Canadians swimmers earn Olympic berth
LIMA, Peru — Jacqueline Simoneau and Claudia Holzner developed a pre-swim routine to calm their nerves when they joined forces as an artistic swimming tandem. It involves a declaration of trust and a reference to a Disney character.
And it seems to be working. Simoneau, of Chambly, Que., and Calgary’s Holzner combined to defend Canada’s artistic swimming duet title Wednesday at the Pan American Games and earned Canada a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the process.
The Canadian tandem finished first with a total score of 180.0343 points. Mexico was second with 174.3661 points, and the United States third with 170.6698 points.
“It was such a special moment,” Holzner said. “Before we swam our coach (Gabor Szauder) was like, ‘Jackie, go for a second Olympics,’ and ‘Claudia, become an Olympian.”’
Simoneau and Holzner returned to the pool later Wednesday as part of Canada’s nine-swimmer squad in team competition, with another Olympic berth on the line, and took the top of the podium for the second time with 179.6731 points. Mexico took second (175.1243) and the U.S. followed (170.8114).
Simoneau and Holzner, who were both members of Canada’s gold-medal winning team entry at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto, started swimming together as a duet in 2017. Simoneau said she and Holzner came up with a unique pre-swim routine the moment their partnership was formed.
“We hold each other’s hands and we look each other in the eye and we say, ‘I trust you.’ And then there’s a secret word that we say right before we go.
“We came up with this the moment we started swimming together. It’s a ridiculous word, but for us it just means having a calm confidence. It’s Perry. Perry the platypus. It’s a TV character on the Disney show Phineas and Ferb.”
Canada swept synchronized swimming events at the Toronto Games, with Simoneau and Karine Thomas earning duet gold to go with the team victory. Simoneau and Thomas went on to place seventh at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The sport was renamed from synchronized swimming to artistic swimming in 2017.
Later Wednesday, gymnast Ellie Black of Halifax added to her record Pan Am medal haul with a silver medal in the women’s beam event, her fifth medal this year.