Confident Canadian swim team looks to carry momentum into short course worlds

A year ago, it started becoming abundantly clear this was a special time for swimming in Canada. 

Last December in Abu Dhabi at the short course world championships, the Canadian team of 12 swimmers won 15 medals throughout the six days of competition while shattering previous records.

In fact, by the time the competition had wrapped up Canada was only behind the Americans in the medal standings. Those 15 medals, including seven gold, six silver and two bronze medals, nearly doubling the country's previous best of eight in 1999 and 2016. 

Even more impressive, the 15 medals were more than the previous eight world short course championships combined. 

The Canadian women won more medals than any other country's women swimmers. Maggie Mac Neil won five medals, including four gold. Kylie Masse became Canada's most decorated FINA swimmer while keeping her streak of winning a medal at an international meet alive for seven consecutive years and counting.

Throughout those worlds, 16 Canadian records were broken.

With a condensed competition schedule, nearly the same group of swimmers took their newfound swagger and confidence to the long course world championships this past summer in Budapest – once again they brought home a historic medal haul, winning 11 medals throughout the competition. 

Golden era for Canadian swimming

It was Summer McIntosh, just 15 at the time, who emerged as a superstar during those worlds, capturing four medals including two gold. She broke four world junior records. 

This is undeniably the golden era for Canadian swimming. 

Now they want to keep that momentum and start building toward the Paris 2024 Olympics with another successful international showing in Melbourne, Australia as another short course world championships begin on Tuesday morning with CBCSports.ca's live streaming coverage starting at 3:30 a.m. ET.

"I'm very happy. Very proud of what the athletes and coaches have done. And we're trying to create environments that they can flourish in. I think that's the key thing in all of this," said high performance director John Atkinson. 

There are many familiar names on the team heading down under to compete for Canada, including Masse, Mac Neil, Sydney Pickrem, Taylor Ruck, Finlay Knox, Javier Acevedo and Yuri Kisil. In total, there will be 17 Canadian swimmers in Australia. 

Atkinson says there's a nice mix of veterans and medal winners and newer swimmers trying to make their mark on the international stage. It's something he says has contributed to the success of the program of late.

"When we had one or two swimmers on the team who could advance though prelims, and even though they were great athletes, it was only one or two. Now you look at the team and you have multiple athletes who can progress," Atkinson said. 

"So when you're at the competition what that creates is a business approach to it. There's somebody always getting ready to do something. Whereas before you might have 10 swimmers watching in the stands and two racing. Now you might have 12 swimmers racing and two that are getting ready for tomorrow and nobody in the stands. There's a different way of going about business."

McIntosh, Liendo and Oleksiak absent from competition

Noticeably absent from the team are swimming sensation McIntosh, Josh Liendo and Canada's most decorated Olympian Penny Oleksiak.

McIntosh, who continues to break world junior records and Canadian records every time she is in the pool, has opted to stay back in North America to continue her training in Sarasota, Florida.

Earlier this month at the U.S. Open, McIntosh broke the world junior record in the 400-metre individual medley in a time of four minutes 28.61 seconds. It's the fourth-fastest performance in the history of the event. 

"I think it's the tip of the iceberg to what we're seeing right now to what she can achieve. To be in the position she's in right now really bodes well for what she can accomplish at world's next summer," said Atkinson.

Liendo, who just won two silver medals at the U.S. Open competition in North Carolina, has also opted to stay back and train. Oleksiak continues to recover from knee surgery. 

It's something Atkinson is entirely comfortable with and encourages – athlete wellness is his focus.

"It's all about that individualization for the athletes and ensuring they are physically and mentally healthy and rested."

It will be another hectic competition schedule for Canada's swimmers as 2022 draws to a close and into next year.

After the short course worlds the team will quickly shift its focus to the national trials in Toronto this upcoming March. That will be followed by a national camp in June leading into the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July.

After that it'll be on to the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile in October.

The Olympics in the summer of 2024 is what is starting to creep into the consciousness of everyone at Swimming Canada as well. 

"We have to help them through the congestion," Atkinson said.

"We're using all these events as a springboard to the next one and ultimately to the next Olympics.