Providing insight into the life of a top-performing athlete, Brent also shares his experience training the next generation of Canadian swimmers and reveals his tips on Canada’s ‘ones to watch’ at Rio 2016.

“Some people shoot for the stars, but personally, I don’t like to set limits.”
– Brent Hayden

Two weeks before the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, Brent found himself on the floor of his training camp hotel room screaming from back pain.

Resisting the urge to quit, the Canadian swimmer promised himself he wouldn’t retire before the Games – he would commit all of his effort to the pool and leave everything in there on race day.

“I would have rather drowned than swim a safe race,” he says.

In the 2012 Olympic Games 100m freestyle final Brent proved it’s not how you perform on your best day that matters, but how you perform in the face of adversity.

He finished third, winning the medal that had eluded him throughout his career and writing himself into Canada’s history books.

Brent’s determination for success in the pool wasn’t always so obvious. As a boy he failed swimming lessons twice, and was a self-confessed failure at other sports.

“I scored one basket all season for my basketball team, and that was in an exhibition game against our own girls’ team,” Brent remembers.

He was easily distracted as a child, something which his coaches found frustrating, “my local club even had an award named after me,” Brent laughs, “the I don’t know award”.

However, there was one thing Brent couldn’t be faulted for – his love of swimming. “It wasn’t about medals for me,” explains Brent, “I wanted to go the pool every day and do one thing better than I did the day before.”

This philosophy paid off, as Brent and others around him started to realise the potential he had in the pool.

Read full interview here

The 4th FINA World Aquatics Convention takes place 3-5 December 2016 at the Caesars Windsor Resort and Convention Centre and precedes the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) taking place 6-11 December 2016 at the Windsor Family Credit Union (WFCU) Centre.

article written by RedTorch

Ukraine, Japan and Italy were the teams securing the Olympic spot (in this order) during the tournament last week in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), while Canada and Spain, other strong competitors, finished fourth and fifth respectively.

For the Ukrainians, who finished first overall, the victory had extra meaning, as it was the first time a Ukrainian team qualified for the Olympics.

The nations qualified for the team events are: Brazil (host nation + representing the American continent), Russia (European spot), China (Asian spot), Australia (Oceania spot), Egypt (African spot), Ukraine (gold at the tournament), Japan (silver at the tournament) and Italy (bronze at the tournament).

The duets qualified for the Olympic Games are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, FINA, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and USA.

All qualified teams and duets are subject to their NOC/NF confirmation to FINA that they will use their allocation quota place by April 15.