Dude, Where Are My Records?

OK... Here's the issue... We were at the Canadian Pan Pacific Championships Trials in Montreal a few weeks ago and there were zero new Canadian Records set during the meet.

The swimming world is coming off a controversial period in it's history with the FINA crack down on polyurathane swim suits. This issue has been analyzed to death so I'm not going to get into it at this point but I will re-iterate that there were zero Canadian Records at the Trials.

There were some very good swims and some great breakthrough performances for some younger swimmers but it became clear that swimming in this country is going to take a painful step backwards before (hopefully) slingshotting forward.

Is it the suits?

For some yes, for others no.

Was it the timing of the meet?

Perhaps, the Pan Pacific Championships Champioships are scheduled for August 18-22. The Americans are not selecting their Pan Pac team until their Summer National Championships August 3-7. By Canada scheduling their Trials for late March into early April they are asking a lot of their athletes who are currently attending university placing the Trials right near the end of winter semester and leading into exams... It's a lot to ask. Also factor in that at the end of short course season in February/March most of the country's best swimmers had already tapered for either Easterns/Westerns and/or the CIS Championships. Then to turn around an awkward 6 weeks prior makes the task of getting towards Canadian Records double tough.

Granted for those who were eying making the Pan Pac Team the Trials should have been the focus meet above Championship short course meets... but that's not universally the case. One trip around the deck here in Toronto illustrated that the Trials were not the above-all-else focus.

The result... Good swimming but nothing unquestionably great and the country has been better and I hope that this was just a brief dip down before the arrow begins to point way up.