Five Storylines To Watch At The 2025 Canadian Swimming Trials ...Middle East

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

2025 CANADIAN SWIMMING TRIALS

The 2025 Canadian Swimming Trials are set to get underway on Saturday from the Saanich Commonwealth Place in Victoria, as Canada’s best swimmers vie for spots on the 2025 World Championship team.

Below, find five storylines to follow throughout the six-day competition.

MCINTOSH’S FIFTH EVENT? SHOULD WE BE ON RECORD WATCH?

Summer McIntosh has been clear about her plan to race five individual events at the World Championships this summer, but she’s not yet sold on what she’ll add to her established program of 400 free, 200 fly, 200 IM and 400 IM.

Her options are the 200 free, 800 free and 200 back, and the only one with a scheduling conflict at Worlds is the 200 free (the final falls on the same night as the 200 fly semis), so the 800 free and 200 back are the frontrunners for her fifth event.

At the Canadian Trials, the 200 back falls on the same day as the 400 IM, so that might make the 800 free the most appealing option for McIntosh, though the 200 back field is so thin in Canada this year that she’d have no problem comfortably qualifying despite it being a daunting double.

Whatever she ends up deciding—and we’ll know fairly quickly as the 800 free is on Day 2—it will be one of the storylines to follow in Victoria as the three-time Olympic champion will instantly become a medal contender in the event at Worlds.

If it is the 800 free, it sets up an exciting showdown with Katie Ledecky in Singapore, with the American having broken the world record in May and then produced the third-fastest swim ever at the U.S. Trials on Tuesday.

Beyond her event selection, McIntosh’s performances will be something to keep an eye on this week, as they always are.

The 18-year-old is capable of doing something mind-boggling everytime she hits the water, and over the last two Canadian Trials meets, she’s set three world records, cracking the women’s 400 free (3:56.08) and 400 IM (4:25.87) marks in 2023 before re-lowering her 400 IM world record last summer in 4:24.38.

She already ranks 1st in the world this season in the 200 fly (2:04.00), 200 IM (2:07.42) and 400 IM (4:26.98), and sits 2nd in the 400 free (3:58.28), so given the impressive form we’ve seen in the early months of 2025, another world record isn’t out of the question.

LIENDO, KHARUN ARE BIGGEST MEDAL HOPEFULS FOR THE MEN

Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun were the only Canadian men to win swimming medals last summer in Paris, and the butterfly duo presents the best opportunity for the male side to come home with some hardware once again in Singapore.

Both are coming off successful college seasons, with Liendo repeating as NCAA champion in the men’s 100 free and 100 fly as a junior at Florida, while Kharun was the runner-up to Liendo in the 100 fly while also placing 3rd in the 200 fly and 4th in the 50 free as a sophomore at Arizona State.

Liendo joined the elite sub-50 club in the 100 fly last summer in Paris, winning silver behind Hungarian Kristof Milak, and he’s got a shot at the world title this year, no doubt, especially after bringing his SCY PB down to 43.06 at NCAAs.

Liendo has yet to register a long course swim so far this season, but that shouldn’t raise any cause for concern. He did the same thing prior to last year’s Trials and set best times and new Canadian Records in the 50 free (21.48) and 100 fly (50.06) while matching his PB in the 100 free (47.55).

He’ll be on National Record watch again this year as he’ll aim to climb the 2024-25 world rankings and put himself on the radar for Singapore.

Kharun, who won Olympic bronze in both the 100 and 200 fly in 2024, has been leveling up in the 100 fly this year while his 200 seems to be lagging behind. The 20-year-old has seven career sub-51 swims in the 100 fly—three of them were done at the Olympics last summer, and the other four all came in May 2025, including a new best time of 50.42 that ranks him 2nd in the world.

Kharun also set a new Canadian Record in the 50 fly (23.09) at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim in early May, and it will be interesting to see if his 200 fly season-best of 1:55.42 drops down a few seconds with a big taper, or if he’s simply more focused on the sprints this year.

Another thing to watch for is if Kharun can become an international threat in the 50 free, having entered that event as the #4 seed after making so much progress in short course yards over the last two years. He has not, however, entered the 100 free, where he may have had a chance of vying for a berth on the 4×100 free relay after setting a SCY best of 41.03 in January.

