Canada’s groundbreaking success in the pool isn’t a random confluence of excellence. It’s the product of a system put in place a decade ago.
has been going for quite a few years. Canadian swimmers won more medals in the pool at the last two Summer Olympics than they did in the previous seven Games combined . They’re winning more world championships medals, winning more golds, and making more finals than ever before.
Swimming Canada has changed how it uses the funding. It used to be that once a swimmer got inside the top 150 in the world rankings, they could rely on support from the federal athlete assistance program. A swimmer who was 25 and not improving in an event where the average age was 23 would still be funded as long as he or she stayed in the top 150, said John Atkinson, Swimming Canada’s high-performance director.
“Everyone’s dream is to make it to the top … And there are a lot of fast youngsters coming up now. So I’m excited to see what they do and use our momentum to bring us to ’28, ’32 and beyond that.” McKinnon, who has been in charge of developing the next crop of world-class swimmers since 2009, works on a personal level, getting to know athletes, their families and coaches. “There could be raw talent with the right coach or raw talent with a coach that’s maybe not prepared, or in a club that’s not prepared to support the coach to develop the kid.”
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