Canada's swim stars begin next Olympic cycle with trials in Victoria

A tidal wave of momentum continues to sweep across the swimming landscape in Canada as athletes prepare to hit the reset button with a busy summer schedule ahead. 

Canadian swimmers are hoping to build on a successful Olympics in Tokyo where they won six medals, followed by an historic medal haul at the short course world championships in December where swimmers from the country won 15 medals.

Strong performances at the U Sports and NCAA swimming championships have Canadian athletes garnering international attention as well. 

"We've had some amazing swimming," John Atkinson, Swimming Canada's high-performance director, told CBC Sports. "People are now ready to come back to what I would describe as our first trials since 2019. The really exciting part is this is the whole swimming community back in and racing."

Now Atkinson wants to make sure the team keeps moving forward. 

For the first time in three years, Swimming Canada is holding a full national trials featuring more than 500 swimmers from 131 clubs across Canada. It starts Tuesday at the Saanich Commonwealth Place in Victoria, B.C.

The six days of competition will go toward selecting Swimming Canada teams competing at the world championships in June in Budapest, Hungary, the Commonwealth Games a month later in Birmingham, England, as well as the world para swimming championships slated for June in Madeira, Portugal. 

Teams competing at the junior Pan Pacific championships in Hawaii and the world junior open water championships in Seychelles will also be selected. 

All sessions will be streamed live on CBC Sports and can be watched with the free CBC Gem streaming service, at cbcsports.ca as well as through the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices. 

The talent across the Canadian team is eye-popping right now, with some suggesting this is the golden age of swimming in Canada.  

It's something that's exciting Atkinson right now. But there's no time to rest on past successes; with the Tokyo Games having been delayed a year the clock is already ticking down to the next Olympics in Paris two years from now. 

Atkinson says these trials are a chance to evaluate where everyone is at while keeping them focused on the larger goal of building toward another Games.It's also a chance to identify new talent as well. 

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"The program is building. We have our established athletes who are performing and you have to continue that conveyor belt of adding athletes year-on-year, while keeping everyone moving forward. That builds depth," Atkinson said.