WINNIPEG -- With 268 days remaining until the start of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Canada’s National Artistic Swimming Team is taking a different approach in their preparation with a cross Canada tour.
“It breaks the monotony of having to work in the same pool all the time, so it prepares the athletes,” said the team’s assistant coach Kasia Kulesza after their Wednesday morning session.
They stopped in Prince George, B.C. from Oct. 22-26, and will be in Winnipeg until Nov. 1. The team will make the final stop in St. John’s, N.L. on Nov. 25.
But they’re doing more than just training on this tour. Each visit means interactive sessions, clinics, and meet and greets with local clubs and swimmers.
“One of our goals is to have a more unified community, a more unified system in the country,” said Kulesza.
Winnipeg’s Aquatica Synchro Club now has the pleasure of taking part in evening training sessions with the team.
"You can't put a value to what they're getting to be in the pool with these athletes,” said local coach Holly Hjartarson. “They're inspiring them, they're motivating them, and they're really showing them what an amazing synchronized swimmer looks like."
"Working with a younger generation is super awesome,” said National Team member Halle Pratt. “They're so inspired and so gung-ho at that age, and really want to improve."
The average age of the National Team is just over 21, and the 2020 games will be the first for all but one of them. The hope is that this tour will inspire the next generation of swimmers to reach an elite level of competition as well.
"To see what it takes to swim at this level, it really shows them how much more work they have to put in over the next ten years, if this is a goal of theirs,” said Hjartarson. “But a lot of them are working towards that already, and it's good to see what hard work can do."
