Breaststroke has long been a weakness for the Canadian women, but over the past few months a number of athletes have thrown their hats in the ring in the lead up to the Paris Olympics.
The latest on that list is Kelsey Wog, who just hit a Canadian Record in the 100-meter (short course) breaststroke. Competing at the Prairie Winter Invitational on December 8, the 25-year-old clocked 1:04.22 to clip the old record, held by Annamay Pierse, by just six hundredths of a second. That record had stood since 2009.
Her coach, Vlastik Cerny said of the swim:
“It was on her mind for sure. I thought she would really have to swim the first 50 relaxed so she could finish it off. I’m pleased for her. She wanted to go after [the national record] after Pan Am Games and I said to her, let’s do it. The biggest thing was she verbalized that she wanted to do it. Any time she verbalizes that she wants to do something, I believe in her.”
Wog opened in 30.56 and home in 33.66. She improved on both 50s compared to her prelims swim (1:04.92), closing almost half a second faster (33.66 to 34.15).
Wog’s previous best was set during the 2020 ISL Season, where she competed for the Toronto Titans (1:04.79). She’ll chase down the 200 breaststroke record later this meet which stands at 2:16.83, also set by Pierse in 2009. Wog has momentum behind her as she set her best time just under a month ago (2:17.00). Previously, her fastest performance was 2:17.13, also set in 2020 during the ISL season.
Before November of this year, Wog hadn’t set a best time in breaststroke since November 2020. Her best long course times were both set in February 2020 at the U Sports Swimming Championship, where she punched 1:06.44 in the 100 breast and 2:22.42 in the 200 breast. If she can translate those improvements to the big pool, Wog will be in a prime position to vie for her second Olympic appearance.
At the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Sophie Angus split 1:06.21 to help lift Canada’s 400 medley relay to a bronze medal. Then at Junior Worlds, 17-year-old Alexanne Lepage swept the breaststroke events, clocking 1:06.58 in the 100 and a Canadian girls’ 15-17 national age group of 2:24.70 in the 200. Finally, at the Pan American Games, the Canadian women were dominant across the breaststroke events, with Rachel Nicol and Angus going 1-2 in the 100 and Sydney Pickrem and Wog doing the same in the 200.
Awesome for her especially as she is likely in the back half of her career. She was on fire winter 2020 with those exceptional in season LC times, would have been very interesting to see what she could have done in an alternate universe non-covid Olympics.
Great to have real depth in the breast position in Canada with her, Angus, Nicol, and now LePage all likely vying for the 2 100 slots! Canada could have a really fresh (at least as fresh as you could be on day 9 of the meet) with lineups something like the below:
Prelims
back Willm
breast one of the above
fly Savard
free Ruck
Finals
back Masse
… Read more »
Congrats Kelsey 🏊🏻♀️🇨🇦🏅. 🎩Vlastik for helping her get there.
Wow! Congratulations!