A roster of 26 swimmers will represent the Canadian team at the 2025 World Junior Swimming Championships, with Swimming Canada announcing its National Development Team on Wednesday.
The roster, which features 11 boys and 15 girls, will head to the World Juniors in two months, with the biennial event scheduled for August 19-24 in Otopeni, Romania.
“I’m very pleased with the level of performance we saw from our junior swimmers last week in Victoria,” said National Development Coach Ken McKinnon.
Headlining the Canadian team are Ella Cosgrove, Madison Kryger and Oliver Dawson, all of whom also qualified for Canada’s World Championship team, which will compete in Singapore from July 17-23.
“These two achievements show both depth and excellence at the world junior level. I would like to recognize the great work accomplished by our Canadian coaches in achieving this level of performance,” McKinnon said. “The future is bright.”
The team was selected at the Canadian Swimming Trials earlier this month, using qualification standards based on the average 16th-place prelim time from the past three World Junior Championships. Swimming Canada said 61 eligible swimmers achieved that standard in Victoria.
Cosgrove, Kryger and Dawson are among 13 roster members who also represented Canada at the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, with the others being Kamila Blanchard, Matea Gigovic, Shima Taghavi, Leah Tigert and Clare Watson for the girls, and Francis Brennan, Parker Deshayes, Simon Fonseca, Laon Kim and Aiden Kirk for the boys.
At Junior Pan Pacs, Kim won individual silver in the boys’ 100 free, while Dawson (boys’ 100 breast), Cosgrove (girls’ 800 free) and Kryger (girls’ 100 back) were all individual bronze medalists.
WORLD JUNIOR ROSTER
Girls
| Name | Club | Personal Coach |
| Molly Barber | Swim Ottawa | Rick Burton |
| Maya Bezanson | Toronto Swim Club | Bill O’Toole |
| Kamila Blanchard | Pointe-Claire Swim Club | Brad Dingey |
| Maxine Clark | U of Calgary SC | Carl Simonson |
| Ella Cosgrove | Rick Laing | |
| Ranumi Eashwarage | U of Calgary SC | Carl Simonson |
| Julia Ebli | Toronto Swim Club | Bill O’Toole |
| Matea Gigovic | Killarney Swim Club | Mike Meldrum |
|
Chris Webb / Brent Arckey
|
||
| Madison Kryger | HPC-O / Brock Niagara Aq | Rob Novak |
| Abigail McLeod | Winskill Dolphins | Judy Baker |
| Sienna Rodgers | U of Calgary SC | Carl Simonson |
| Shima Taghavi | HYACK Swim Club |
Andrew Lennstrom
|
| Leah Tigert | Toronto Swim Club | Bill O’Toole |
| Clare Watson | Abi Liu |
Boys
| Name | Club | Personal Coach |
| Francis Brennan | HPC-Ontario | Rob Novak |
| Benjamin Cescon | CREST Swimming | Fred Arzaga |
| Noah Chang | Rocket Swim Club | Ivan Vorona |
| Oliver Dawson | Grand Prairie Piranhas | Alex Dawson |
| Parker Deshayes | Cascade Swim Club | Dave Johnson |
| Owen Ekk |
John Ambor-Maul
|
|
| Simon Fonseca | CAMO | Claude St-Jean |
| Jaques Harrison | CREST Swimming | Fred Arzaga |
| Laon Kim | U of Calgary SC | Carl Simonson |
| Aiden Kirk | Kelowna Aquajets | Marc Tremblay |
| Anton Semenyuk | Natation Gatineau | Liam Desjarlais |
The team will be led by former Etobicoke coach and current HPC – Ontario assistant Rob Novak, who also led the girls’ team at the 2024 Junior Pan Pacs.
“I’m looking forward to watching our best juniors race against the world this summer in the first international junior meet of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic quadrennial,” McKinnon said.
TEAM STAFF
| Role | Name |
| Team Leader – Chef d’Équipe | Ken McKinnon |
| Team Manager – Gérant d’Équipe | Erin Alizadeh |
| Team Manager – Gérant d’Équipe |
Colleen Marchese
|
| Head Coach – Entraîneur-chef | Rob Novak |
| Coach – Entraîneur | Fred Arzaga |
| Coach – Entraîneur | Judy Baker |
| Coach – Entraîneur | Alex Dawson |
| Coach – Entraîneur | Dave Johnson |
| Coach – Entraîneur | Bill O’Toole |
| Coach – Entraîneur | Carl Simonson |
| Team Doctor – Médecin de l’Équipe | Rich Trenholm |
| Massage Therapist – Massothérapeute | Brian Beckwith |
| Massage Therapist – Massothérapeute |
Jeanette Dobmeier
|
| Race Analysis – Analyse de Course | Meena Sharif |
At the last edition of the World Junior Championships in 2023, Canada finished 3rd on the medal table with two gold and 13 total medals, with victories coming from Alexanne Lepage in the girls’ 100 and 200 breast.
so swimmers can compete at both WCs and WJs?
World Aquatics has no rule preventing it. It’s up to each national federation if they want to allow it or not (most allow it).
Which I like. I get the matter of “focus on the highest profile meet,” but I still am a sucker for the magic of a championship and love the idea of having all of the best juniors at one meet.
Hopeless romance, I suppose.
I assume USA swimming has it clearly spelled out that you can’t do both? Do we know why that is? I agree with you, I would love to see juniors also compete at World Jrs (for example, Mijatovic).
USA Swimming follows World Aquatics rules, which have recently changed and are more lenient on changes for juniors.
More here: https://swimswam.com/world-aquatics-reduces-sporting-citizenship-swaps-to-1-year-waiting-softens-rules-for-juniors
Look at the relay WJR. Penny and Taylor swam relays at 2017 world jrs when they both had already won Olympic medals.
What’s up with Reina Liu? Who has a TAC connection? She killed it last year at Canadian Trials and just competed at a TAC meet but didn’t come to Trials. She would have made the WJ team for sure.
Judging by the name, this person is probably of Chinese descent.
And your point, eric?
Are you in favour of all swimmers swimming for where their family might have descended from??The USA,Canada,Australian,New Zealand,South African teams etc. would look radically different.
Although my country is an immigrant nation, I still perceive Asians as foreigners, even if they hold my country’s citizenship.
What does that have to do with literally anything?
On Swim Rankings her “club (nationality)” is listed as the USA, so she’s not able to compete for Canada at this time.
Even though she competed for Canada at Jr Pan Pacs last summer? Maybe there was some kind of paperwork snafu.
Cool. Unlike most Canadian pro swimmers, it appears that almost all of the swimmers listed here actually live and train in their home country.
Hmmmm, looks like a lot on that list are already NCAA bound, or committed…
I think Ella Cosgrove lives/trains in USA.
Yeah, because they’re children.
“almost all” lol. can’t ethan ekk make a US junior national team?
Yes I don’t believe he’s done anything to lock him into Canada yet.