Shut out in Rio and Tokyo, Canadian men look to join the Olympic pool party in Paris.
They often train in the same pool, travel on the same buses and planes and compete under the same Maple Leaf at major international meets, including the Olympic Games.
And sure, the Canadian men swimmers are proud of the surging renaissance of success their women compatriots are having on the global stage, bringing the sport back to prominence in their country.
But the prevailing sentiment from the motivated group, led by speedy 21-year-old Josh Liendo, is clear: It’s time for the boys to join the pool party.
To date, though, it has been all Girl Power, which in turn has become a source of motivation for a group of men driven to at least challenge for some medals when the Olympic meet gets under way at La Defense Arena the day after the July 26 Opening Ceremony.
“Quite frankly, as kids growing up in the sport, we were just kind of getting sick of it being just the women and we wanted to step up,” said Finlay Knox, the Albertan who will compete in the 200 IM at Paris. “Obviously with Josh and myself and some of the other guys, we really want to make a statement: If the girls can do it, we can do it as well.
“Obviously, it’s taking us a little bit of time. But they set the limit very high. We’re just trying to keep up with them and it’s really paying off.”
That bar, first set by Penny Oleksiak and the group of women at the 2016 Rio Games, has helped Swimming Canada surge back onto the world scene. Oleksiak, who is expected to compete in the 4×100 freestyle relay in Paris leads the way with seven medals, making her the most-decorated Canadian Olympian in history.
Liendo, a fleet freestyler, has emerged as a contender in the men’s freestyle sprint races and as the ace of the men’s 4×100 relay team that was a surprise fourth at the Tokyo Games. Has he progressed enough to challenge for the Paris podium? We’re about to find out.
“They (Canadian women) have been a big motivator for us and we want to be at that point, too,” Liendo said. “They are setting the standard for us. We’re definitely there. We just have to keep building.”
Liendo is certainly on the fast track towards success. Qualifying for the Tokyo Games three years ago was a breakthrough and he made the best of it. Making it to the semifinal in the 100 free and his work in the relay final gave him invaluable experience.
He took that momentum to the University of Florida for the next step of his career development where, as a Gator, Liendo trained alongside American star Caeleb Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medallist.
“Getting into an Olympic final (in Tokyo), that experience definitely helped,” Liendo said. “It was great spending the last three years building off of that. The idea was to get bigger and stronger and more experience and I believe I’ve done that.”
Zooming out, even with the progress of swimmers such as Liendo, Knox, Yuri Kisil and others, the men still have some catching up to do. The lag time in the men can be attributed to a number of factors, but Swimming Canada high performance director and national team coach John Atkinson has made it a point of emphasis to foster a winning environment within that gender of swimmers as well.
“You can’t make men overnight,” Atkinson said. “There is a maturity and strength component. When we have guys who are 21 and 22 years old they are just approaching to where they can get to their best.
“If you look back, it’s very rare to have young men — and when I say young, I mean teenagers — perform at the world level. It happened with (American great) Michael Phelps and it happened with (Aussie legend) Ian Thorpe, but it takes longer for a man to mature. There is a different physiology and biology and mentality that you have to take into consideration when working with men than women and it takes longer because of that.”
Man or woman, it starts with an exceptional athlete, but Atkinson’s point is that discovering talent then developing talent is a critical sequence.
Not long after he began renovating the Canadian program, Atkinson recruited 1992 Olympic gold medallist Mark Tewksbury to address and motivate young swimmers, a group that included Liendo.
“When I started (with Swimming Canada) and we were at such a low ebb,” Atkinson said. “If I look back to 2013 In those early days, Josh Liendo and Finlay Knox were among the young impressionable men at the camp. Give that it takes much longer to build a men’s program back, one of the priorities we strategized with our national development coaches was how to develop the men and identifying the next generation.”
Whether there is a breakthrough in Paris or not remains to be seen, but at least the signs suggest Canadian men are tracking in the right direction. After being blanked in both Rio and Tokyo, it’s time.
“It’s super cool (to see the men’s momentum),” said backstroke ace and four-time Olympic medallist, Kylie Masse. “I know they’d get so annoyed when everyone would ask them about the women’s team being so successful all the time after 2016 and 2022 and I felt for them.
“They’re putting in the work and watching their performances, all that potential is coming to fruition.”