The pandemic disrupted training, but Canada's swimmers are `resilient'
Our Olympic cheat sheets give you the inside edge on everything you need to know in Tokyo, especially if you only follow the action every four years. Today, Rob Longley shares all the talking points for Olympic swimming, including Canada's chances.
Well before the massive splash of success in the Rio Olympic pool in 2016, Swimming Canada's target was Tokyo.
Young in either age or experience or both, blossoming athletes such as Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse, Taylor Ruck and others all figured to approach their competitive peaks much closer to the 2020 Games.
And then Rio happened.
Led by Oleksiak's four-medal tour de force, suddenly Canadian swimming was back on the world stage in a big way. The six medals were the most by the country's swimmers since 1984 in Los Angeles, as the 16-year-old Torontonian became Canada's youngest Olympic champ with her thrilling race to the wall in the 100-metre freestyle event.
Of course, that led to elevated expectations for the looming — and delayed — Tokyo Olympics, as the once proud program worked to continue its renaissance as a world power in the pool.
Starting with the fact that Tokyo 2020 is now in fact 2021, the waters have been choppy over the past five years and may have muted the expectations for the nine-day Olympic meet.
The goal of being one of Canada's most productive disciplines on the Olympic stage hasn't disappeared however, but it's been clouded by the unknowns that will greet so many athletes in Japan.
“To spin the positives, maybe we don't know at this point what we're capable of,” said Canadian team coach Ben Titley. “Maybe we'll go into Tokyo and surprise ourselves when everyone is on the same playing field. Normally the playing field is the same for everybody, but this year that is not the case.
“That does not mean we can't achieve the goals we intend to do and shoot for finals and medals that we try to do — it just means it's more of an unknown.”
Titley and Swimming Canada high performance director John Atkinson aren't reaching for excuses, but instead are ambitiously preparing for an Olympics in which they are at a training handicap to some of their top global rivals.
When it came to training limitations, COVID-19 restrictions in Canada were more severe than in any other country, creating a massive void in training. Just getting in the water was a difficulty for the country's top swimmers and racing opportunities prior to the showpiece meet were almost nonexistent.
“The one word I would say of our athletes is that they've been resilient, when you look back to the start of the pandemic when Canadian athletes were out of the water longer than any other top 20 in the world swimming nation,” Atkinson said.
“We have some key phrases one the team . ... We talk of professionalism, of focus, of being adaptable, of no drama, of being relaxed. All of that is something they've had to draw on for the last 16 months.”
Atkinson estimates there were more than 130 training days lost at the start of the pandemic and that was followed by a dearth of competition. When Canadian swimmers got into the water at the Olympic Trials in Toronto in June, for many it was their first pure racing experience in more than 15 months.
“The performance they put at the Trials were world class,” Atkinson said. “Psychologically, it shows they can race at the level they need to race at.
“They know they can race fast. Now they have to put it together in a series of races over the nine days of competition that the Olympic Games will be.”
If mindset can make up for it, the Canadian team is hungry. The 26 swimmers bound for Tokyo include 10 with previous Games experience, including four-time Olympian Brent Hayden, the 37-year-old bronze medallist from the 2012 London Games, who came out of retirement.
Among the 16 first-timers are Summer Mcintosh, a 14-year-old Torontonian who beat Oleksiak in the 200-metre freestyle at the Canadian trials. Another Toronto teen, Josh Liendo, is a prospect who could help key the resurgence of the men's team.