Adages become that because they are true. One of the biggest in sports is that it’s harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top.
Retaining its position is the task facing the Canadian swim team, particularly the women’s side, at 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.
After being kept afloat at the Olympics basically by Ryan Cochrane of Victoria from Beijing 2008 through London 2012, sa国际传媒 exploded for six swim medals at Rio 2016 and another six at Tokyo 2020, with all 12 of those medals coming from women. With that comes the pressure of expectation.
“It’s a unique kind of pressure but it’s no different than what we faced in Tokyo last summer following the success in Rio,” said backstroker Kylie Masse of Windsor, Ont., winner of four Olympic medals and two world championships.
“A lot of it is external pressure from others outside, not personal pressure in my own mind. I just go out to be the best swimmer I can be,” added Masse, following her training session Monday in Saanich Commonwealth Place.
The 26-year-old will attempt this summer to add to her total of five world championship medals, including two golds; and two golds and two silvers from the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.
“The worlds and Commonwealth Games double back-to-back this summer will be a tough challenge but that’s what we train for,” said Masse.
A total of 552 swimmers from 131 clubs have converged on Saanich Commonwealth Place, beginning today and running through Sunday, for the trials to earn places on those teams. There are between 25 to 30 spots open for the worlds team and 23 for the Commonwealth Games squad.
Most of the qualifiers will do the double.
“It’s been a while, since 2019, that we have been able to have a full national trials that looks regular with a full field. I’m really excited for it,” said Masse.
The 2020 Olympic trials were cancelled due to the postponement of the Tokyo Games by one year and last year’s Olympic trials were severely compromised by the pandemic with much of the Canadian team having to be pre-selected.
Olympic medallists, including relay racers, vying for spots this week in Saanich for Budapest and Birmingham include Masse, gold-medallists Margaret Mac Neil and Penny Oleksiak, and Sydney Pickrem, Taylor Ruck, Kayla Sanchez, Katerine Savard and Rebecca Smith.
Cochrane’s 1,500-metre silver, fellow Victoria-trained Richard Weinberger’s open-water 10K bronze and fellow British Columbian-Brent Hayden’s bronze in the 100 freestyle at London 2012 remain the last Olympic medals for Canadian men in swimming. The men’s side will continue its rebuild in Saanich led by the likes of 21-year-old Finlay Knox, who made his Olympic debut at Tokyo last summer after winning medals in the 2018 Youth Olympics and 2019 world junior championships.
“The men’s team is very young and still developing and raising expectations,” said Knox.
“Male swimmers typically peak later. We are being patient and putting in the work.”
Qualifying races will go in the mornings beginning at 9:30 a.m. and the finals in the evenings at 6 p.m. over the six days. All sessions will be streamed live on CBC Sports and CBC Gem.
Despite that attendance is unlimited now for indoor sports events in sa国际传媒, and not even masks required for spectators, a peculiar decision has been made to not allow fans into the trials with all competitors required to be masked when not competing or warming up in the pool.
