Bella Sims Joins Strong Domestic Field At 2026 Speedo Canadian Open

2026 SPEEDO CANADIAN OPEN

• April 9-11, 2026
• Edmonton, Alberta
• Edmonton Kinsmen Sports Centre
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results

Eleven members of Canada’s 2025 World Championship roster headline next week’s Speedo Canadian Open, with American Olympian Bella Sims also scheduled to kick off the long course season in Edmonton.

WOMEN’S PREVIEW

Sims, coming off a strong performance at the Women’s NCAA Championships that included winning the national title in the 400 IM, is entered in the women’s 100 free, 200 free and 200 IM, perhaps giving an indication of where her focus will lie this summer.

The 20-year-old holds the top seed in the 200 free and 200 IM, and she ranks 3rd in the 100 free, with HPC – Vancouver’s Taylor Ruck and Brooklyn Douthwright seeded 1-2.

Ruck and Douthwright will be joined by fellow 2025 Canadian World Championship team members on the women’s side in Sophie Angus, Ella Jansen, Alexanne Lepage and Ingrid Wilm.

In addition to the 100 free, Ruck also owns the top seed in the 50 free and 100 back, to go along with entries in the 50 and 100 fly.

Jansen, who, like Sims, recently competed at the Women’s NCAA Championships, is entered in six events, including owning the top seed in the 100 fly and ranking 2nd to Sims in both the 200 free and 200 IM.

Jansen is coming off setting best times in the 200 free, 500 free and 400 IM at NCAAs, earning top-eight finishes in all three of her individual events.

University of Calgary’s Lepage and HPC – Ontario’s Angus headline the breaststroke events, with Lepage fresh off setting a pair of national records in the SCM 50 and 100 breast at the U SPORTS Championships in mid-March.

Wilm holds the top seed in the 50 and 200 back, ranks 2nd to Ruck in the 100 back, and is also entered to contest the 100 free and 50 fly.

MEN’S PREVIEW

The men’s field features five 2025 World Championship team members, including 2024 world champion Finlay Knox and Blake Tierney, who was 4th in the 200 back last summer in Singapore.

Knox is entered in five events, including owning the top seed in the 200 IM, the event in which he won the 2024 world title and is the national record holder, and he also ranks 2nd in the 50 and 100 fly and holds entries in the 100 free and 200 free.

Tierney headlines the men’s backstroke events, where fellow World Championship team member Cole Pratt will also be in the mix, and two-time Olympian Javier Acevedo will feature in the 50.

Tierney set new Canadian Records in the 100 back (52.95) and 200 back (1:55.03) at the 2025 World Championships, while Pratt raced the 100 back in Singapore and Acevedo currently owns the national record in the 50 back (24.90).

Acevedo, 28, is entered in the 50 and 100 free to go along with the 50 back, while Tierney and Pratt will swim the same five events, adding the 100 and 200 free to their lineups to go along with all three backstrokes.

Oliver Dawson, who set a new Canadian 15-17 NAG record en route to placing 11th at the 2025 Worlds in the 200 breast (2:10.32), owns the top seed in all three breaststroke events next week, with his biggest challenger likely being 2024 Olympian Apollo Hess, who’s seeded 2nd in the 100 and 200 breast and ranks 3rd in the 50.

The other Canadian 2025 World Championship team member in the field will be Antoine Sauve, the national record holder in the 200 free, who is coming off his freshman year at the University of Michigan.

Sauve is the lone Canadian Michigan team member racing in Edmonton, where he’ll be joined by Sims, Inbar Danziger and Ole Eidam.

Sauve has entered six events, including owning the top seed in the 100 and 200 free, while Eidam, a German native who also raced at NCAAs for the Wolverines, is seeded 1st in the 50 and 100 fly and also ranks 2nd in the 50 and 100 free.

Danziger, an Israeli native, will race the three backstroke events, seeded 2nd in the 200, 3rd in the 100 and 6th in the 50. He didn’t qualify for NCAAs, but placed 10th in the 200 back and 17th in the 100 back at Big Tens in February.

Joining Danzier at the meet will be his Israeli countryman Daniel Krichevsky, who represented Auburn at NCAAs last week and placed 20th in the 200 free. Krichevsky, who was notably 30th in the 100 free at the 2025 World Championships, will go head-to-head with Sauve and Eidam in the 100 and 200 free.

Two other key names to keep an eye on will be Canadian veteran Yuri Kisil, a three-time Olympian who was right on his SCM best times en route to winning the 50 and 100 free U SPORTS titles in February, and Laon Kim, the up-and-coming age group phenom and Texas commit who was 10th at last year’s World Junior Championships in the 100 free.