The Olympic waves from Tokyo will flow across the Pacific into Saanich Commonwealth Place this week in the Bell Canadian trials for the FINA world championships at Budapest in June and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July. The trials will also select the team for the World Para swimming championships in Madeira, Portugal, in June.
sa国际传媒 had a spectacular Olympics in the pool last summer in Japan with six medals, led by the dominating women’s team. The high water mark was Margaret Mac Neil’s gold medal in the 100-metre butterfly. Including relays, Mac Neil, Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse, Sydney Pickrem, Taylor Ruck, Kayla Sanchez, Katerine Savard and Rebecca Smith are the Canadians who reached the podium in Tokyo.
With success comes the weight of expectation, but this group seems prepared for it.
“I’ve done something great once and I want to prove that I can do it again,” Mac Neil said in a statement.
“I’ve always put expectations on myself but I think the expectations of people around me have changed. I’m just going to go and hopefully swim as close to best times as possible … and getting to see what I can do this summer.”
A total of 552 swimmers from 131 clubs will converge on Saanich Commonwealth Place beginning Tuesday and running through next Sunday.
“We are looking forward to going to Victoria,” said High Performance-Ontario interim head coach Ryan Mallette. “It’s a great city and a fast pool.”
He should know. Mallette took over from the late Randy Bennett and was the coach in the High Performance Centre-Victoria, which produced the likes of Olympic medallists Ryan Cochrane and Hilary Caldwell, before it was shut down and the sa国际传媒 high-performance centre consolidated at UBC.
“We’re looking forward to fast swims as we prepare for world championships and Commonwealth Games,” added Mallette.
Qualifying races will go in the mornings beginning at 9:30 a.m. and the finals in the evenings at 5:45 p.m. over the six days. All sessions will be streamed live on CBC Sports and CBC Gem.
