McGill swim duo to represent Canada at FISU Summer Games

 

MONTREAL -- Steven Bielby, a swimmer from McGill University, and Redmen head coach Peter Carpenter, are among 42 student-athletes and 10 support staff selected to represent Canada in swimming at the 26th Summer Universiade from August 12-23, 2011, in Shenzhen, China.


The Canadian swim team is coming off back-to-back solid showings at the biennial event with seven medals (1-4-2) in 2009 in Belgrade, Serbia, and 10 podiums (4-2-4) in 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.

No sport has brought more Universiade glory to Canada over the years. Since the inaugural Summer Games in 1959, Canadian swimmers have won 95 medals including 21 golds - both record tallies for the country.

"After head coaching the 2009 team I am very excited to return to that competition," said University of Calgary head coach Mike Blondal. "With less than one year to go until Canada's Olympic Trials this meet will be the first stop on the final step to make the Main Show in London in the summer of 2012."

For the second straight Universiade, the Canadian squad will be comprised of 21 female and 21 male swimmers including 31 from CIS universities, 10 from NCAA schools and one from a cegep.

The University of Calgary Dinos - reigning CIS champions in both women's and men's competition - and the University of Toronto Varsity Blues lead the way with eight selections apiece.

Exactly a third of the delegation (14) has previous world university games experience including two-time veterans MacKenzie Downing of Whitehorse, a graduate of the University of Victoria who was at the 2007 and 2005 Games (Izmir, Turkey), and Seanna Mitchell of Manotick, Ont., a fourth-year Dino senior who competed for the Red and White in 2009 and 2007.

Other returnees from 2009 include the U of C trio of Katy Murdoch of Calgary, Allison Long, also a native of Calgary, and David Dimitrov of Milton, Ont.; U of T teammates Heather Maitland of Toronto and Zack Chetrat of Oakville, Ont.; the UBC duo of Hanna Pierse of Edmonton and Kelly Aspinall of Nanoose Bay, B.C.; Laval's Marie-Pier Ratelle of Trois-Rivières, Que.; McGill's Steven Bielby of Pointe-Claire, Que.; Dalhousie's David Sharpe of Halifax; and Stanford's Matthew Swanston of Newmarket, Ont.

UNLV's Kier Maitland of Edmonton is a veteran of the 2007 Games.

Downing, Murdoch, Mitchell, Ratelle and Swanston have all reached the podium in their previous trips to the Universiade.

Downing, who competed at the 2007 FINA world championships in Australia, claimed Universiade gold (100 fly), silver (200 fly) and bronze (4x100 medley) that same summer. Murdoch was herself a triple medalist in 2009 with a pair of second-place finishes (100 back, 4x200 free) and a third position (4x100 free). Mitchell won a silver in Belgrade (4x200 free) and a bronze in Bangkok (4x100 medley). Ratelle (4x100 free) and Swanston (4x200 free) both returned from Serbia with a bronze medal.

Murdoch, who is considered a hopeful to crack Canada's roster for the 2012 Olympics, currently holds the Canadian long-course record on 100m backstroke and the national short-course marks on 100 and 200 back.

Rounding out the women's team for Shenzhen is the Varsity Blues' foursome of Zsofia Balazs of Toronto, Pamela Ruksys of Kingston, Ont., Paige Schultz of Toronto and Vanessa Treasure of Mississauga, Ont.; the Dinos' pair of Julianne Brown of North Vancouver, B.C., and Lindsay Delmar of Calgary; the UBC duo of Heather MacLean of Toronto and Tera Van Beilen of Oakville; Arizona State teammates Caroline Kuczynski of Montreal and Cassie Morrice of Victoria; Missouri's Dominique Bouchard of North Bay, Ont.; Victoria's Hilary Caldwell of London, Ont.; Cegep Édouard-Montpetit's Sandrine Mainville of Boucherville, Que.; and Texas A&M's Paige Miller of Brampton, Ont.

MacLean represented Canada at the 2009 FINA Worlds in Rome where she reached the final of the 4x200 freestyle relay and was a semi-finalist in the 100 free.

Rounding out the men's squad are Dino teammates Jason Block of Calgary and Colin Miazga of Saskatoon; the U of T duo of Cam Cummings of Oakville and Mike Smerek of St. Catharines, Ont.; UVic teammates and fellow Victoria natives Craig Dagnall and Nicholas Sinclair; Jonathan Gagné of Montreal and Tim Ruse of Pointe-Claire, both students at Concordia; Ottawa's Adam Best of Ottawa; Michigan's Richard Funk of Edmonton; Simon Fraser's David Hibberd of Calgary; Laval's Dominique Massie-Martel of Ottawa; Texas A&M's Kyle Troskott of Lethbridge, Alta.; and Stanford's Michael Zoldos of Newmarket.

In addition to Blondal, the support staff includes team leader Ken Radford from Swimming Canada; assistant coaches Peter Carpenter from McGill, Martin Gingras from UQTR, Steve Price from Edmonton Keyano Swim Club and John Rogers from the University of Toronto's high-performance centre; managers Elizabeth El-Hawary and Kelly Steeves; and therapists Rick Pelletier and Yanic Szoghy.

The delegation is set to leave Canada on August 7. The Universiade swimming competition runs from August 14-19.

NOTES: Canadian swimmers won a team-record six events and 15 Universiade medals in Buffalo in 1993... Their second best performances came in Sheffield, England, in 1991 and in Edmonton in 1983 as they claimed three victories and 14 medals on both occasions...
2011 Summer Universiade website: http://www.sz2011.org/Universiade
Team Canada website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/summer