WHICH YOUNGSTERS WILL TAKE THE NEXT STEP?

Canada sent a strong contingent to last summer’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships, and after they walked away with 16 medals in Canberra, this year could be when some of those up-and-comers make the jump to the senior international stage.

Texas commit Laon Kim has been rewriting the Canadian Age Group Records throughout his young career, and the 17-year-old could break through onto the Worlds team given his prowess in the 100 and 200 free, where relay selection will be on the line.

Kim tied for silver at Junior Pan Pacs in the 100 free in a PB of 49.37, and anchored the Canadian boys’ medley relay to silver with a blistering 48.56 split. The University of Calgary Swim Club member also recently set a best time of 1:49.55 in the 200 free at the Westmont Pro Swim in March, making him one to watch for this week.

Another swimmer who has broken numerous Canadian NAGs and could be on the verge of a senior international breakthrough is Oliver Dawson, an Indiana commit who claimed bronze in the 100 breast (1:01.27) at Junior Pan Pacs and won the 200 breast at the 2024 Canadian Trials (2:12.42), though he fell shy of the Olympic ‘A’ cut.

The 17-year-old will still have his work cut out for him to get under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 2:10.32 for Worlds, but the secondary Canadian standard of 2:11.62 should be within reach, especially after he’s had his two fastest in-season swims ever this year (2:14.58, 2:14.87).

Ethan Ekk, an 18-year-old Stanford commit who trains in Florida, was also a prominent member of last year’s Junior Pan Pac team and has a great chance to crack the Worlds roster this year, having set new personal best times in the 100 free (50.02), 200 free (1:48.56) and 400 free (3:52.67) in 2025.

On the girls’ side, the next generation has a harder path to breaking onto the Worlds team due to the strength of the Canadian women.

Tennessee commit Madison Kryger won bronze in the 100 back at Junior Pan Pacs and was also 4th in the 200 back, but faces a tall task in the 100 with Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm having a firm grip on the top two spots. Kryger, 16, may have a shot in the 200 back, however, with Masse not in the field and things looking wide open depending on whether or not McIntosh ends up racing it.

Julia Strojnowska, 18, won silver at Junior Pan Pacs in the 1500 free and placed 2nd in the event behind Olympian Emma Finlin at the 2024 Olympic Trials, while she also earned bronze in the 400 free in Canberra, though that event’s a bit deeper in Canada with McIntosh, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Ella Jansen all seeded ahead of her this week.

Another medalist last summer at Junior Pan Pacs was Cal commit Ella Cosgrove, who claimed bronze in the 800 free and will battle it out with Strojnowska and Finlin in that event in Victoria, either for the win or the 2nd spot if McIntosh races it.

NEW TRAINING HOMES

Five swimmers who figure to be significant factors at this year’s Trials are coming off their first season in the NCAA, and the meet will serve as a good litmus test to see how they’ve adapted to their new training home when it comes to long course racing after concluding the short course season a few months ago.

Lorne Wigginton, who was an Olympian last summer in the men’s 4×200 free relay, recently completed his freshman year at Michigan, while fellow Olympian Ella Jansen just wrapped up her first season at Tennessee.

Wigginton will be a contender to win the men’s 400 IM, having placed 2nd last year behind Tristan Jankovics, and he’ll also be in the hunt for another berth on the 4×200 free relay after going sub-1:48 in 2024.

Jansen, who raced the women’s 400 IM in Paris and also swam the second leg on the Canadian women’s 4×200 free relay, holds a top-five seed in six different events at the Trials, and could conceivably land a berth in three or four individual races to go along with the 4×200 free relay.

The 19-year-old had an impressive collegiate debut, earning a pair of 9th-place finishes at the NCAA Championships.

Emma Finlin, who was on the Olympic team last year in the women’s 10km open water event, was an NCAA qualifier for Ohio State as a freshman and will be favored to win the 1500 free at the Trials, but the question is if she can get back down towards her 1500 best time of 16:15.77 from the 2023 World Championships. At the 2024 Olympic Trials, she was well off that in 16:28.15.

Also at Ohio State this past season was Sienna Angove, who had a breakthrough win at the Women’s Big Ten Championships in the 400 IM and went on to make the NCAA ‘A’ final in the event. She’ll be one to watch as she aims to make some noise in the 400 IM, where she should be capable of something quicker than her 2023 best time of 4:45.49.

