By Keiran Gorsky
At the University of Florida, where Julie Brousseau has spent her first two years of fiercely competitive collegiate swimming, the freestyle and medley specialist is something of a big fish in an even bigger pond.
This past school year, the swim program alone was home to seven other Olympians hailing from all over the world, including Canadian star Josh Liendo. Coupled with the future NBA and NFL players in the Gators ranks and suddenly, the presence of an Olympian on campus is bizarrely indistinct.
“It’s not as much of a flex as it would be here, just because you’re surrounded with other great athletes,” Brousseau noted.
Halfway through her degree in health education and behaviour, the two-time Pan Am Games gold medalist boasts two Southeastern Conference (SEC) medals and four All-American honours. Brousseau has relished her time in Gainesville, where she has adapted quickly to the long and gruelling college season.
When the summer comes in Ottawa, though, Brousseau can’t resist the comforts of home. In the leadup to the Commonwealth Games, she has spent her time paddling at her childhood pool with the Nepean Kanata Barracudas Swim Club under the tutelage of long-time coach Scott Faithfull.
“You know, there’s nothing like a home-cooked meal and someone doing your laundry as well,” Faithfull laughed.
Back in familiar waters, Brousseau is at the centre of attention. She has been bombarded with T-shirts, bathing caps and stuffed animals, all of which she happily signs. It’s a delight for up-and-coming Barracudas to even share the same water.
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“The majority are in awe,” Faithfull indicated. “You hear the whispering on deck, ‘Oh, that’s Julie, that’s Julie!’”
If they aren’t brave enough to approach her themselves, Brousseau has a knack for spotting those children too shy to ask.
Amid the fanfare, of course, she is still here to train. After a laborious six-month collegiate season, Brousseau won a 400-metre individual medley bronze medal at the Mare Nostrum Swim Tour event in Barcelona before heading to Canadian Swimming Trials in Montreal earlier this month.
She went toe-to-toe with Summer McIntosh in the same discipline, ultimately finishing fourth. The Paris 2024 Olympian secured a spot on the Canadian team for the Pan Pacific Championships later this summer, and she’d been previously nominated to Canada’s Commonwealth Games roster.
Brousseau will be Ottawa’s only non-track athlete competing at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, which begin with Thursday’s opening ceremonies in Scotland.
Read More: Hometown athletes claim 5 Commonwealth Games berths at Canadian Track and Field Championships
Brousseau’s will compete in the first race on the Commonwealth Games swimming programme Friday morning for the women’s 400 m freestyle heats. The 20-year-old will also take part in the 200 m and 800 m freestyle, the 400 m IM and likely some relay events as well.
Then she’ll head back across the Atlantic Ocean to visit the Pacific in Los Angeles for the Aug. 10-15 Pan Pacs. Through it all, it can be challenging to live in the moment.
“You just realize how long the seasons are and how long everything is,” she signalled. “You just have to not think too far ahead and just try to take it day by day.”
Training with Olympic gold medalists Katie Ledecky and Bobby Finke during the college season, Faithfull has noticed a sharp increase in Brousseau’s fitness level and her ability to narrow in on areas for refinement. The steep level of competition – even higher than the Olympics, he suggests – necessitates as much.
When she’s home, Faithfull has sought to create a more relaxed environment where the Nepean High School grad can perfect her many skills – a trickier task than might be imagined. American college competitions assign their events easy, round numbers fitting their 25-yard pools instead of converting distances to their international equivalent in metres.
As imperial-metric conversions go, yards to metres is one of the more seamless (1 yard = 0.9144 m), but that slight difference becomes all the more irritating as Brousseau strains to remember what month it is while submerged in chlorine.
“It’s just a lot more turns and underwaters,” Brousseau said of the transition to yards and short, short-course pools. “It’s hard to get into a stroke because you’re always flipping.”
Mental arithmetic aside, the pressing matter in training while in Ottawa is to maintain Brousseau’s exceptional intensity while keeping her stroke count down so she is rested for international competition. She has paid particular attention to lengthening her stride and refining her form underwater while with the Barracudas.
Brousseau is 1/12th of the Canadian Olympic program contingent heading to Glasgow, down significantly from past Commonwealth Games, and tiny compared to the 44-member Pan Pacs Canadian team. There are another 12 Canadian Paralympic program swimmers competing in Glasgow, and 20 for the Para Pan Pacs.
This edition of the Games is smaller in scale after Victoria, Australia withdrew as hosts in 2023 a year after being selected. Glasgow, which hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games, subbed in to host a Games with a sports list reduced from 20 to 10, and the number of participating athletes down by nearly 40%.
Most disappointingly for Brousseau, she will be staying at a hotel instead of the usual athletes’ village. Nevertheless, she is ecstatic to join back up with Team Canada at an international Games, improve on her time from trials and hopefully collect as many pins as possible.
“Definitely a bit disappointed but still excited we get the chance to go,” underlined Brousseau, who placed fourth in the women’s 4×200 m free relay at her Olympic debut.
Ottawa will also be represented by Eliezer Adjibi (men’s 100 m, 200 m and 4×100 m relay), Lauren Gale (women’s 400 m), David Moulongou (men’s 400 m hurdles), Segun Makinde (men’s T12 100 m guide runner) and Maëliss Trapeau (women’s 800 m) in track and field, while Glasgow 2014 champion Erica Wiebe returns to the site of one of the most dominant displays of her wrestling career as Team Canada’s chef de mission.
Read 2014 Ottawa Sports Pages story: Turning the wrestling world on its head – Commonwealth Games gold the latest in Erica Wiebe’s breakout 2014 run to world #1