Seven swimmers have been provisionally nominated for Canada’s 2021 Paralympic team, Swimming Canada announced Tuesday.
The nominations come after the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials were postponed for a second time in late April, this time back to June, leading the Paralympic Trials – which are normally contested at the same event as the Olympic Trials – to be cancelled. This was due to the new Trials dates (June 19-23) conflicting with the World Para Swimming event in Berlin.
The newly named seven athletes join eight swimmers who were nominated in 2019 after meeting the Priority 1 standard of the original criteria as WPS Championships medalists.
Swimming Canada’s Para Swimming Selection Committee came together and decided to name seven swimmers to provide certainty for the athletes.
The swimmers named to the team were all finalists for Canada at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London.
Newly Nominated Swimmers (7):
- Camille Bérubé (Gatineau, Que.)
- Morgan Bird (Calgary)
- Danielle Dorris (Moncton, N.B.)
- Sabrina Duchesne (St-Augustin, Que.)
- Nikita Ens (Meadow Lake, Sask.)
- Abi Tripp (Kingston, Ont.)
- Zach Zona (Waterford, Ont.)
Previously Nominated Swimmers (8):
- Aurelie Rivard
- Tess Routliffe
- Katarina Roxon
- Shelby Newkirk
- Aly Van Wyck-Smart
- Nicolas-Guy Turbide
- James Leroux
- Alec Elliot
“It is my great privilege to announce the nomination of these seven young men and women to our team for Tokyo from our Selection Committee,” said Associate High Performance Director and Para Swimming National Coach Wayne Lomas.
“In a testament to their most recent international performances, as well as the ongoing commitment, dedication, patience and professionalism in the most trying of times that each of these swimmers and their coaches have demonstrated, nominating the swimmers to the 2020 Paralympic Games Team is a critical piece of certainty in a very uncertain time.”
Per International Paralympic Committee (IPC) rules, there remains two male and two female slots open for Canada’s Paralympic swimming team in 2021.
Swimming Canada plans to fill the remaining four spots by inviting eligible swimmers to demonstrate competitive readiness via submission of training logs and data as well as a video-recorded time trial performance.
