The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Swimming Canada have provisionally nominated six athletes to represent Team Canada at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Swimming Canada has invoked the unexpected circumstances clause of its Olympic team nomination criteria, and is postponing the Olympic and Paralympic Swimming trials until May 24 to 28 at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Swimming Canada will also plan a supplementary Olympic qualifying opportunity in June.
The clause allows the Swimming Canada selection committee to determine if unexpected or unusual circumstances have arisen, and gives them the full and absolute discretion to resolve the matter as it sees fit, taking into account factors and circumstances it deems relevant. Any such exercise of discretion shall be subject to the Canadian administrative law principles of fairness.
The following swimmers have been provisionally nominated by Swimming Canada’s Selection Committee for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, for the following specific individual events:
- Kylie Masse (Lasalle, Ont.), 100 m and 200 m backstroke
- Margaret Mac Neil (London, Ont.), 100 m butterfly
- Penny Oleksiak (Toronto, Ont.), 200 m freestyle
- Sydney Pickrem (Halifax, N.S.), 200 m breaststroke, and 200 m and 400 m individual medley
- Taylor Ruck (Kelowna, B.C.), 100 m freestyle
- Markus Thormeyer (Delta, British Columbia), 200 m backstroke
“It’s definitely a different way to be named to the Olympic team, but it’s still exciting,” said Masse. “It’s been a challenging year, so it’s nice to have a little bit of certainty in a time of so much uncertainty. I’m grateful Swimming Canada and the COC have provisionally nominated me. I can’t wait to continue to work towards Tokyo to represent Canada.”
These athletes were medallists or Canada’s top placing individual finalists in these events at the 2019 FINA World Championships, where Team Canada swam to eight podium finishes, including two gold and six bronze, a best-ever performance for the country.
“Things have been shifting constantly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and we realize how tough it has been for our athletes,” said Swimming Canada’s high performance director and national coach, John Atkinson. “Provisionally nominating these six athletes allows them, as our top-ranked known performers who have had international success at the world level, to have some certainty as we approach being ready to swim at the games in the summer of 2021.”
With the provisional nominations being limited to a maximum of one per event, no event is closed for nomination, and at least one spot per event remains available to be contested at the trials.
The rescheduled trials would follow the same invitation-only format, with a maximum of 20 athletes per Olympic event and 15 athletes per Paralympic event, contested as timed finals. The acceptance process for the Olympic program athletes invited to the trials will now recommence and athletes contacted to reconfirm decisions. The new dates also allow Canada’s men’s 4- x 100-m and 4- x 200-m freestyle relays to race and post times to be considered for Olympic qualification before the deadline of May 31.
Swimming Canada intends to use the trials as the primary opportunity to select its Olympic team, and final opportunity to select its Paralympic team. Aurelie Rivard, Tess Routliffe, Katarina Roxon, Shelby Newkirk, Aly Van Wyck-Smart, Nicolas-Guy Turbide, James Leroux, and Alec Elliot have already met the standard required for nomination to the Canadian Paralympic Committee as 2019 World Para Swimming Championships medallists.
Associate high performance director Wayne Lomas expects to be able to fill the remaining 11 Paralympic team positions (eight female, three male) based on performances at the trials.
An additional invitational qualifying meet will also be planned as an opportunity for potential Olympic athletes from June 21 to 23.
The unexpected circumstances clause will also be used to decide Canada’s final two representatives at the Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier scheduled for May 29 to 30 in Fukuoka, Japan.
In the event the trials are unable to proceed, Swimming Canada reserves the right to further apply the unexpected circumstances clause to team selection.
