Team Canada goes with youth at world swimming championships,
New generation in the pool at world championships
VANCOUVER Nobody can accuse Tom Johnson of overhyping Canada’s team at this year’s world swimming championships.
“We’re in pretty tough,” said Johnson, part of the Canadian coaching contingent at the worlds that begin Sunday and run until Aug. 4 in Barcelona.
“We’ve got a new group of kids coming around and we’re just hoping to be able to improve from the selection moment into the world championships. And then once they get there, to be able to convert any morning (heat) swims into semifinal or final swims.”
Past Olympians Brent Hayden, Annamay Pierse and Julia Wilkinson have retired, so Canada is pinning its slight medal hopes on a predominantly young crop of swimmers as a new Olympic cycle begins prior to the 2016 Summer Games. Many of Canada’s swimmers are in their teens or early 20s and several have been to the world championships and Olympics before, but most have yet to earn shots at medals.
Savannah King, 21, of Vernon, B.C., is among the young hopefuls looking to step up to the podium as she competes at her third world championships in freestyle.
A member of the national team since the age of 14, King will compete in the 400 and 800 women’s freestyle events and 4x200 women’s freestyle relay.
The worlds, King suggested, will be a chance for Canada to show its developing strength in the pool.
Toronto’s Brittany MacLean, 19, is also looking to build on her international success after she earned her way onto the freestyle relay team that placed fourth in London.
Tera Van Beilen, 20, of Mississauga, Ont., hopes to contend in her first world championships.
Katerine Savard, 20, of Cap-Rouge, Que., will compete in her second world championships after missing the final in the 100-metre butterfly by a tenth of a second in 2011. In June,
On the men’s side, Ashton Baumann, 20, whose father Alex won two individual medley gold medals in the 1984 Olympics, will be one to watch as he competes at the worlds for the first time in the 200-metre breaststroke.
Ryan Cochrane of Victoria, 24, who won silver and bronze in the 1,500-metre freestyle in the last two Olympics, respectively, is one of Canada’s few medal threats.