Eastern promise as swimming phenom focuses on Tokyo
Canadian Ruck ‘keeping blinders on’ as she prepares for 2020 Summer Olympics
EDMONTON The freshest new face of Canadian swimming tingles. Literally.
“I get super nervous before a race, especially as the level of competition goes up. … Sometimes my face tingles,” said Taylor Ruck. “It’s crazy.”
It’s also more than a little endearing and another reason to like the shy, humble phenom who burst into the Canadian consciousness in April on the Gold Coast of Australia, where she won a recordtying eight Commonwealth Games medals; one gold, five silver, two bronze.
She keeps them in a duffle bag, by the way, and there are hundreds now.
“It’s pretty heavy,” she said with a smile.
But they do not weigh her down. Three months after the games, there are few discernible differences between the relatively anonymous, totally bubbly teenager who went Down Under and the world-class swimmer who came out on top.
“Taylor is still Taylor,” said teammate Kayla Sanchez. “She’s super fun to be around, so hard working, striving to be the best. It’s nice to be a part of her journey. She is super humble, super nice. You won’t meet anyone nicer than Taylor.”
The success was also nice, Ruck said, but she’s staring straight ahead, two years down the road to the 2020 Summer Olympics, rather than basking in anything behind her.
“I think coming out of the Commonwealth Games I’m just keeping my blinders on and just focusing on Tokyo right now. It was really cool to see that success in the pool. Seeing that made me really excited for Tokyo.”
Yes, her vision is indeed 2020 and everything she does between now and then on a daily, sometimes hourly basis must be aimed at putting her in position to succeed. That’s a job her coach Ben Titley does not take lightly.
Take the Canadian trials in Edmonton this week. On the opening day, Ruck won the 200-metre freestyle, which qualified her to swim individual events at the Pan Pacific Championships next month in Tokyo. And that was the end of her meet as Titley decided to shut her down and get her back into training mode.
Penny Oleksiak finished fourth in that race as her post- Olympic performances continue to fall well short of her feats at Rio 2016, where she won four medals and became the Canadian face of those Games at the tender age of 16.
Though there is decidedly less intense focus on a Commonwealth Games star, the post- Olympic road map is a good one for Ruck to have in hand.
“Taylor has seen a friend and a rival and a teammate of hers go through that process and seen maybe things she can learn from to handle that situation,” said Titley.
“Penny dropped in from 1,000 feet and had to deal with it. Taylor has time to adjust. She is one of the bigger dogs now, but she’s still not the best in the world. There’s not one event where she is ranked No. 1.”
There is time and willingness and the competitive spirit necessary to get there. And there are other things to fit into the schedule. The Kelowna, B.C.-born, Scottsdale, Ariz.-raised 18-year-old is off to Stanford University in September and will swim on the NCAA circuit. It’s a good program run by a good coach. Though Swimming Canada always prefers its elite athletes set up shop at a high-performance centre at home, some perspective is necessary.
“A Stanford education for her life is equally as important as her performance on the Olympic level,” said Titley.
Ruck’s first year at Stanford will focus on general studies, but she is interested in the sciences, maybe biology, with an eye on a medical career. She is a good student.
“From a young age, my parents nailed it into my head that I need to keep my grades up and do as well as I can in sports.”
She dabbled in soccer and basketball.
“I did a few summer camps for basketball. I just never liked it. When the ball hit my finger it always hurt,” she said. “Swimming is very non-contact.”
At six feet, she inherited the frame for both sports. Her father Colin is six-foot-nine. He played defence in the Western Hockey League in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
She’s super fun to be around, so hard working, striving to be the best. It’s nice to be a part of her journey. She is super humble, super nice.
“I know he was known for his aggression and punching some people. That’s what you go to hockey to see sometimes, a little bit of roughing up. I saw a few of those videos. I thought that was pretty funny to watch.”
Her mother Sophia was a swimmer with the Kelowna AquaJets, but did not pursue the sport to the level her daughter has achieved.
And there is more to come. There is every reason to believe Ruck will hit the Olympic podium in Tokyo more than once, but Titley eschews expectations.
“It’s not a phrase I would ever use with athletes. Expectations are for other people. Are we aiming for, could we hope for multiple podium swims by Taylor? I think we’d be silly to not have that as a goal of ours.”