The Beaconsfield native is helping to end the 12-year drought of no Quebec male swimmers making Canada’s Olympic team.
“When we were young, we would always look at the record board and see the names, and I wanted to put my name on that board,” Hussey said during a recent phone interview from the University of North Carolina, where he earned a swimming scholarship. “It was always a challenge and a goal of mine to beat them.”
Hussey, now 23, set three Quebec records in May at the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials, which were held in Toronto. He broke his own previous provincial record in the 200-metre freestyle twice and also broke the 100-metre freestyle record and qualified for the Olympic 4×200-metre freestyle relay team.
The opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics will be held next Friday, with the swimming competition starting the next day.
“It feels good to finally have a Quebecer make it to the Olympics on the swim team,” Hussey said. “It’s a lot of fun for Quebec and it’s a lot of fun for whoever was part of my journey to get someone on the Olympic team.”
Hussey’s older sisters, Stephanie and Sandra, were also members of the Pointe-Claire Swim Club and helped inspire his Olympic dream. Hussey’s father and mother — John and Diane — helped him navigate a very busy sports schedule. Apart from swimming, Hussey grew up playing hockey and soccer for the Lakeshore programs and also skied competitively. He gave up the other sports in his early teens to focus on swimming with the Olympics as his goal.
“In a way it was a hard decision because I loved playing other sports,” Hussey said. “But I think there was also a lot of stress relief after going from games to practices to school to swim meets. As much as I missed (the other sports) it was also a lot of relief and more time on my hands to focus on other things.”
Hussey has already completed four years at the University of North Carolina and earned a degree in economics. After the Olympics he will return to North Carolina for his fifth and final year of NCAA swimming eligibility while also working on a masters degree in accounting.
Making an Olympic team in any sport is a major accomplishment. What’s really inspiring about athletes like Hussey in a sport like swimming is that there’s isn’t a huge financial reward in the future, like there might be for hockey or basketball players.
An average day at university for Hussey begins when he wakes up around 5 a.m., gets some breakfast and then heads to the pool for two hours of training. After that, he attends classes during the day before hitting the weight room for an hour and then it’s back to the pool for two more hours of swimming. That’s followed by homework, some “alone time” and then bed.
“I sleep very well,” Hussey said. “It’s not hard to go to bed early when you’re really tired.”
Without a financial reward, what is it about swimming that has inspired Hussey to keep chasing his Olympic dream?
“I think a lot of it is just wanting to be better than I already am,” he said. “I set a goal when I was young that I wanted to be an Olympian, so reaching this goal — even though there’s not as much (financial) reward as other sports — there’s a lot of pride. You’ve worked so hard and it just feels really good to kind of have that moment of relief where you can say you did it.”
Hussey hopes he can inspire other youngsters with Olympic dreams.
“I’d love for little kids to look up to me and see that there is a way to make it to the Olympics,” he said. “I think there’s a point where I didn’t think I would make it, and here I am. So I hope that can be inspiring to little kids so that they can believe in themselves to make it to the Olympics.”