~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
By Martin Cleary
When Declan Sweetnam talks about his two Canadian swimming championship experiences, his stories are completely opposite to each other.
At his debut age-group nationals in 2023, he was in the middle of “a rough time” as he recently had been diagnosed with a heart condition (a rare arrhythmia). He swam and made one final, but scratched that opportunity as his mind had trouble focusing on that important swim meet.
But six months later, he travelled with his family to Toronto and had his cardiovascular issue resolved with a procedure and medication.
Once his heart issue was under control, he ramped up his training, set personal-best times at local meets and went to the Olympic trials to test himself against other swimmers in his boys’ 14-15 age group.
In July, he returned to the Canadian championships and his focus, confidence and performances were at a top level as he won two silver and one bronze medals in his age class and recorded four best-ever times.
“A lot of it had to do with my teammates cheering me on,” said Sweetnam, who is starting his fourth season with Swim Ottawa and turns 16 on Friday. “They would come out to the night finals. They were super amazing.”
Sweetnam, who is the nephew of two-time 1990s Olympian and individual-medley specialist Nancy Sweetnam, also praised Swim Ottawa coach Rick Burton for getting him quickly through the water as a breaststroker and onto the podium.
“My training and coaching are very hard, but all worth it,” added Sweetnam, who also sent kudos to his father Peter and mother Shelley Dougan for their all-around support.
While Sweetnam is developing all four strokes – freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly – his results indicate his most current success is in breaststroke.
At this summer’s Canadian swimming championships, he was the boys’ 14-15 breaststroke silver medallist over 100 metres (one minute, 6.40 seconds) and 200 metres (2:23.51). In his 100-metre preliminary race, he swam faster than the final in 1:06.39.
The Grade 11 student at St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School earned the bronze medal in the 50-metre breaststroke in 30.49 seconds. He also won the 200-metre individual-medley B final in 2:14.88 to finish 11th overall in the event standings, despite having the seventh-best time in the two division finals.
Sweetnam set personal-best times in all four races and his time improvement over his 2023 nationals ranged between 1.5 seconds to 12.5 seconds.
“He has a good feel for the water,” Burton said about Sweetnam. “He understands how his arms and body need to move through the water. He’s inclined to be a breaststroke swimmer, but we’re trying to develop all his strokes.
“He did very, very well. He was on a (course) of good training and we were expecting something at (Olympic) trials in May, but it came late.
Better late than never as the troubles of a year earlier were now life lessons and past memories.
“The 2023 Canadian championships were a rough time for me,” Sweetnam described. “I was diagnosed with a heart condition one month before Canadians. I was down and my training was not going well. I wasn’t feeling my best. I made one final, despite my problem.
“I couldn’t get into the right state of mind. I was constantly thinking about my heart condition.”
But Sweetnam persevered, received treatment and eventually returned to full swimmer mode, competing in the Olympic trials and Canadian championships this season.
“I had no expectations for myself,” he added about his approach to the July nationals. “I was going in and knowing all the guys on the top. I was hoping to make a podium. I was racing my friends and having fun.
“I’m trying to build all (my strokes), but the breaststroke is my strongest now. Originally, I was a freestyler, but one day it (breaststroke) just clicked.”
The breaststroke event seems to run in the family as his father Pete favoured that race and his aunt Nancy Sweetnam represented Canada well throughout the 1990s. She won the silver medal in the 400-metre individual medley at the 1995 world short-course championships and gold and silver medals at the 1993 world university games.
“Nancy has been super supportive and a huge cheerleader,” Shelley Dougan said. “There’s no pressure from the family. He has found something he absolutely loves to do and he keeps having fun. He always has a big grin at the end of each race. As a parent, that’s all you can ask.”
When Sweetnam wasn’t racing at nationals, he was supporting and cheering his teammates, like Gabriel Tejada, Alex Pershukevich, and Molly Barber.
Tejada won a pair of men’s open division medals with a second-place effort in the 50-metre butterfly in 24.23 seconds and a third in the 100-metre butterfly in 53.56 seconds.
Pershukevich, who wasn’t ranked in the boys’ 14-15 top 20, placed fourth in the 50-metre freestyle in 24.69 seconds and 10th in the 100-metre freestyle final in 54.79 seconds.
Barber competed in the girls’ 15-17 class butterfly events, placing fifth over 50 metres in 27.89 seconds and eighth over 100 metres in 1:02.78.
Ashley McMillan of the Greater Ottawa Kingfish was a triple champion in the women’s 18+ category with all her victories in the backstroke discipline, covering 50 metres in 28.88 seconds, 100 metres in 1:00.66 and 200 metres in 2:12.43.
McMillan placed second overall in the women’s 18+ high-point aggregate standings and was one point out of first place.
Olivier Risk of ROC (Ravens of Carleton) was the men’s 16-18 champion in the three-kilometre freestyle open water final. He finished in 34:22.10 and qualified to represent Canada at this weekend’s open water junior World Cup in Alghero, Italy.