The Mel Zajac Jr. International Canada Cup in British Columbia, Canada, begins on Thursday, May 22nd and runs through Sunday, May 25th. This meet for years has attracted huge stars from the United States, and 2014’s edition will be no different.
Among the Americans who are making the trek north of the border this year will include much of the impressive Cal women’s group. That includes names like Missy Franklin, Rachel Bootsma, Celina Li, Caitlin Leverenz, Farida Osman, and Liz Pelton among others. This will be the first competition for Cal’s NCAA team since the NCAA Championship meet.
Confirmed participants from Canada includes some of their best as well. That includes UBC Dolphins swimmer Noemie Thomas, who will race for Cal next year collegiately, and two-time Olympic silver medalist Ryan Cochrane. Other Canadian stars will be Brittany MacLean, an NCAA Record holder at Georgia who represents ESwim domestically; Katerine Savard; and Tera van Beilen.
MacLean is one of several NCAA-based Canadian stars who will be at this meet. Her Georgia teammate Chantal van Landeghem will be there, as will Hassaan Abdel-Khalik, bronwyn Pasloski, Kierra Smith, Marni Oldershaw, and Allyson Ackman are among the well-known NCAA swimmers who will be present.
George Bovell, who represents Trinidad & Tobago, but has a Canadian mother, will also be at this meet, having been competitively a little quiet since the FINA World Cup ended.
Bovell is part of a big group from the United States at the meet from Club Wolverine Elite, who are frequent participants there. Among those registered from that group include Richard Funk, who is also Canadian; Zach Hayden, Geoff Cheah, and Sean Fletcher.
I wonder if there will be any australian swimmer in this meet.
Usually in the previous years, the St. Peters Western group coached by Michael Bohl (barrat, rice, tae-hwan, Larkin, Jones, Napoleon, Nay, etc) made the trek to vancouver.
Warm down pool broke. Don’t expect any fast times
This facility has had a lot of problems recently. The outdoor pool is closed long term. The indoor pool broke as well for a couple weeks in April.
Will be interested to see outcome of MacLean v Franklin 400m rematch of NCAA 500 Free.
Not interesting at all.
Missy isn’t a 400 free swimmer.
I’m much more interested in seeing if she still knows how to swim backstroke after a college season focused on freestyle.
“Missy isn’t a 400 free swimmer.”
That’s what makes the matchup interesting to me – not seeing her dominate but rather competing out of her comfort zone. On the other hand, I have no doubt she will remember very well how to swim backstroke – although 100 and 200 back events have enough talent to make them competitive contests.
I wonder if it’s too late to convince Missy Franklin to swim for Canada. Every time she comes up, there’s a chance to change her mind about her swimming nationality. Canadian swimmers, don’t miss out on this opportunity!!! 😮
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
You can always dream but it will never happen.
Just like Yannick swimming for the US? lol
Well, I’ll just keep dreaming for now. Maybe in ten years time! Is anyone else old enough to remember Marilyn Ottey, and how she changed her citizenship from Jamaican to Slovenian so that she could continue to go to the Olympics in track?