2024 Quebec Cup
- February 15-18, 2024
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Long Course Meters (50m), Prelims/Finals
- Results on SplashMe App: “Coupe du Quebec junior et senior 2024”
While many of Canada’s top swimmers are off racing at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Mary-Sophie Harvey stayed closer to home to race at the 2024 Quebec Cup, where she has already posted lifetime bests in three events through the first two days of competition.
In the first final of the meet, Harvey swam 1:57.26 in the 200 free. That undercuts her best times of 1:57.70, which she did twice within a week in late 2023: once at the Quebec Senior Cup in November and again at the US Open in December.
Harvey, 24, showed big potential at a young age in the 200 free, swimming 1:57.81 in 2017 when she was only 17 years old. She stalled out there, though, shifting her focus to other events, and didn’t go a best time for more than six years.
But last year, her journey in the 200 free jump-started again with three new lifetime bests, and she really accelerated that this weekend in Montreal.
Improvement Curve:
| April 2017 | November 2023 | December 2023 | New PB | |
| 1st 50 | 28.4 | 27.89 | 28.00 | — |
| 2nd 50 | 29.81 (58.21) | 30.00 (57.89) | 30.02 (58.02) | 57.69 |
| 3rd 50 | 29.83 | 30.62 | 30.38 | — |
| 4th 50 | 29.77 (59.60) | 29.19 (59.81) | 29.30 (59.68) | 59.57 |
| Final Time | 1:57.81 | 1:57.70 | 1:57.70 | 1:57.26 |
Harvey has continued to push forward in this event by being aggressive early in the race. She is now opening over half-a-second faster in her first 50 than she did when she was 17.
The Canadian women finished 6th at the World Championships earlier this week in Doha, and Harvey’s flat-start time is faster than anybody swam on that relay (including rolling starts) there. They were 5th at last year’s World Championships, and her 1:57.26 is faster than anybody (including her own 1:58.50 leadoff) from that meet.
She was the Pan American Games champion in the 200 free last year.
Harvey now ties as the 9th-best Canadian in the history of the event, matching the 1:57.26 done by Emily Overhold in 2019.
That wasn’t Harvey’s only best time at the meet. She time-trialed a best time in the 50 fly in 27.28 and swam two best times in the 100 fly with a 58.66 in prelims and 58.12 in finals.
Her previous best time in the 50 fly was 27.62 from April 2015 and her previous best time in the 100 fly was 59.45 from November 2022, about 1.3 seconds slower.
She’s now the 7th-fastest Canadian ever in the history of the 100 fly.
Harvey also won the 100 free in 54.93, just-shy of her best time.
Harvey has remaining entries in the 200 IM and 400 free for Saturday.
Mid
-way through the season, so it’s impressive that she dropped a 0.5 sec PB in one of her best events? I agree!!
She’s very good in the 200 IM, but that’s a loaded event. She’s good enough to be Olympic finalist along with Pickrem.
Crucial part of Canada’s relays. It looks like the Dutch have climbed back into medal contention.
I always have liked her rhyming name. Kind of unique.
Yes. The schedule makes it feasible for Summer M to swim the 200 IM in paris unlike the 2023 worlds that made it difficult. And recent best swims by Pickrem would seem to make likely to be very difficult for M-S Harvey to qualify for Paris in this event. It seems she would have to knock over a second off her best to challenge Pickrem. But the swim trials can sometimes produce upsets. And who knows , according to some speculation, Summer could decide to swim the 800 fr instead given her recent time making her the second fastest in history.
Regarding your last point, I hope not. Swimming a 800m freestyle on top of all her other events would be physically exhausting, I don’t care if it’s on the last day of competition. Plus her chance of gold is way less.
agree with you. I’m rather pessimistic that she would choose the 800 fr over the 200im. She has a busy program already. She hasn’t swum the event internationally and in fact has rarely in competition at all. I think she has a much better shot at gold in the 200 IM than the 800. She had the fastest time in the world last year. It will be interesting to see what time she does at the trials. And the 200 im is where she does have fairly string competition in canada – pickrem and Harvey.
Awesome! Smart of her to stay focused on the 200 free. She’s so versatile but doesn’t have individual events where she’s clearly in the top 2 to make the team.
Well it depends. in the 200 fr she could well be #2 in Canada if she can maintain a low 1.57. Unless Penny O or Taylor Ruck have a return to something close to their previous form. At this point, while not impossible, there is certainly no evidence to point to such a turn around. Penny O hasn’t swum a competitive race in over 18 months & Rucks recent times in the 200 have not been near 1:57 range.
I just looked up the FINA A time for Paris and it looks like Mary hit it exactly! So if she can repeat or better at Trials, she’s got a good shot of an individual berth. But relay for sure, I think.
Although if we are going to have any hope of a medal in the 4×2 we need at least a couple of swimmers in the low 1:56s + summer doing her usual 1:54. In 2023 worlds Chana got Bronze in 7:44,4. That’s an average of 1:56. So some work to be done.