Swimming Canada has revealed its rosters for the two marquee junior international meets on the calendar for 2024, the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and the Open Water World Junior Championships.
Following the conclusion of the 2024 Canadian Olympic Trials earlier in the month, a team of 30 swimmers have been selected to represent Canada at the Junior Pan Pacs, which will run from August 21-24 in the Australian capital of Canberra.
The team features Aiden Norman and Delia Lloyd, who were both backstroke finalists at the 2023 World Juniors, along with a group of age group standouts including Madison Kryger, Shima Taghavi, Oliver Dawson, Ethan Ekk and Laon Kim.
Dawson and Taghavi both set National Age Group Records at the Olympic Trials, with Dawson throwing down a time of 2:12.42 in the men’s 200 breast to win the overall event.
Taghavi is just 12, incredibly, and yet qualifies for the team after she set new NAG records for 11-12 girls in the 100 breast (1:10.78) and 200 breast (2:32.60) in Toronto.
Kryger was impressive in the women’s backstroke events, posting a PB of 1:00.73 in the 100 and narrowly missing her 2:11.96 best in the 200 (2:12.00), with Lloyd the runner-up (among junior swimmers) in both races.
Norman was the top junior on the boys’ side in the 100 back, setting a best time of 53.99 and in the 200 back, he tied with Ekk for the top spot in 1:58.92. Ekk also led the 200 and 400 free, while the age group phenom Kim was the #2 junior in the 50, 100, 200 and 400 free at the age of 15.
“I’m extremely excited to announce our 2024 Junior Pan Pacific team. It’s a strong team with loads of potential,” said National Development Coach Ken McKinnon.
Canada won three medals at the last edition of the Junior Pan Pacs in Honolulu in 2022, and at the 2023 World Junior Championships, finished third on the medal table with 13 trips to the podium. That included two individual golds from female breaststroke standout Alexanne Lepage and other individual medals from recent Olympic qualifiers Ella Jansen, Julie Brousseau and Lorne Wigginton.
“After a week of exciting racing in Toronto at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Trials, Swimming Canada has selected one of the strongest junior teams ever,” McKinnon said. “In 11 weeks’ time the team will be flying to Canberra to race against Japan, Australia, the USA and others in one of the fastest junior meets in the world.”
CANADIAN JUNIOR PAN PACS ROSTER
Girls (15)
| SWIMMERS | CLUB |
PERSONAL COACH
|
| Kamila Blanchard | Pointe Claire Swim Club | Phil Garverick |
| Ella Cosgrove | Unattached Canada | Scott Goodrich |
| Leilani Fack | Langley Olympians Swim Club | Brian Metcalfe |
| Matea Gigovic | Killarney Swim Club | Mike Meldrum |
| Jordan Greber | University of Calgary Swim Club | Carl Simonson |
| Madison Kryger | Brock Niagara Aquatics | Dave Ling/Ryan Mallette |
| Reina Liu | Unattached Canada | Robert Norman |
| Delia Lloyd | Etobicoke Swim Club / HPC Ontario | Ryan Mallette |
| Julia Strojnowska | Langley Olympians Swim Club | Brian Metcalfe |
| Shima Taghavi | HYACK Swim Club | Andrew Lennstrom |
| Leah Tigert | Toronto Swim Club | Bill O’Toole |
| Jenna Walters | Guelph Marlin Aquatic Club | Hendrick van der Merwe |
| Clare Watson | Unattached Canada | Abi Liu |
| Halle West | MANTA Swim Club | Szilvie Carriere |
| Mia West | MANTA Swim Club | Szilvie Carriere |
Boys (15)
| SWIMMERS | CLUB |
PERSONAL COACH
|
| Francis Brennan | Belleville Beast Swim Team | Brandon Oates/Don Burton |
| Oliver Dawson | Grand Prairie Piranhas Swim Club | Alex Dawson |
| Parker Deshayes | Cascade Swim Club | Wendy Johnson |
| Tuja Dreyer | Island Swim Club | Lucien Zucchi |
| Nicolas Duncan | University of Calgary Swim Club | Carl Simonson |
| Ethan Ekk | Unattached Canada | Terry Maul |
| Simon Fonseca | CAMO Natation | Claude St Jean |
| Wells Ginzer | Okotoks Mavericks Swimming | Emma Hesterman |
| Laon Kim | University of Calgary Swim Club | Carl Simonson |
| Aiden Kirk | Kelowna AquaJets | Marc Tremblay |
| Kiet Kong | Markham Aquatic Club | Sean Baker |
| Aiden Norman | University of Calgary Swim Club | Carl Simonson |
| Alexander Miao | Unattached Canada | Ray Aguilar |
| Harrison Smith | Unattached Canada | Mohammed Khadembashi |
| Ben Winterborn | Kingston Blue Marlins | Don Burton |
Swimming Canada has named 10 swimmers to its roster for the 2024 Open Water World Junior Championships, which will run from September 6-8 in Alghero, Italy.
The roster is headlined by Emma Finlin, who represented Canada at the 2024 World Championships and will be the lone Canadian competing in the open water 10km event at the Paris Olympics earlier in the summer.
Finlin topped the field in the women’s 1500 free at the Canadian Trials, clocking 16:28.15 (PB of 16:15.77 from 2023 Worlds), while the top junior finisher, Julia Strojnowska (16:42.99), was named to both the Junior Pan Pac and Open Water World Junior teams.
Laila Oravsky, who was at the 2024 Worlds in Doha, was also named to the team, as was Timothe Barbeau, who represented Canada at the 2023 Pan Am Games.
Barbeau was the runner-up at the Trials in the men’s 1500 free, clocking 15:26.58 after setting a best time of 15:23.50 at the 2023 World Juniors.
