Swimming Canada Names 31 to World Championships Roster, Including Ruck & Oleksiak

Swimming Canada has announced a roster of 31 pool swimmers for the upcoming World Aquatics Championships. The pool swimming events at the meet in Fukuoka, Japan, will be held from July 23-30 in Fukuoka, Japan.

Among the athletes named to the roster are Penny Oleksiak, who opted out of the meet while continuing to work her way back from a knee injury, and Taylor Ruck, who skipped the meet to prioritize the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with Trials coming shortly out of the NCAA Championships.

Both swimmers are crucial part of the Canadian relays that have become consistent medal contenders and winners since Rio 2016. With Rebecca Smith missing the national team for the first time since 2016, the addition of Ruck and Oleksiak to the roster becomes even more crucial for Swimming Canada’s relay success.

While athletes have been named to the roster, specific events have not yet been publicly assigned.

Athletes could be named to the roster if they met, or exceeded, the World Aquatics ‘A’ cuts in the final of Olympic events.

If no swimmer achieves the ‘A’ time standard, then the fastest-placed swimmer may be selected, provided they have reached the Swimming Canada secondary qualification. These secondary times are set 1% outside of the World Aquatics ‘A’ cuts.

Canada also leaves room for the High Performance Director to make discretionary selections to the roster, which is the pathway by which Ruck and Oleksiak were chosen.

The same discretion was used to select Ruslan Gaziev to the men’s roster, in spite of him scratching all of his races. He swam on all three men’s relays at last year’s World Championships, including the 400 free relay that finished 6th, about a second away from the podium. With Josh Liendo and Javier Acevedo swimming very well, the Canadians have a serious chance at a medal at this summer’s World Championships in that race.

Canadian swimmers won 11 medals (3 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze) at last year’s championships in Budapest, the country’s most ever, and broke five Canadian records. Canada ranked third in total medals and fourth in gold.

This year’s team consists of 14 men and 17 women. There are 21 swimmers (12 women, 9 men) returning from the Budapest squad while 10 swimmers (5 women, 5 men) will be making their world championships debut.

Katerine Savard, who trains with Club Aquatique Montreal, will be competing at her sixth world championships.

“I still have dreams,” said Savard, who has spent 14 years on Canadian national swim team. “I’m fortunate to still be of a calibre to compete with these girls.

“I’m proud to be at their level and to be part of several generations of swimmers.”

The roster includes some young standouts making their Canadian senior debuts, including Brayden Taivassalo, a University of Texas commit, and Ella Jansen.

Mabel Zavaros is also a positive story coming out of the meet. She qualified for a number of junior meets for Canada, and the 2018 Pan Pacs and Commonwealth Games, but has been quiet on the international radar since. After a great college season that saw her finish 4th at NCAAs in the 400 IM (and not swim her specialty the 200 fly), she entered the final day of competition on Sunday with three 3rd-place finishes at the meet, narrowly missing the team every time.

But on the final day of the meet, she won the 800 free in 8:38.17. While that wasn’t a FINA “A” cut, it was within 1% of the standard, which earned her a ticket to Fukuoka.

And of course it’s no surprise that the headliner is the 16-year-old Summer McIntosh, who broke two World Records and three additional World Junior Records at the meet.

Her coach at the Florida-based Sarasota Sharks Brent Arckey is being taken as part of the team staff as well. While Canada tends to stick with only Canadian-based coaches for their international teams, Arckey is on the roster as a “Personal Support Professional.”

The open water athletes will be selected at the 2023 Canadian Open Water Trials in Grand Cayman, April 15-16.

The teams for the Pan American Games, being held Oct. 20-Nov. 5 in Santiago, Chile, and the World Aquatic Junior Swimming Championships Nov. 4-9 in Netanya, Israel,  will be named Thursday.

Canadian Roster – 2023 World Aquatics Championships (Pool Swimming)