Universe ‘telling me I can do this’

Hayden dips into past passion to solve seven-year-itch via Olympic goal

VANCOUVER — Brent Hayden asked himself some serious questions when he came out of retirement and, when you’re coming back after seven years away from the pool, those questions don’t have easy answers.

But Hayden, one of the most decorated swimmers in this country’s history, kept coming back to the same place as he considered his audacious dream. If I’m doing this for a medal or another turn in the spotlight, I’m doing it for the wrong reasons. But if I’m doing this for the journey, to reconnect with something I lost, that’s all the validation I need.

That dream now hangs on any number of factors beyond his control, but Hayden doesn’t discourage easily. For the 36-year-old from Mission it’s still about the journey and nothing, including a COVID19 pandemic, will deter him from his goal.

“I told myself if I had to make the Olympics for this to be successful, it’s not worth it,” Hayden says over the phone from his home in New Westminster. “I’ve started to love my sport again. I’ve got to listen to the universe. It’s telling me I can do this.”

And to hear that is worth a thousand medals.

Hayden, like the rest of the world, has had ample time to ponder his immediate future during the current health crisis but, if anything, his time away from competition has only fuelled his mad ambition.

Last fall, at a pool in Lebanon, he decided he wanted to return to swimming and since then he’s plotted a course that could take him back to the top of the swimming world.

That he’s done this at all is remarkable. That he’s done this as he’s about to turn 37 is almost incomprehensible. But here he is, again poised to claim his place among the world’s top sprinters eight years after a bronze-medal turn at the London Olympics seemingly closed the book on his swimming career.

BESTED OLYMPIC TIME

Since returning to the pool under the watchful eye of his longtime coach Tom Johnson, Hayden has bested the Olympic standard time in both the 100 metres and 50 metres in competition. In early March, he also finished third behind world champion Caeleb Dressel and 2016 bronze medallist Nathan Adrian at a pro meet in Des Moines, recording his fourth-ever fastest time in the 50.

As it happens, COVID-19 shut the world down a week later, leaving a haze of uncertainty over his comeback. But the goal remains the Tokyo Games, which have now been postponed to the summer of 2021.

“Whatever it takes,” Hayden says. “I’m committed to the Olympics. This has given me another year to train.”

Hayden reached out to Johnson in September with news of his plans after a serendipitous series of events put him on the comeback trail. After London, he attempted to open a swimming school with his wife, Nadina Zarifeh, a project that gave way to a series of swimming clinics conducted all across Canada.