Persistence paid off for veterans Ingrid Wilm and Jeremy Bagshaw Wednesday at the Olympic & Paralympic Swimming Trials, Presented by Bell.
Wilm, of Calgary’s Cascade Swim Club, qualified to be nominated to the Paris 2024 Olympic Team under Priority 1, while Bagshaw, representing Island Swimming in Victoria, ended years of disappointment and frustration by qualifying for relay consideration.
Past Olympic trials had been heartbreaking for both athletes.
An injury prevented Wilm from qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympics and she just missed making the cut for Tokyo 2020.
“I finally, finally did it,” said Wilm, who finished second in the women’s 100-m backstroke.
Her swim of 59.31 seconds was well under the qualifying time of 59.99.
In the crowd cheering for Wilm was her older sister Astrid, who made a surprise visit for the race.
“I’ve been so stressed but I’m so, so happy I get to perform for Canada at the Olympics.”
Bagshaw, 32, is competing in his fifth and final trials. Just a few hundredths of a second had cost him spots on previous teams. This time, he finished fourth by four hundredths in the men’s 200 freestyle, putting himself in position to be part of the 4×200 free relay.
“I’m over the moon. It’s been a long time coming,” said Bagshaw, who finished in 1:48.49. “I’ve always had a dream of going to the Olympics. I’ve had some rough patches in my swimming career but still believed I could do it. I just kept persevering and didn’t give up on my dream.”
Bagshaw has been working towards his future career as a physician over the past three years, studying medicine in Ireland. He completed his degree last month.
“To finally be able to put it together and get my hand on the wall, even if it was by a couple hundredths, I’ve been on the opposite side of that before. So to finally be on the good side of it, it makes me very happy and I’m very grateful for what I’ve been able to do.
“Now I’ve just got to wait until Sunday and see how the nomination plays out and see what happens.”
Alexander Axon of the Markham Aquatic Club won in 1:47.56. Patrick Hussey of the Pointe-Claire Swim Club was second in 1:47.78 and Lorne Wigginton of the High Performance Centre – Ontario followed in 47.93.
None of them have been to the Games before, but as Top 4 swimmers in the event, they all qualified to be considered for nomination as relay-only swimmers.
Up to 12 relay-only positions will be filled based on the combined times of the Top 4 in each potential relay event. While Swimming Canada has qualified all seven Olympic relays, relay-only swimmers will be nominated in priority order based on this ranking.
Axon’s win was his second of the week. The 20-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., had prevailed in the 400 free on opening night without posting the qualifying time.
“It’s incredible. I’m just really thankful for the fans, and of course my parents, everything that they’ve done for me. This year was a very long road.
“It was a lot of long days and there were some times of struggle, and I think those times of struggle really put me in a position to feel confident behind the blocks and just race with passion.”
The seven-day competition runs through Sunday at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, with the Canadian teams for Paris 2024 set to be announced officially at the end of the final evening.
In the women’s 100 back, two-time Olympian and four-time medallist Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., won the race easily in 57.94. It was the second-fastest time in the world this year, flirting with her Canadian record of 57.70.
“I knew I had a really good swim this morning. I’ve been working on my skills and I just wanted to put together a good race and execute things that I’ve been working on well,” said Masse, who claimed silver in the 100 at Tokyo 2020 and bronze at Rio 2016.
“It’s not always easy to do that in a final under the pressure of making it on a big team. So, I’m happy that I could go faster than I did this morning and execute what I needed to do.”
Wilm heaped praise on the evening’s winner.
“Kylie Masse is such an icon and legend. One of the things I love about her is her kindness and sportsmanship.”
Other Day 3 winners from the Olympic program included 16-year-old Oliver Dawson from the Grande Prairie Piranhas, who took the men’s 200 breaststroke in a personal best 2:12.42, and Emma Finlin from the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club, who prevailed in the women’s 1500 free in 16:28.15.
Both were over the qualifying time but Finlin, a 19-year-old from Edmonton, had booked her ticket to Paris in February by finishing 24th in the 10-km open water event.
Meanwhile in Para swimming, three athletes posted an “A” qualifying time to put themselves in position to be nominated to the Paralympic Team on Sunday night (subject to slot allocations of 15 women and seven men).
Veterans Aurélie Rivard from Club de Natation Région de Québec and Sabrina Duchesne from Club de natation Rouge et Or finished 1-2 in the women’s 400 free multiclass in 4:33.64 and 5:24.68.
Rivard, a three-time Paralympian from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., is the world record holder and reigning two-time Paralympic champion in the S10 sport class. Duchesne, who competed in both Rio and Tokyo, swims in the S7 category.
In the men’s 400 free multiclass race, 16-year-old Reid Maxwell from the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club lowered his own Canadian S8 record to 4:28.20, more than 12 seconds under the qualifying time.
“I feel great right now. The energy here is insane,” said Maxwell, who hails from St. Albert, Alta. “I just got in my zone in the ready room. Just listening to music, doing my thing, and just getting dialed in for my race.”
Finally, in the men’s 150 individual medley, Sebastian Massabie from Pacific Sea Wolves Swim Club didn’t meet the SM4 standard but set a national record of 3:00.34 in the morning preliminaries.
A total of 857 athletes from 151 clubs across the country are competing to represent Canada at the Olympic Games (July 26-Aug. 11) and Paralympic Games (Aug. 28-Sept. 8) in Paris. Teams for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships (Aug. 21-24) in Canberra, Australia, and Open Water Junior World Championships (Sept. 6-8) in Alghero, Italy, are also being selected.
Preliminary heats are at 9:30 a.m. ET each day, with finals sessions set for 6 p.m.
All sessions are being streamed live by CBC Sports, with a nightly highlight show on CBC TV. Live streams can be watched on the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices. All sessions will be also streamed on TOU.TV and Radio-Canada Sports platforms, with highlight shows broadcast Saturday and Sunday from 3-5 p.m. on ICI Télé. Highlights from the Trials will also be featured on CBC Sports’ weekend programming block on Saturday starting at 4 p.m. ET and Sunday at 3 p.m. on CBC TV and CBC Gem.
RESULTS: https://results.swimming.ca/2024_Olympic_Paralympic_Trials/
QUALIFIED FOR NOMINATION (Priority 1): PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES (after Day 3 of Trials)
QUALIFIED FOR NOMINATION (“A” qualifying time): PARIS 2024 PARALYMPIC GAMES (after Day 3 of Trials)