The sport burns you out and many competitive swimming careers are relatively short in the pool. Open-water careers tend to stretch further with Eric Hedlin’s longevity an example as the Victoria swimmer, who turned 30 on Tuesday, was named to the 2023 Canadian teams for the 2023 FINA world aquatics championships July 14-30 in Fukuoka, Japan, and the 2023 Pan American Games from Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 in Santiago, Chile.
“I’ve been swimming at this level now for 10 years and it’s been such a good journey,” Hedlin said in a statement.
“Wearing the Maple Leaf always makes me so proud. I love representing my country.”
The 2023 Canadian open-water trials were conducted Sunday over 10 kilometres at Governor’s Beach in Grand Cayman with Hedlin placing second to Benjamin Cote of Calgary to take the two national berths.
Weather, water conditions and sometimes even marine life is a part of the open-water event and Hedlin said he swam alongside a stingray for part of the race, as he led for much of it, before being overtaken by Cote near the end.
“Unfortunately, I led the least important part of the race,” said Hedlin. “I would rather lead into the finish. But I’ll take it.”
Emma Finlin of Edmonton won the women’s race with Abby Dunford of Regina second to claim the female spots.
“With it stepping into Olympic qualification at the 2024 world aquatics championships in February in Doha, it’s a really good opportunity for them to race [at Fukuoka and Santiago], then get back into a block of training to get ready to try and qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” Canadian open-water coach Mark Perry said in a statement.
Hedlin, born in San Diego to Canadian parents, won four sa国际传媒 West gold medals and two U Sports gold medals and seven in total in his pool career in the 400- to 1,500-metre freestyles with the University of Victoria Vikes and was named UVic athlete of the year in 2016-17. Hedlin swims for the UVic/Pacific Coast Club and his international career is also littered with podium appearances with open-water 5K silver and bronze medals at the 2013 and 2019 FINA world aquatics championships in Barcelona, Spain, and Gwangju, South Korea, respectively, 10K silver at the 2018 Pan-Pacific championships in Tokyo and bronze at the 2013 World University Games in Kazan, Russia. This will be Hedlin’s second Pan Am Games following his ninth place finish at Toronto in 2015.
Hedlin also starred in the classroom at UVic, winning the President’s Cup for 2019-20 as the Vikes athlete best combining academic and athletic achievement, and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science, also a master’s degree, and is a Ph.D. candidate.
The Island has a long history in open-water swimming, from Marilyn Bell’s famous crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Port Angeles to Victoria that is commemorated with a bust and plaque along Dallas Road, to Richard Weinberger coming out of the UVic Vikes/Pacific Coast Club to win the 2012 London Olympics bronze medal in the open-water 10K in the Serpentine at Hyde Park. Weinberger also supplied sa国际传媒 with its greatest Pan Am Games moment in open water with gold at Guadalajara in 2011.
The four-open water swimmers announced Monday join the 36 pool athletes, including Jeremy Bagshaw and Keir Ogilvie of Victoria, named to Team sa国际传媒 this month following the trials in Toronto.
