By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Pointe-Claire Swim Club’s Oliver Blanchard had a string of phenomenal swims in the distance freestyle events at the Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria, resetting the Quebec Provincial Record for 15-year-old boys in the 400, 800 and 1500 free.
On the opening day of the Trials in the 400 free, Blanchard broke and then re-broke his Quebec Provincial Record for 15-year-old boys. He put up a time of 4:00.07 in the prelims, knocking two seconds off his three-week-old Provincial Record of 4:02.07, set at the Quebec Championships in mid-May.
Then, in the boys’ junior final, Blanchard dominated the field, negative-splitting his way to a time of 3:57.32 to shatter his newly minted record by nearly three seconds.
Prior to Blanchard taking hold of the record in May, the Quebec Record for 15-year-olds had stood at 4:04.08, set by Liam Desjarlais in 2012 (though Blanchard had been faster, 4:03.98, as a 14-year-old).
Split Comparison
Desjarlais, 2012 Blanchard, Quebec Champs Blanchard, Trials Prelims Blanchard, Trials Final 27.74 28.00 28.21 28.23 58.49 (30.75) 58.35 (30.35) 58.25 (30.04) 58.29 (30.06) 1:29.57 (31.08) 1:29.18 (30.83) 1:28.51 (30.26) 1:28.52 (30.23) 2:01.36 (31.79) 2:00.03 (30.85) 1:58.93 (30.42) 1:58.97 (30.45) 2:32.62 (31.26) 2:30.75 (30.72) 2:29.44 (30.51) 2:29.55 (30.58) 3:03.83 (31.21) 3:01.71 (30.96) 3:00.03 (30.59) 2:59.61 (30.06) 3:34.81 (30.98) 3:32.20 (30.49) 3:30.35 (30.32) 3:28.95 (29.34) 4:04.08 (29.27) 4:02.07 (29.87) 4:00.07 (29.72) 3:57.32 (28.37)After coming into the meet ranked 12th all-time among 15-year-old Canadians in the event, Blanchard rockets up to #4, only trailing Peter Brothers, Laon Kim and Teddy Kalp.
All-Time Canadian Performers, 15-Year-Old Boys’ 400 Freestyle (LCM)
Peter Brothers (Victoria Amateur Swim Club), 3:55.56 – 2012 Laon Kim (University of Calgary Swim Club), 3:56.37 – 2024 Teddy Kalp (North York Aquatic Club), 3:57.08 – 2012 Oliver Blanchard (Pointe-Claire Swim Club), 3:57.32 – 2025 Dustin Warrack (Cascade Swim Club), 3:59.13 – 2010Blanchard ended up touching 1st in the junior final and placed 4th overall among junior-aged swimmers, trailing overall winner Ethan Ekk (3:49.57), Aiden Kirk (3:54.41) and Simon Fonseca (3:55.08), who were all racing in the ‘A’ final.
On the final night of racing, Blanchard had arguably his best swim of the competition in the 800 free, clocking 8:10.54 to knock nearly 11 seconds off the Provincial Record of 8:21.48, which had been on the books for 15 years, set by Philippe Villeneuve in 2010.
The performance also marked a 17-second personal best time, lowering his previous mark of 8:27.72 set at last year’s Olympic Trials, and moves him to #1 all-time among 15-year-olds in Canada. The swim placed Blanchard 4th overall at the Trials.
Split Comparison
Blanchard, 2024 Trials Blanchard, 2025 Trials 28.44 28.40 59.50 (31.06) 58.06 (29.66) 1:30.82 (31.32) 1:28.79 (30.73) 2:02.45 (31.63) 1:59.59 (30.80) 2:34.21 (31.76) 2:30.69 (31.10) 3:06.29 (32.08) 3:01.61 (30.92) 3:38.36 (32.07) 3:33.17 (31.56) 4:10.74 (32.38) 4:04.37 (31.20) 4:43.02 (32.28) 4:35.56 (31.19) 5:14.97 (31.95) 5:06.53 (30.97) 5:47.35 (32.38) 5:37.87 (31.34) 6:19.87 (32.52) 6:08.76 (30.89) 6:52.23 (32.36) 6:39.92 (31.16) 7:24.50 (32.27) 7:10.79 (30.87) 7:56.87 (32.37) 7:41.86 (31.07) 8:27.72 (30.85) 8:10.54 (28.68)All-Time Canadian Performers, 15-Year-Old Boys’ 800 Freestyle (LCM)
Oliver Blanchard (Pointe-Claire Swim Club), 8:10.54 – 2025 Peter Brothers (Victoria Amateur Swim Club), 8:12.43 – 2012 Michael McGillivray (Regina Optimist Dolphin Swim Club), 8:12.63 – 2018 Ethan Ekk (Unattached), 8:14.62 – 2023 Alexander Axon (Markham Aquatic Club), 8:16.04 – 2019Blanchard also set the Quebec Provincial Record for 15-year-old boys in the 1500 free (15:44.14), ranking him 3rd all-time among 15-year-old Canadians to place 7th in Victoria.
Blanchard was recently one of eight swimmers selected for Swimming Canada’s High Performance Centre (HPC) Scholarship in 2025.
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