Ian Wu and Olive Rogers are set to race this weekend at the Luxembourg Euro Meet, one of Europe’s premier early-season international competitions. Taking place January 30 – February 1 at the Coque National Sports and Culture Centre in Luxembourg, the meet features elite athletes competing in a 50m pool, with morning heats followed by A and B finals each afternoon. The Luxembourg Euro Meet has a long-standing reputation as one of Europe’s fastest and most competitive early-season meets. Historically, it has attracted Olympic and World Championship medallists and is...

Scarborough Pan Am Meet- High Performance Group Recap The Scarborough Pan Am meet provided an excellent heats-and-finals racing opportunity for our High Performance group, allowing swimmers to experiment, practice, and perform across a demanding weekend of racing. The group showed strong professionalism throughout, delivering consistent performances in both heats and finals while applying skills and race strategies developed in training. The team atmosphere was outstanding, with athletes supporting one another on deck and embracing the competitive environment. Overall, this was a very positive process-focused meet and provides a strong platform...

A Strong Start to the Long Course Season The second weekend of the year marked the ESWIM New Years Cup, our first long course (50m) meet of the season. This meet is an important milestone for our swimmers, providing an opportunity to establish new baselines, apply the work being done in training, and begin the journey toward the major competitions later in the year. Across all groups, swimmers were encouraged to approach racing with intent- planning their races, trusting their preparation, and staying committed to the processes we value as...

Over the past almost three years coaching in Canada, I’ve had the privilege of working with many talented and motivated young athletes. One of the biggest challenges I see- across all sports- is not effort or ability, but clarity. Young athletes often work hard without really understanding what they are working towards or why. That’s why I find the example of Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers) so powerful and genuinely inspiring. As a teenager in Japan, long before the MLB, Ohtani created a simple goal-setting chart. In the centre was...

On January 1st, our High Performance group kicked off the new year in true ESWIM fashion, by stepping well outside the comfort zone. At noon on New Year’s Day, ESWIM swimmers joined Head Coach Marc Spackman and the LOST Swim Team for a Polar Bear Dip in Lake Ontario. With air temperatures well below freezing and water hovering just above zero, it was cold, bracing, and unforgettable. More than a stunt, the dip was about mindset. Choosing challenge. Showing courage. Starting the year with a shared experience that demanded commitment,...

We ran our second ESWIM time trial of the season at the Olympium, featuring the 400 freestyle and 400 IM. For many of our younger swimmers, this was their first experience racing these events in a structured, performance-focused environment- and they rose to the occasion. The mood on deck was positive, and exciting. There was an unmistakable sense of athletes learning how to race, not just swim- focusing on technique, skill, and problem-solving over the full distance. The evening began with the presentation of the 2024-2025 ESWIM Swimmers of the...

17 qualifiers. Four days of racing. One clear statement of progress. The Swim Ontario Junior International at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre proved to be a landmark weekend for Etobicoke Swim Club, with 17 ESWIM swimmers qualifying and delivering a series of confident, high-quality performances on one of the province’s biggest junior stages. From the opening sessions, ESWIM athletes raced with intent. Heat wins from Elena Wieland and Dennis Nykolyn set the tone early, signalling that the team had arrived prepared, focused, and ready to compete. As the meet...

On December 3rd, 61 ESWIM swimmers boarded a bus bound for Pointe-Claire, Quebec, to compete at the Annual Pointe-Claire Invitational. Coming off a highly successful weekend at AGI, this meet presented a different challenge - asking swimmers to reset, refocus, and perform on a larger and more competitive stage. Following a full day of travel and an additional rest day, competition began with the Thursday distance session. Thirteen ESWIM swimmers raced, producing an outstanding 12 best times from 13 swims and immediately setting the tone for what would become an...

Following a highly successful AGI meet the previous weekend, ESWIM swimmers went back-to-back once again, with over 100 athletes travelling north to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre for the NYAC Murray Drudge Meet, eager to build on their growing momentum. ESWIM fielded its largest-ever group of 10 & under swimmers, who went on to dominate their age group throughout the weekend. From the opening Friday morning session, the standard was set high as swimmers raced with intent, aiming to qualify for finals. Friday night finals for the 13 &...

This past weekend’s AGI meet was a brilliant step forward for ESWIM – not just in the results, but in how our swimmers, coaches, and families came together as one team. In the pool, ESWIM athletes delivered across every stroke and distance. From first-time finalists to podium finishes and swims that now rank among the top performances in Canada, the results reflected the structured, progressive training our squads have been putting in week after week. It was clear that the work in practice is translating into confident, consistent racing. What...