Virtual competition for the Canadian Artistic Swimming Team in preparation for Tokyo 2020
The team will participate in the FINA World Series presented by Canada Artistic Swimming.
Montreal, May 11, 2021 – The Canadian Artistic Swimming Team will be back in action as they virtually compete at the fourth stop of the FINA World Artistic Swimming Series hosted by Canada on May 29-30.
This will be the first major team competition for the Canadian squad since their gold medal performance at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, where the country qualified for the Tokyo Games as a result. Canada also qualified for the Tokyo Games in duet.
For this virtual stage of the World Series, each country had to send a video of each registered routine captured between April 20 and 28. These were then presented simultaneously to judges from 24 countries and five continents for evaluation using a scoring system developed for the occasion in Canada.
Two-time Pan Am gold medalist in 2019 and four-time medalist at the second stop of the World Series in Budapest, Hungary last April, Jacqueline Simoneau, will lead the Canadian team as she competes in the solo free event.
However, she will not have the chance to perform her duet routines with long-time teammate Claudia Holzner due to the quarantine requirement at the time of the video submission deadline.
“Even if this edition is virtual, it is another important step in my preparation and a good opportunity to fine-tune my performance for the Olympic Games,” said Jacqueline Simoneau. The challenge is even more important since my preparation was far from adequate due to the mandatory quarantine upon my return from Budapest, which is just fine. It is in this adversity that my confidence is built the most. “
Olympic training group members Rosalie Boissonneault (Drummondville, QC) in the solo free and Scarlett Finn (Toronto, ON) and Emma Spott (Toronto, ON) in the duet free will also be in action, as will the following swimmers in the highlight team event:
-Rosalie Boissonneault (Drummondville, QC)
-Sydney Carroll (Saskatoon, SK)
-Andrée-Anne Côté (St-Georges, QC)
-Camille Fiola-Dion (Rimouski, QC)
-Rebecca Harrower (Edmonton, AB)
-Audrey Joly (St-Eustache, QC)
-Raphaëlle Plante (Québec, QC)
-Halle Pratt (Calgary, AB)
-Kenzie Priddell (Regina, SK)
-Kiara Quieti (Montréal, QC)
“I’m really happy to have the opportunity to participate in a virtual competition,” said Canadian team captain in the highlight event, Andrée-Anne Côté. Even though it’s very different, it’s a good way to perform under stress. Just having a small audience and cameras gave me a big boost and now I’m just really looking forward to competing in person! “
More experience
Participation in this fourth stop of the World Series will allow many Canadian swimmers to return to international competition.
” Any competition, even a virtual one, allows athletes to perform in a different environment from daily training and provides valuable experience that can only be gained by taking part in important, meaningful events,” said Canada Artistic Swimming Chief Sport Officer Julie Healy. “We are therefore very happy to be able to offer some of our athletes an opportunity to represent Canada on the international stage, an important element not only in the preparation of the Olympic team, but also on the way to the 2024 and 2028 Games.”
The Canadian leg of the FINA World Figure Swimming Series was the fifth on the competition calendar. After the U.S. leg in virtual mode, Budapest and Kazan in April, the Paris leg, scheduled for the end of April, was cancelled, as was the sixth and final leg in Greece.
Following the Canadian stop, the top 10 countries after the four World Series competitions will have an additional chance to perform as they will be invited to the World Series Super Final, June 10-13 in Barcelona. This competition will be held in concert with the Olympic Qualification Event in Artistic Swimming, where countries that have not already qualified for the Olympic Games will have one last chance to take one of the three teams and seven duets remaining spots.
More details regarding the Canadian stage of the World Series will be communicated at a later date.