The World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships offer the following events for each age group:
- 14-15 – 5km
- 16-17 – 7.5km
- 18-19 – 10km
CANADIAN OPEN WATER WORLD JUNIORS ROSTER
Girls
| SWIMMERS | CLUB |
PERSONAL COACH
|
| Emma Finlin | Edmonton Keyano Swim Club | Paul Birmingham |
| Laila Oravsky | Barrie Trojans Swim Club | Endi Babi |
| Julia Strojnowska | Langley Olympians Swim Club | Brian Metcalf |
| Taira Vroom | Barrie Trojans Swim Club | Endi Babi |
| Elleigh Wise | Cascade Swim Club | Wendy Johnson |
| Michelle Zeng | West Vancouver Otters Swim Club | Janusz Kaczmarek |
Boys
| SWIMMERS | CLUB |
PERSONAL COACH
|
| Timothe Barbeau | Neptune Natation | Chrystèle Roy L’Ecuyer |
| Simon Fonseca | CAMO Natation | Claude St Jean |
| Aiden Kirk | Kelowna AquaJets | Marc Tremblay |
| Olivier Risk | University of British Columbia | Derrick Shoof |
James Sutherland can you tell us how the new world aquatics rule on country representation will work for our American kids. If they attend Jr. PAN PAC do they have to wait three years to represent USA
Yes, but this affects the 2006’s more. They appear to have accepted Canada as their new swim “home” and look very strong. The younger kids have time to go back!
Thank you sir
In other news, USA Swimming remains radio silent on the direction they plan to take their Jr program in now that Eric P is out.
It’s so surprising to see that the biggest Ontario clubs are not represented at all! No swimmers from ESWIM, MAC, Oakville, wow!
There is Kiet Kong from MAC, and Delia Lloyd formerly from ESWIM.
.
Delia Lloyd doesn’t train in ESWIM for almost two years already. As I see, she is consistently capping for them, but with the new head coach, they don’t even congratulate her with Trial’s medals in ESWIM social media
I think the head coach doesn’t want the credit for her success cause technically he didn’t help her win these medals.
I think he might have posted her medals in their story.
ESWIM is actually a small club that historically has sent swimmers that joined the club from other clubs to take advantage of the 50M facility. OAK and MAC generally have 400+ swimmers. It’s a good observation. There are a few younger swimmers at ESWIM who have potential particularly in women’s breast and back. Specifically for Etobicoke, Sylvia Statkevicius isn’t eligible due to being Lithuanian but would’ve absolutely made the cut if she swam for Canada. Maya Bezanson made the team 2 years ago at 15 and Delia Lloyd is former ESWIMer who moved to HPCON ~ 1.5 yrs ago.
For some real numbers, based off previous season registration
OAK had 488 competitive swimmers
ESWIM had 343 competitive swimmers
MAC had 251 competitive swimmers
Congrats to team Canada
I’m not sure what is going in ESWIM under new head coach. He pushed out quite a few of coaches who saved the club during Covid time and post Thorburn death, he isn’t bringing the club to a number is swim meets that ESWIM was traditionally attending, two age group swimmers who left HPC Ontario (including Maya) to start training with ESWIM are not doing good
The new head coach of ESWIM hasn’t actually pushed out a few coaches, it’s just many coaches have found better paying jobs. For example, one coach is now the head coach of the York university swim team. Obviously, you would take the head coach position rather than staying in a lower position. Also, the swimmers at ESWIM were getting burnt out from swimming to many meets.
You know not of what you speak…. Best be careful speculating. Two words- Safe Sport
The new head coach of ESWIM hasn’t actually pushed out a few coaches, it’s just many coaches have found better paying jobs. For example, one coach is now the head coach of the York university swim team. Obviously, you would take the head coach position rather than staying in a lower position. Also, the swimmers at ESWIM were getting burnt out from swimming to many meets.
ESWIM’s new head coach hasn’t actually “pushed out” a few coaches, it’s just they have found better jobs. For example, Rob Novak found a job at the HPC. Also, if you look at their insta; ESWIM won the Top Overall Team Award at OSC this year. The swimmers were getting burned out from swimming too many meets.
No surprise about Oakville. Look at the number of swimmers at National level meets over the last couple of years, let alone medal winners. All the top swimmers leave.
Two turbulent head coaching changes mid-pandemic will do that to ya. They will rebuild, OAK has a great crop of young swimmers.
The number of Oak swimmers medaling at Festivals, OSC and Eastern’s tells a very different story. Tontini said when he came in it was a rebuild so far the club is worse than what he inherited.
Not so sure about that. Besides a few disgruntled senior families leaving in a huff, the club seems to be doing well with focusing on the young ones. Give it time
Maybe stop drinking the joakville coolaid. It wasn’t a few and it wasn’t just seniors. If you consider the club to be doing well then you clearly don’t know much about swim clubs. Given the number of seems and not sures you might want to do some fact checking.
I feel like this joke lands better when spoken aloud.
When you have six unattached swimmers this is what happens. Opportunistic EKK leading the pac.
Leah Tigert…TSC..I,d call TSC one of Ontario,s biggest swim clubs.
Madison K 👏🏻👏🏻!!!
A very impressive swimmer
Simon Fonseca making both junior teams! What a phenom! One to watch for sure as he only just turned 16.
This guy is awesome. His 1500 at trials was so good
Cannot help but notice the absence of sienna angove…
I’m sure it was her choice. She was the top eligible junior in several events.
Paul Dardis,Sienna Angove?
Also, missing Laila Oravsky and Ashlyn Massey from pool team.
Neither were good enough at Trials to make the team.
Laila Oravsky would have been a P3 selection in the 400IM, and Ashlyn Massey a P3 selection in the 200 fly.
As I said, not good enough.
They volunteerly not attending for a reason