Emily Overholt draws on learned lessons for Rio

By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports

If 2015 was a strong development season for Emily Overholt, 2016 could go down as a breakout campaign for the emerging Canadian swim star.

After earning four international medals last year at age 17, the West Vancouver athlete qualified for this summer's Rio Olympics on the second day of the Canadian swim trials in April, meeting the qualifying time of four minutes 43.46 seconds in the 400-metre individual medley with a 4:38:50 performance.

"I think that's definitely going to help going into Rio, just to use what I learned last year," Overholt, now 18, told CBC Sports.

Here's a recap of Overholt's 2015 season:

• Pan Am Games: Gold, 400 freestyle; silver, 200 free; bronze, 4x200 free relay.
• World championships: Bronze, 400 individual medley (set Canadian record of 4:32.52, 3.32 seconds faster than Tanya Hunk's mark at 2009 worlds).

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Despite her success, Overholt felt changes were needed at the end of last season, so she moved from the West Vancouver Otters Swim Club to Swimming Canada's high performance centre at the University of British Columbia last September to work with Tom Johnson, founder and architect of UBC's highly successful swim program.

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"I needed to have more people around me to push me in practices every day," said Overholt, who at 16 anchored the 4×200 free relay to a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

"It's an individual sport but you train as a team. Having the positive environment, and we're always pushing each other … helps so much."

School on back-burner

Overholt also decided to take a year off school — she'll join the UBC Thunderbirds swim team this fall — to focus on training for Rio.

"That's helped a lot," she said. "I've had time to recover and just focus on training, and that's made a big difference."

For the last several months, Overholt has done a lot of mental exercises, visualization and goal setting to prepare for the nerves she'll feel at her first Olympic Games.

You dream of being the best in the world and the top in Canada, so yeah, it's definitely nerve-wracking.- Canadian swimmer Emily Overholt

"There's definitely a different pressure and stress this year because of the way last summer went," Overholt said, adding her Pan Am success "made me realize that I can try to be among the best in the world.

"You dream of being the best in the world and the top in Canada, so yeah, it's definitely nerve-wracking."

At the Pan Am Games in Toronto, Overholt won the 400 IM, out-touching American Caitlin Leverenz at the wall. But the Canadian was later disqualified for a "non-simultaneous" wall touch during the breaststroke leg as officials ruled Overholt's hands didn't touch the wall at the same time.

Her time of 4:35.33 would have been the fourth-fastest time in the world for the season and a Canadian and Pan Am record.

But Overholt didn't sulk, and the next day set a new Pan Am mark of 4:08.42 to win the 400 free.

'Fierce competitor'

Johnson described Overholt as a "quiet leader" who is disciplined, focused and recognizes the value of hard work.

"She's a fierce competitor, a kid who rises to the occasion," he told CBC Sports. "She's historically done well in the end-game situation, which is really what we look for when we're trying to find kids who could win medals at the world championships or Olympic Games."

Overholt isn't consumed by thoughts of reaching the podium in Rio, preferring to focus on areas of her swimming that need fine-tuning.

"I'm just excited for the whole atmosphere," Overholt was quoted as saying in a May 2016 story on the British Columbia Institute of Technology website. "I've been to international competitions and I've been to lots of sports games, but I've never been to the Olympics and I've been told that it's nothing like you expect, and it's also just the best time.

"If I can improve my [times] again from last summer, then I will be really happy. I can't control what other people are going to do, so if that puts me on the podium or puts me in the top eight, I will be happy wherever I place."

Correction: A previous version of this story stated Overholt won gold at the 2015 World Championships. In fact, she won bronze.