About 6 months in advance of the meet, Canada has named its roster for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, to be hosted in Australia next April.
The roster features 16 women and 10 men, including most of Canada’s young stars – in particular, Olympic champ Penny Oleksiak and world champ and world record-holder Kylie Masse.
The Commonwealth Games will be one of two major focus meets for Canada next summer, with no long course World Championships meet on the docket. Canada will compete at the Commonwealth Games in April as well as the Pan Pacific Championships in August.
Commonwealths feature countries in the Commonwealth of Nations – mostly former territories of the British Empire. In swimming, the most notable nations are Australia, Canada, South Africa and Great Britain, with the British team split up competing for their own specific countries: England, Scotland and Wales.
Here’s the full Canadian roster, per Swimming Canada’s press release:
Name Hometown Club
Women
Hilary Caldwell White Rock, B.C. Island Swimming/HPC-VIC
Sarah Darcel Victoria Island Swimming/HPC-VIC
Jade Hannah Halifax Island Swimming/NextGen
Mary-Sophie Harvey Trois-Rivières, Que. Neptune Natation
Faith Knelson Ladysmith, B.C. Island Swimming/NextGen
Kylie Masse Windsor, Ont. Windsor Essex Swim Team
Rachel Nicol Lethbridge, Alta. Lethbridge Amateur SC
Penny Oleksiak Toronto Toronto Swim Club
Taylor Ruck Kelowna, B.C. Scarborough Swim Club/HPC-ONT
Kayla Sanchez Scarborough, Ont. Ajax Aquatic Club/HPC-ONT
Katerine Savard Pont-Rouge, Que. CAMO
Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson Ottawa Go Kingfish/HPC-VAN
Kierra Smith Kelowna, B.C. Liquid Lightning
Rebecca Smith Red Deer, Alta. Scarborough Swim Club/HPC-ONT
Mabel Zavaros Oakville, Ont. Oakville Swim Club
Alexia Zevnik Montreal Pointe Claire Swim Club
Men
Jeremy Bagshaw Victoria Island Swimming/HPC-VIC
Samuel Belanger Quebec, Que. Universite Laval
Josiah Binnema Prince George, B.C. UBC Dolphins/HPC-VAN
Mack Darragh Mississauga, Ont. Oakville Swim Club
Ruslan Gaziev Toronto Markham Swim Club
Tristan Cote Mississauga, Ont. Etobicoke Swim Club
Yuri Kisil Calgary UBC Dolphins/HPC-VAN
Carson Olafson Chilliwack, B.C. UBC Dolphins/HPC-VAN
Markus Thormeyer Delta, B.C. UBC Dolphins/HPC-VAN
Eli Wall Ottawa University of Toronto Swim Club
Coaches
Martyn Wilby Swimming Canada Head Coach
Linda Kiefer Toronto
Bill O’Toole Toronto
Ben Titley Toronto
Tom Johnson Vancouver
Ryan Mallette Victoria
Vince Mikuska Swimming Canada
Very curious to see how they use the youngsters Hannah and Knelson. Neither will be top 2 Canadians in their primary events, so I assume they’re there for experience primarily. Will they get morning relay swims?
Well, at the Commonwealth games they can have more than 2 individual competitors in a single event for a country – it’s just that only 2 per country can move onto the semi-finals/finals. It could double as good experience and motivation for them to train hard.
Every country can have 3 entries in each event and all three can move to semi-finals and finals if they qualify. Knelson will likely swim the 50/100 breast and Hannah will likely swim 50/100 back.
At CG, the limit is 3 per nation per event and if they swim sufficiently fast, all 3 may progress to semis & finals. Podium clean-sweeps are far from uncommon.
I think you have confused this with PP where a nation may enter as many swimmers in each event as they wish but only the fastest 2 per nation can make it through to the final 8 (no semis).
Or maybe I confused it with the Pan American rules.
Surprised not to see Van Landegham, Toro, Mainville, McGregor and Funk. Did they retire or just get bumped off by younger swimmers? Not surprised that NCAA swimmers unable to attend (except Darcel). Regardless, this team will do way better than the 4 golds/11 medals four years ago in Glasgow.
probably retired for most of them. they probably all have been to a Commonwealth Games before.
https://swimming.ca/content/uploads/2015/06/2018-commonwealth-games-march-15-2017-final-1.pdf
doesn’t explain absences but explains criteria to make team.
It could also mean that they only intend to compete at the Pan Pacific games and not the Commonwealth games. I mean, Toro might retire considering how fast the juniors are passing her, but Van Landegham is still fairly young and one of Canada’s more reliable relay swimmers. I’m not going to assume anything though.
Toro aint retiring… she’s coming off of a great 2-year stretch of improvements. yes – there is a limit with improvement… no she isnt there yet I think
A reasonably strong CAN team but, as expected, sub-peak. As regards absences; might I suggest that some of these may be NCAA swimmers. Unfortunately, the timing of 2018 CG runs up close to NCAA Championships. We will know more, as regards any touted retirements, when we see who fronts up at selection trials in July for Pan Pacs which I suspect may be the “priority meet” for the year.
no pickrem either
She’s at Texas A&M so a clash with NCAA, Acevedo (Georgia) also absent, presumably same reasons. Van Landeghem no longer on Georgia roster so other reasons may apply.
I suspect academic commitments are a priority for some of the veteran swimmers on the women’s side. Chantal van Landeghem is doing a Masters degree at the University of Manitoba, Sandrine Mainville is in law school in Montreal, Michelle Toro is studying to be a nurse and Katrine Savard is studying to be a teacher. An opportunity to focus on academics for this part of the Olympic cycle.
my guess as well… first year of the 4 year quad is always a little on the weaker side in terms of national teamers participating at far away games. cant swim forever kids… get that schooling in
Heard from a current CAD National team member that Funk is retiring which explains why he isn’t on the team. Haven’t seen anything official, but pretty confident Worlds in 2017 was Funk’s last meet.