Canadian National Record-Holder Mack Darragh Announces Retirement

Canadian national record-holder Mack Darragh has officially announced his retirement from competitive swimming. A native of Oakville, Ontario and trainee with HPC-Ontario, Darragh is the current Canadian national record-holder in the LCM men’s 200 fly. Darragh was also a member of the Rio 2016 Olympic team.

Early in his career, Darragh was the 200 fly bronze medalist at the 3rd World Youth Championships in 2011, where set the Canadian 15-17 age group record at the time. Three years later at the 2014 Canadian Swimming Trials, Darragh placed second in the 200 breast and third in the 200 fly. At that year’s Pan Pacific Championships, Darragh placed 6th in the 200 fly final. Into the 2015 Canadian Trials meet, Darragh picked up another third-place finish in the 200 fly.

At the 2016 Canadian Olympic Trials, Darragh won both the 100 fly and 200 fly events, as well as picking up third in the 200 IM. He became a late addition to the team after the nation’s 400 medley relay after confirmation by FINA of their prior qualifying time following the Trials meet. At the 2016 Olympics, Darragh swam the butterfly leg on the men’s 400 medley relay, which placed 16th in prelims.

Darragh first broke the men’s 200 fly national record at the 2017 Canadian Nationals with a time of 1:56.87. A year later to the day, Darragh chomped six-tenths off his own record at 1:56.27 to place 5th at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships. At the 2019 Canadian Swimming Trials, Darragh took the 200 fly title at 1:56.68, just missing his national mark by four-tenths. At the 2019 World Championships, Darragh was able to advance to the 200 fly semi-finals, where he placed 14th overall.

Fast forward to March 2020, Darragh won the 200 fly at the 2020 Winter Ontario Swimming Championships at 1:59.76, before the global coronavirus pandemic. Following the pandemic, Darragh trained up towards the 2021 Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials. Darragh first placed fourth in the 100 fly at 53.68 before scratching his No. 6 prelims seed in the 200 IM (2:03.77). He then took the top prelims seed in the 200 fly at 1:59.11 before taking the Trials title at 1:58.10. Unfortunately, his time did not clear the FINA Olympic “A” standard of 1:56.48, leaving him off the Tokyo Olympic team.

Darragh was also a two-season participant with the International Swimming League (ISL). He initially competed for the NY Breakers for the 2019 ISL season before signing to the Canadian-based Toronto Titans for the 2020 season. In 2019, Darragh bested 5th in the 200 fly at the American Derby meet with the Breakers.

“…it’s been a long tough year of training and was heartbreaking to miss out on the Olympic team this time. So I decided it’s probably time for me to call it.

I had so many great experiences through swimming I got to train with and meet amazing people from all over the world, I got to travel and see amazing places I may never have gone without swimming. My favourite swimming experiences were setting the Canadian national record in the 200 fly, making the Olympic team for Rio, and participating in the ISL. 

It’ll be tough moving on from swimming which I’ve done for 20 years, but I’m excited to see where the sport goes! And I’m also excited for what comes next in life!”