
鈥淚n many ways, it鈥檚 a lot more exciting,鈥� said Bagshaw, who won two events at the Rio Olympic trials last spring, but just over the qualifying standards, and now has his sights on Tokyo 2020.
sa国际传媒 has home pool advantage in Windsor and will be wanting to show off its new galaxy of swimming stars, led by teenage sensation and Rio Olympic four-time medallist Penny Oleksiak.
The Canadian team head coach in Windsor will be Ryan Mallette, who guides the high-performance group at Saanich Commonwealth Place, which includes Cochrane, Caldwell, Bagshaw and Junior Pan-Pacific gold-medallist and Claremont Grade 12 student Darcel.
Mallette took over the group under the most emotionally searing of circumstances following the death from cancer in 2015 of former Canadian Olympic team coach Randy Bennett at age 51.
Mallette was Bennett鈥檚 assistant at the Saanich facility and found himself elevated to the main coaching role in a way he never wanted, nor imagined, at age 36.
But the goal remains the same as it was under the uncompromising Bennett.
鈥淭he focus of Randy鈥檚 program was always to be the best in the world and to impart on our swimmers that it鈥檚 never easy and that you have to work harder than anyone else in order to get there,鈥� Mallette said.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 my focus and goal, too,鈥�
It begins this week in Windsor.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the start of the new four-year cycle and the first big moment of that new quadrennial. It鈥檚 an opportunity for sa国际传媒 against the rest of the world 鈥� and it鈥檚 at home,鈥� Mallette said.
鈥淲e want to keep the momentum [from Rio] going.鈥�
