Cascade Swim Club star has backstroke legend to look up to in pursuit of podium at Paris Games
Is there a better Olympic swimmer to idolize than Mark Tewksbury?
Certainly, fellow Calgarian and backstroke ace Ingrid Wilm doesn’t think so.
“I’ve never actually gotten a chance to meet him yet,” said Wilm, with a nervous smile.
“Maybe one day?” continued the 26-year-old. “That’d be pretty crazy. That would be awesome.”
Wilm also hopes one day very soon — think Tuesday, in fact — to be crowned an Olympic champion in the backstroke like Tewksbury was at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
But it’s not only his performance there and at the 1988 Seoul Olympics that has Wilm looking up to the two-time Olympian and member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
“Just his respect for the pool and also everybody around the pool, like the volunteers and the staff and the officials, because we wouldn’t be able to be swim without them,” Wilm said. “So his respect and sportsmanship for everybody on that pool deck is amazing. It’s not just you in the ready room. Like there’s so many people and support staff behind you.
“He just has such a genuine presence, too, doesn’t he?” continued Wilm. “I love his attitude and his presence on the pool deck. He’s just always so happy and genuine to be around.
“So thank you, Mark, for being an inspiration for me and for so many people. Thank you for being you.”
The hope is Tewksbury’s inspiration pays off for her own podium swim when the women’s 100-metre backstroke takes shape at the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, France.
Heats go early Monday (3 a.m. MT) followed by the semifinals later that day (12:57 p.m. MT), with the final slated for Tuesday (12:56 p.m. MT).
“Personally, I do hope to be going for best times,” Wilm said. “I don’t always like to set end-game goals just because I want to be proud of myself no matter what happens. So currently the first and foremost step is to just do what I can in prelims of 100 back to make it through to the semi-final, and then we’ll see where I go from there.”
At the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Qatar in February, Wilm was bronze best in the 100 back.
Then came the 2024 Swimming Canada Olympic Trials in May in Toronto, where she finished second to four-time medallist Kylie Masse but qualified for Paris.
“Honestly, that (trials) day of was kinda unbelievable,” Wilm said. “And then the very next day, it was very much a moment of, ‘I gotta get to work.’ I think I skipped right over the ‘Oh, I made it,’ right into the ‘I got work to do to head into this thing.’
“About a month out from the trials, I was so nervous that I could have thrown up,” continued Masse. “So while I was there, it was a bit surreal. And I was just trying to take it step by step — like, for example, just get into warm up and do what I do, then getting into the race suit and getting into the ready room. So it was more just doing process goals throughout the whole thing rather than experiencing how exciting it was.
“That didn’t happen until after the race when I was cheering for my teammates. That’s when I was like ‘Wow.’”
Born in England. Wilm actually grew up in the Middle East and moved to Calgary when she was 11 or 12. It was in Doha, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, UAE, where she started swimming and honed her skills.
“I got into swimming because of my family — five kids — so needed energy to be dispersed somewhere,” Wilm said. “It definitely was a bit of a culture shock in some ways to come over to Canada. But other than that, I’ve had predominantly lovely experiences here, and this is definitely where I would call home now.”
For three years, she swam in Vancouver for the U SPORTS’ UBC Thunderbirds, and then she came back to Calgary to train with Cascade Swim Club under Olympic veteran coach Dave Johnson for the cycle ahead of the Tokyo Games.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t make it,” added Wilm. “But swimming here with Dave has definitely been the best thing for me.
“He is someone who allows me to have fun and work-out and laugh a lot so we don’t have too serious of a ‘training centre’ here. And it does allow us to have fun and enjoy what we’re doing. And then from there, it does help when I get to the competition … so that you don’t get overwhelmed by everything once you’re there.”