FIONA DOYLE
- University of Calgary
- 5th Year
- Hometown: Limerick, Ireland
- Faculty: Kinesiology
- Height: 5-9
- Age: 23
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Fiona Doyle has been one of the staple breaststrokers in the CIS for some time now, and is finally in her senior year where she’ll end her CIS career as a Dino with plenty of potential for international success.
Doyle, an Irish athlete, will be swimming the breaststroke events this weekend for one last time, and is currently seeded first in both the 50 and the 100 ahead of rival Tera Van Beilen.
Things are different this time, not only because of long course finals which Doyle sees as a positive, but also because of the preparation that she’s had at the University of Calgary. The training has been different and Doyle thinks that its had a very positive outcome, “Our team has mixed things up a lot this season which I believe has benefited us all greatly. We are fitter and stronger than ever before. We have a new coach working with us, Mads Hansen, and he has been great. He brings a new perspective which is a positive thing. We have a new centre program which provides some of us with an opportunity to train one more long course session a week. We also have a new weights coach who has been fantastic.”
Being fitter and faster than ever is crucial to performing well at the meet as, “every year CIS get faster and faster,” according to Doyle. Once again Doyle will have to step on those blocks, and prove herself against UBC’s Tera Van Beilen. Last season, Van Beilen got the better of her in the 50 and 200 breaststrokes, but Doyle came out on top in the 100.
“I really enjoy racing Tera. I believe having someone as strong and competitive as her to race against has made me a better swimmer,” Doyle said. “We are both very similar in terms of hating to lose, so when we race it is intense and exciting. This year should be no different from last year in terms of outcome. I expect it will be a close one however, I am a little biased when it comes to swimming long course so I expect this year to be a bit more exciting to watch.”
Until the two step foot on the blocks against each other, Doyle’s focus is just to be better than last year. “I want to swim faster and race harder.” With this being her last CIS Championships, Doyle also has plans to, “make the most of it and enjoy it as much as possible.”
Doyle will be racing at the Canadian Trials in a few weeks, and is already on the Irish roster for the World University Games as well as the World Championships.
With her last go with the Dinos, Doyle has definite expectations of success, “I would like to see both our teams move up a spot in the rankings. We have trained hard, prepared well, and gained some really great rookies. We are going in fighting, and will do so right ’til the end. GO DINOS!”
Let’s go Dinos!!!