Swimming Canada has announced a partnership with USA Swimming to host its 2025 Open Water National Championships jointly in Sarasota, Florida from April 4-6.
The meet will be a selection event for both countries for the 2025 World Championships in Singapore later that year (July 11-Aug 3).
The event will replace the standalone Canadian Open Water Swimming Championships as part of the country’s ongoing outside-of-the-country initiative for its open water championships. Recently, Canada hosted its 2024 Olympic Trials in the Cayman Islands, where 31 swimmers competed – much bigger than the 18 swimmers who competed when Canada was last in Cayman in 2019.
The race is being held at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida, which also happens to be home to both one of the United States’ best distance training groups (the Sarasota Sharks) and Canada’s top swimmer Summer McIntosh.
Benderson Park is about 600 acres, of which about 400 acres is an artificial lake. The rowing basin in that lake hosted the 2017 World Rowing Championships.
“We are thrilled to announce that in 2025, we will be moving our trials to Florida in collaboration with USA Swimming. Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, with its world-class rowing basin, provides ideal conditions for our athletes to perform at their peak. The opportunity to compete against top American swimmers promises an exciting, high-calibre event with intense competition. Additionally, the inclusion of various distances and age groups offers invaluable experience for our younger swimmers, preparing them for future success,” said Swimming Canada Acting CEO Suzanne Paulins.
The international tour of Canada’s Open Water Championships comes in spite of the country having several domestic venues for open water racing. The 2025 edition of the Open Water Swimming Festival will be held August 16-17 at the Montreal Olympic Basin, and Canada has hosted stops on the World Aquatics Open Water World Cup circuit in the past, including at Lac Megantic.
The problem is the timing, though. Water temperatures in Megantic, for example, don’t usually crack the 18 degrees Celsius threshold for non-wetsuit races until June or July, and Canada wants to have its teams selected earlier than that.
Canada’s lone entry in women’s open water swimming at the Olympics Emma Finlin finished 23rd out of 24 swimmers, roughly 18 minute behind the podium finishers. Canada ultimately had no swimmers participate in the men’s race.
Update: Swimming Canada says that athletes are subject to the USA Swimming entry requirements.
Easy in Canada to forget Open Water is part of the sport with how poorly we’ve performed over the past decade. It’s insane to me Mark Perry, the “National Open Water and Distance Swimming Coach” for the past 7 years, still has a job. I thought 2024 trials would have been the last straw for him after no qualifiers in the 800/1500 on either side, and our lone representative in open water finishing a casual 17 minutes off the podium. Like either replace him, or just cut the position and put the money elsewhere. Almost like Mark has some kind of dirt on John Atkinson or maybe some SNC board members?
Honestly I find it less surprising than Ryan Mallette being kept on at HPC Ontario. SNC leadership being really lax these days with performance outcomes it seems. I guess with Summer, Josh & Ilya sticking around (though training in the US) to carry our medal count through this Olympic cycle they don’t feel urgency to promote great coaches here at home.
In my opinion, a complete reorganization is needed at Swimming Canada. They have so many high-level senior positions for a relatively small competitive swimmers’ group. What do these people do all day? Yes, they organize national camps throughout the year, but these camps are the same year after year. I have always wondered if it would not serve everyone better if these senior staff members would visit the age group coaches and organize training sessions locally. Provide them with tools on how to coach swimmers within their programs. Secondly, they need to reinvent the High-Performance program. The centers should be linked to a university to hold onto high-level swimmers. Canada is losing their swimmers to the US not only because of… Read more »
17 minutes off the podium… I laughed
Genuine question… does open water swimming excite more than a very niche subset of the swimming audience? It would be perhaps analogous to F1 track racking vs the Mille Miglia no? Does it help drive viewership of the sport to a wider audience? Respectful opinions are encouraged.
OW events sell out all over the country. They’re not viewer friendly, but certainly lots of willing participants.
Most of the time the last 100m dash to the finish of the 10k swim is very exciting.
I find it interesting. It is very niche though.
I am not Canadian so can’t comment on the state of affairs with Openwater Swimming in Canada but as an Openwater fan in general I would disagree that it is perceived as a niche sport, to me and many fans worldwide it is no less exciting than any other type of sporting activity when being viewed from the eyes of those that love it. A bit like Orange or Purple hair dye, just cause I don’t love it, doesn’t mean manufacturers shouldn’t produce it.
OW swimming can have a bright future – I believe with drone technology and creative locations the races can become very TV friendly. How many days have I lost sucked into a couch watching a Tour de France stage, not because I am a huge cycling fan, but because of the story, the scenery and the tactics? TV needs events that can keep eyeballs watching the screen for a sustained race/event. OW can deliver that!