Any competitive swimmer knows that there’s a feel in the water that you can lose really quickly.
So for Keyano Swim Club’s elite-level athletes, three-and-a-half months with no pool has them feeling like fish out of water.
Swimming, of all sports, is taking one of the biggest hits during this pandemic pause. There’s nothing that can mimic being in the water.
“It is a very specific sport,” said Head Coach Paul Birmingham. “We can do as much as we can on dry land and we can keep sort of general fitness and adaptations.
“But when it comes to specific economy of movement, we need the water and without that, fundamentally, we are at a deep disadvantage.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been out of the pool this long since I was, I don’t know, ever,” said Emma O’Croinin, one of Keyano’s top athletes. “It’s definitely been a little weird being out of the pool this long.”
The club is still in talks with the City of Edmonton, but Birmingham hopes to be back in the water by mid to late July.
Swimmers need to get back in to keep any Olympic dreams alive. Training cycles can be very specific.
“I’m confident if we’re back in July we can certainly get to a very high level,” said Birmingham.
O’Croinin is a top Olympic team hopeful.
At just 15 years old, she qualified for Canada’s Senior National Team that went to the World Championships in South Korea last year. She was a member of the 4×200 freestyle relay that won a bronze medal; O’Croinin was on the team that swam in the preliminaries and qualified the Canada team for the finals.
The now 17 year old spent all of last season focused on Olympic trials.
“It was definitely a weird feeling… in one day, to go from, like, being nervous and thinking about it every single day to suddenly it’s not happening this year,” said O’Croinin, who added she hopes to build on what she learned through the process last year.