Margaret McNeil jumped out of the water to win the women's 100m butterfly at the Canadian Olympic Swimming Championships in Toronto on May 13th.Frank Gunn/Canadian Press
Canada's much-touted Olympic swimmers' road to Paris begins this week at the base of the Eiffel Tower, or at least a plywood replica of the real thing.
To add extra excitement to this week's Olympic Trials, which will decide spots for the Paris Summer Games, organizers have installed a 13-foot-tall wooden replica of the French landmark at one end of the pool at Toronto's Pan Am Sports Center. .
It was originally used as a decoration in shopping malls. But the fake Eiffel Tower has since been pulled out of storage, dusted off and now on a patriotic duty, reminding swimmers where their ultimate goal lies.
“The stage is set. This is why you're swimming,” says Alan Raphael, Swimming Canada's marketing director, who has scoured North America for the past few months to find a passable rendition of the wrought iron lattice structure. Told. The challenge turned out to be more difficult than anyone had imagined.
Mr. Rafael originally had his eye on a massive 30-foot-tall steel structure in Las Vegas. But that dream was quickly dashed when it cost about $50,000 to rent and transport from Nevada.
“That would have been great,” Rafael said. “I said, 'That's great, I can't afford that.' So let's keep looking.'”
The second option in Montreal also proved costly to relocate. However, the price of Wooden Shopping His Mall His Eiffel was a fraction of the price.
And figuratively speaking, it works. Just over two months after leaving Paris, Canadians head to the Olympics with high expectations.
Canada has won gaudy medals in swimming at the past two Summer Games. The team won six games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and six more in Tokyo in 2021, proving that their first wave of success was no fluke.
This team could be one of the most deep teams Canada has sent to the Olympics, with competition for spots on the women's team intensifying and the men's team also looking to make more of the podium than in recent years. It is possible to strive for it.
Summer McIntosh became the first of Canada's medal hopefuls to qualify for Paris on Monday by winning the 400m freestyle in a time of 3:59.06, the first of several events she will compete in. became a player. Although McIntosh was not satisfied with the race, her time was the world's fastest this season, surpassing Australia's Arialne Titmus, who swam 3:59.13 last month.
“It was definitely great to qualify on the first night to seal the deal, so we just move on to the next race,” McIntosh said.
Julie Brousseau, who was seen as the team's future cog, narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Olympics in the 400m freestyle, taking second place with a time of 4:08.12.
Maggie McNeil, who won gold in the 100m butterfly at the Tokyo Olympics, won that event on Monday in a time of 56.61 seconds and is expected to earn the first of many spots in Paris. There is. Mary-Sophie Harvey placed second in 57.31 seconds, also qualifying for the Olympics.
Mac Neal said it was good to successfully qualify for the first time and set the tone for the week. Trials will conclude on Sunday when teams will be finalized.
“It’s obviously new as it’s the first day, but you don’t know how the game is going to go or how you feel, so it could go both ways, but overall I’m pretty happy with today. '' Mac Neal said.
Backstroke specialist and four-time Olympic medalist Kylie Mase, who will race later this week for her third Olympic appearance, is impressed with the program's progress over the past decade. He said that his medal winnings have gone from an outlier to an outlier. A new standard.
“That never happened before. It's amazing for Canadian sport,” Mas said. “I think it's an incredible feat to compete against the best swimming nations in the world and to be one of the best swimming nations in the world.”
John Atkinson, director of high performance for Swimming Canada, recognizes the pressure the program has placed on itself with recent successes and that it will only increase in France. But with the emergence of generational talent like McIntosh and Penny Oleksiak, who became the nation's most decorated Olympian with her seventh medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, The way Canada views swimming, and the world's view of Canada, has been reshaped.
“When I came in early 2013, right after the London Olympics, it was really about construction,” Atkinson said.
“We never talked about, 'We're here to win eight medals.' We always talked about improvement and then progress.”
In recent years, swimmers have been scattered around the world, training in Canada, the United States and Europe. Mr Atkinson said the goal of this week's Olympic Trials was to bring the teams together under one roof and with one goal.
“I’m looking forward to having a group where everyone is on the same track and everyone is focused,” he said.
