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JULIE BROUSSEAU
Sport: Swimming
Event: Women’s 200 m, 100 m (provisional) & 4×100 m relay
Age: 18
Hometown: Ottawa
Residence: Ottawa
Local Club: Nepean-Kanata Barracudas
First Olympics
Instagram: @julie.brousseauu
VIEW JULIE’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Adam Beauchemin
Less than a month ago, Julie Brousseau was finishing up her senior year at Nepean High School. Now, the 18-year-old Nepean-Kanata Barracudas swimmer is in Caens, France preparing to make her debut as an Olympian for Team Canada in Paris.
“It still doesn’t feel real that I’m at the training camp and then off to the Olympics,” Brousseau says from the Canadian team’s staging camp three hours west of Paris. “I’m just excited for the next few weeks.”
Brousseau was selected to race the women’s 4×200-metre freestyle relay in Paris thanks to her performance at May’s Canadian Olympic team trials in Toronto. She placed third in the women’s 200 m free in a personal-best time of 1:57.60.
Brousseau competed for a spot alongside many of her fellow NKB club members. She says her team — as well as her friends at Nepean High — provided plenty of support and watched along as she qualified for the Olympics.
And then she had about a month of Grade 12 studies left to compete.
“It was crazy after making the Olympics going back to high school and having to go to math class,” smiles Brousseau, who previously made plans to attend the University of Florida to swim for the Gators in the NCAA. “It was really cool to finish high school as an Olympian.”
Making Team Canada’s Olympic roster is just one of the many triumphs achieved by Brousseau in this school year alone.
In September of 2023, she took home a team-best seven medals — five bronze and two silvers — at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships.
Later that fall, she wore the maple leaf at the senior level for the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile and earned two gold medals — one in the women’s 400 m individual medley and another with the women’s 4×100 m freestyle relay team – plus a bronze in the women’s 4×200 m free relay.
“It’s definitely been a pretty busy year with my final year at Nepean High School, and then trying to juggle swimming and all these meets,” Brousseau reflects.
Going back a little farther, at age 16, Brousseau tied the record for most medals won at a single Canada Games after placing on the podium a total of 11 times at Niagara 2022 — an event that Brousseau reckons kickstarted her swimming career.
“That was definitely the beginning for me,” she recalls, noting that after the Canada Games, she made her first junior national team and began to climb national rankings. “It’s crazy that it was only two years ago.”
While the roster of the 4×200 m relay team may change by race day, the top four athletes at the trials were Summer MacIntosh and Mary-Sophie Harvey (who both qualified for the individual 200 m) and Emma O’Croinin.
Harvey competed with Brousseau as a member of the relay teams that took home gold and bronze at the 2023 Pan American Games. However, outside of her past experience with Harvey, Brousseau says she’s more accustomed to competing against her current teammates than alongside them.
“It’s definitely going to be cool to go from racing against these people to being on the same team with them,” she signals. “It’s something I’m super excited for.”
While Brousseau has now gotten to know many of her fellow Team Canada members through training and competition, the young swimmer had only known many of them as a spectator before that.
“It’s pretty crazy because a lot of them were people that I grew up watching and were my idols,” she highlights. “It’s definitely weird to be on the same team as them. But they’ve all been super nice and welcoming.”
Brousseau says growing up as a young swimmer meant reaching the Olympics was always on her radar. While she’s still coming to terms with the reality of having attained that long-held goal, she expects the whole experience might “feel real” when she finally arrives at the Olympic Village.
“I’m just super hyped to have the chance to represent Canada, especially on the biggest stage,” she underlines. “It’s really awesome. I’ll be an Olympian forever.”
COMPETITION SCHEDULE:
In the weeks leading up to the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Ottawa Sports Pages will be profiling participating local athletes. From July 24-Aug. 11, we’ll be providing daily Ottawa at the Olympics coverage via our free email newsletter. Sign up below to follow along!
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