Upward incline for Golden Bears and Pandas swimming at Canada West Championships 

The Canada West Swimming Championship was held from November 22 to 24. Golden Bear Minh Nguyen lead the team up to the championship.

Nguyen is a third-year neuroscience student, and is in his third-year of eligibility with the swimming program. The swimming program at the U of A has two big meets during their season. This is the first — their second will be U Sport Nationals. 

With Canada West over and the recent news of the program ending, the team has competed in what looks like their last first half of competitions for the program. With only 29 swimmers for the Golden Bears and Pandas combined, the team was smaller than some other competing universities at the meet. 

Nonetheless, the Bears placed third overall, while setting four new program records and winning seven medals. The Pandas were right behind as fourth overall. In 2022, both teams placed fifth at Canada West. This makes last year, where they both placed third, and this year, an upward incline for both teams. 

“We’re a real solid team, and we’ve only [become] better this year, so trying to improve on our positions that we ended [with] last year,” Nguyen said. 

“I think we did a really good job last year at Canada West,” Nguyen says

Their most recent meet before the championship was the Sports Illustrated Clubhouse Colleges Cup. Here, Nguyen was awarded four bronze medals, making him a key athlete for the championship. 

Since Sports Illustrated, Nguyen kept putting in the hard work and staying away from distractions. He said he was “locked in” for this meet.

Nguyen was part of the team that broke the program record for the 4×100 freestyle relay. Alongside him were Jaden Debreuijn, Jack Hayhoe, and Paul McKenzie. They earned three individual medals alongside another team medal. 

Nguyen said that the rookies from last year are due to take on more of a “leadership role.”

“I think we did a really good job last year at Canada West. The only thing that changed is that rookies from last year are now second years and need to step up a bit and take more of a leadership role while we show the ropes to the rookies we got this year,” Nguyen said. 

“We’ve rallied around each other really well and supported each other through [the] news,” Nguyen says

With the recent news of the program ending after this season, there is the risk for the team faltering in their performances. Nguyen stated that that the news hasn’t affected “any performances.”

“We’ve done a really good job of staying away from the media and all of that noise. We’ve rallied around each other really well and supported each other through [the] news. Performances stayed the same, morals stayed the same. Everything’s good right now,” Nguyen said.

However, each athlete will have to reach individual conclusions as to what to do next. Nguyen seems to be leaning towards retiring and having this season be his last. 

“As a third-year science student, I planned on graduating in four years, so transferring isn’t really much of an option because of the credits. I’m just going to have a little retirement party after U Sports and call it a career,” Nguyen said.

This meet served as a demonstration of the program’s steady improvement, with three gold medals for the Bears and consistency from the Pandas.