Angove is a contender for a Worlds spot in the 4×200 free relay, having represented Canada in the event at the 2024 Worlds and owning a best time of 1:58.53, but her medley times in long course haven’t caught up to her short course times, yet.

The other swimmer coming off their first NCAA season who will be factor in Victoria is Aiden Norman, who swept the boys’ 100 back (54.10) and 200 back (1:57.67) last summer at Junior Pan Pacs and had a solid freshman campaign at Florida, including placing 19th in the 200 back at NCAAs.

Norman led off the Canadian medley relay at Junior Pan Pacs in a 100 back PB of 53.73, which puts him in the crosshairs of 2024 Olympic Trials champion Blake Tierney, who clocked 53.48 last year.

Tierney also won the 200 back at the 2024 Trials in 1:56.74, but Norman’s best time from Junior Pan Pacs puts him within a second of him and is also under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut (1:58.07).

Following these five, and seeing if they can take a step forward, or struggle to perform, after training in a new environment this past season will be something to watch.

WHAT WILL THE STATE OF THE RELAYS BE?

Five of Canada’s six relays will be losing one member from the 2024 Olympic final (outside of the men’s 4×200, which didn’t make the Olympic fianl), and in addition to that, after the women won two relay medals at back-to-back Olympics in 2016 and 2021, they’re coming off coming up empty-handed at the Games for the first time since 2012.

The biggest loss to the Canadian relays is Maggie MacNeil, who retired in September after a decorated career that included three Olympic medals.

MacNeil led off the women’s 4×100 free relay and swam the fly leg on the women’s 4×100 medley relay in Paris, and in her absence, there’s a glaring butterfly hole for the Canadian women.

Mary-Sophie Harvey holds the top seed in the 100 fly at 57.31, and she’s the only one entered sub-58, with Jansen (58.74) sitting 2nd and Penny Oleksiak lurking down with the 9th seed at 1:00.01, though she’s been as fast as 56.46 at the Rio Olympics.

Harvey is the clear favorite to win, but when we get to the World Championships, the Canadian coaches could also opt to use Summer McIntosh on the fly leg and slot Oleksiak, or whoever has the hot hand, on free.

McIntosh has been used as the anchor leg on the medley relay at recent championships, but though she isn’t swimming the 100 fly in Victoria, her best time sits at a quick 57.19 from April 2024.

The breaststroke leg is always a hot topic as well, but Sophie Angus has performed well in that spot of late and Alexanne Lepage and Shona Branton give the Canadians three women who are capable of going 1:06 from a flat start, and thus, potentially 1:05 in the relay.

Despite losing MacNeil, the women’s 4×100 free relay should be in decent shape, as Harvey can fill in with the fourth leg after McIntosh, Oleksiak and Taylor Ruck swam the Olympic final with MacNeil. Harvey was on the prelim relay in Paris after setting a 100 free PB of 53.71 at the Olympic Trials, but her 54.15 split in the prelims left her off the finals squad.

The women’s 4×200 free relay is a bit of a different story with Oleksiak and Ruck straying away from the 200 free in recent years. Last year’s 4th-place team featured Harvey, Jansen, McIntosh and Julie Brousseau, and Brousseau isn’t entered this week. That opening presents an opportunity for the likes of Emma O’Croinin, Brooklyn Douthwright and Sienna Angove to grab that fourth spot. Whether or not they can still be in the medal hunt, however, remains a big question.

On the men’s side, the 4×100 free relay will lose Javier Acevedo, who has only entered the 50 back in Victoria, but will be fine with Ruslan Gaziev returning from suspension and six others entered with 49-point times, including Laon Kim, to join the established three of Liendo, Yuri Kisil and Finlay Knox.

The Canadians are weak in the men’s 4×200 free relay, and will lose veteran Jeremy Bagshaw from last year’s Olympic squad. Patrick Hussey, Alex Axon and Lorne Wigginton return for the relay, and Gaziev, Knox, Kim and Ekk could also earn a top-four spot.

The men’s medley relay of Tierney, Knox, Kharun and Liendo remains intact this year, while the Olympic mixed medley relay last year used MacNeil on free, so they’ll have to shift some things around there, though replacing her with McIntosh or Oleksiak would be an easy switch.

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