O’Croinin making waves in the pool
Edmonton youngster’s successes bring her closer to spot on national team
Emma O’Croinin will have a memorable summer trip to tell her friends in September. She just doesn’t know which trip she will be making just yet.
The 15-year-old member of Edmonton’s Keyano Swim Club has already booked her ticket for the 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Games in Suva, Fiji, but if she can earn her spot on the senior national team this weekend at the 2018 Canadian Swimming Trials at the Kinsmen pool, she’ll qualify for the 2018 Pan Pacific Games in Tokyo.
Over the last couple years, O’Croinin has proven not only to be one of the top swimmers of her age group, but she’s continuing to show that she’s one of Canada’s young up-and-coming swimmers.
Her goal this weekend is to make the Canadian senior national team.
On Friday morning, she qualified for the final in the 400m freestyle — finishing third — and on Saturday night, she’ll race in the 1,500m freestyle final.
“She’s very close to making the senior national team,” said Keyano Swim Club head coach Chris Nelson. “Her best chance is in the 1,500 freestyle. We came into this weekend knowing there’s a chance and that’s what we’ve planned for. Otherwise, we’ve set a target for her to medal at the Junior Pan Pacific Games, and from there, she’ll go into next season with the idea of making the senior national team.”
Last year, O’Croinin really started to make waves in the pool with an impressive performance at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, where she took home four gold medals, one silver and one bronze.
She’s followed it up by breaking the provincial record in the 400m freestyle, and she has much bigger goals and dreams she wants to accomplish.
“I grew up in a swimming family. My mom was a swimmer and I fell in love with it at a young age, and it’s something I love and I’m passionate about. I love competing and everything about it,” said O’Croinin. “I’ve always taken it seriously. I’ve had these dreams at a young age, and it’s been more than I’ve ever imagined.”
With the emergence of young Canadian phenom Penny Oleksiak at the 2016 Rio Olympics that saw her become the youngest Canadian to become an Olympic champion, and the first to win four medals in the same Olympics, Swimming Canada has taken a different approach in developing their athletes, and O’Croinin has benefited from it.
“What Swimming Canada has done is start to throw more development carding money into kids who are a little younger than they traditionally did in the past. Ten years ago, Emma wouldn’t be nationally supported like she is because she’s on track, essentially,” said Nelson. “It’s working really well. Normally, you have to wait to see what happens to the athletes when they ’re 18 years old, but some kids are making it faster, and they need to get to different events and training camps.”
Nelson has coached members of the senior national team before and he sees something very special in O’Croinin.
She may be just 15, but her focus, drive and determination no matter who she’s racing against in the lane beside her is what makes O’Croinin’s future so bright.
“Some kids have that innate ability to focus on what they want in the sport they’re training for and so they pick up so many things that on the average would only pick up 50 per cent, but she picks up 99 per cent of what we teach her and that’s special,” said Nelson. “She has abilities that are difficult to train. One of them is focus, another is a natural aerobic system. She gets better with distance, and she never gets tired.
“Somewhere in her mind, she has a goal of what her future is going to be, and for her, it’s a pretty high goal. Along the way, that’s the fuel that keeps that far off target for her into focus.”
This is O’Croinin’s second Canadian Swimming trials. After attending last year and not making a final, O’Croinin qualified for two finals.
She’s showing that she may be one of the youngest swimmers competing, but that isn’t going to stop her from fighting for that spot on the senior national team.
“Swimming next to the top girls, it’s an experience and challenge I take on. It really motivates and pushes me even harder,” said O’Croinin.
“I want to keep improving my times and I want to challenge at the senior level and earn my spot on the national team. I feel like I’m real close.”
She has abilities that are difficult to train. One of them is focus, another is a natural aerobic system.