Swimming Canada has announced multiple dates and venues for the “Canadian Way” hosting strategy for the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games quad.
There are 25 events currently planned, 21 of which are editions of six annually-held domestic events: the Canadian Open, Master Championships, Trials, Short Course National Championships, Open Water Festival, and the Ken Demchuk International Invitational. The Canadian Open and Short Course National Championships are new additions, slated to make their debut in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
”All of the feedback we received went into developing this new ‘Canadian Way’ and it is great to now know where these events will take place,” said High Performance Director John Atkinson, according to a Swimming Canada press release. “We have listened, now we are moving forward with our plans and this is a great announcement. Thanks to all who have worked with us to put Swimming Canada in the best position to succeed at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and beyond.”
The announced event locations span five provinces, with Ontario and Quebec leading the way with seven events each. The Edmonton Kinsmen Sports Centre appears most frequently on the schedule, set to host the first four editions of the Canadian Open.
Dates are subject to change, and four event locations will be announced at a later date. See the table below for the tentative schedule:
| Date | Event | Location |
| Nov. 29 – Dec. 1, 2024 | Ken Demchuk International Invitational | Markham (Ont.) Pan Am Centre |
| April 10-12, 2025 | Canadian Open | Edmonton Kinsmen Sports Centre |
| May 17-19, 2025 | Master Championships | Saskatoon Shaw Centre |
| June 6-12, 2025 | Canadian Swimming Trials | Victoria Saanich Commonwealth Place |
| Aug. 7-10, 2025 | Short Course National Championships | Centre sportif de l’Université de Sherbrooke (Que.) |
| Aug. 12-13, 2025 | Open Water Festival | Montreal Olympic Basin |
| Nov. 28-30, 2025 | Ken Demchuk International Invitational | Markham (Ont.) Pan Am Centre |
| April 9-11, 2026 | Canadian Open | Edmonton Kinsmen Sports Centre |
| May 2026 | Master Championships | Windsor (Ont.) International Aquatic and Training Centre |
| July 5-9, 2026 | Canadian Swimming Trials | Montreal Olympic Pool |
| Aug. 2026 | Short Course National Championships | TBD |
| Aug. 2026 | Open Water Festival | TBD |
| Nov. 2026 | Ken Demchuk International Invitational | Montreal (Laval City) |
| April 8-10, 2027 | Canadian Open | Edmonton Kinsmen Sports Centre |
| May 2027 | Master Championships | TBD |
| June 4-10, 2027 | Canadian Swimming Trials | Victoria Saanich Commonwealth Place |
| Aug. 5-8, 2027 | Short Course National Championships | Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre |
| Aug. 10-11, 2027 | Open Water Festival | Welland (Ont.) International Flatwater Centre |
| Nov. 2027 | Ken Demchuk International Invitational | Montreal (Laval City) |
| April 6-8, 2028 | Canadian Open | Edmonton Kinsmen Sports Centre |
| May 2028 | Master Championships | Etobicoke (Ont.) Olympium |
| June 2-8, 2028 | Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials | Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre |
| Aug. 3-6, 2028 | Short Course National Championships | TBD |
| Aug. 8-9, 2028 | Open Water Festival | Montreal Olympic Basin |
| Nov. 2028 | Ken Demchuk International Invitational | Montreal (Laval City) |
As previously reported, the most impactful change to the calendar is the movement of the Canadian Trials. The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic teams will be selected on May 13-19, but for the next four years the Trials will occur in June. This aligns Swimming Canada with the schedule used by powerhouse nations such as the U.S. and Australia, which select their major international teams on a similar timeline.
This year’s Olympic and Paralympic Trials will be held in Montreal. In 2028, it’ll return to Toronto, which also hosted the 2021 and 2016 editions of the meet.
I’ve read this schedule few times hoping it’s just me being stupid :-(((. Short course in August?! Canadian Open in April when so many elite athletes from Canadian and US universities are about to go through final exams?! Is this a national team development plan or a loyalty test to see who is so dependable on Swimming Canada that they will fly to all those remote old pools?!
Re short course in August, a lot of countries do this off the back of the major long course event that year and get some pretty good results. It’s a chance to race short course tapered and kind of works off the back of your existing long course taper.
Assuming you just come back from a long course championships yes!
In this scenario there’s no more LCM summer championships. What do you taper for then?
Cities run summer programs and camp July-August. Pools are packed everywhere in the country. Most clubs are struggling to keep their membership active during that period (beside their national qualifiers) then you’re asking them to run meets to balance with the new calendar…
I’m not even talking about finding officials and volunteers for those invitational meets.
Ugh
Swimming Canada’s moving backward,
The last nails on the coffin!
What other country got rid of their summer championships for age group swimmers? None.
Without eastern/western and Junior Nationals on the calendar what’s left for the up and comers?
Questionable decisions to say the least.
Choosing Edmonton 4 years in a row for a meet that doesn’t look attractive just a month and a half prior to trials sounds like a lazy decision.
Victoria is the most expensive option where you force to travel 95% of your qualifiers. Without mentioning how complicated it is to find good flights to get to Victoria.
And 2 trips west within 1 month and a half… totally make… Read more »
Are we sure they’re actually getting rid of Easterns/Westerns/Junior Nata? They may just have not included those meets in this plan.
Also, if they had put a lot of meets at the Pan Am pool, you know there would be just as many people on here complaining that Swimming Canada thinks Toronto/Ontario is the centre of the universe and it’s not fair and they need to spread the meets out more. They can’t win.
No more Eastern/Western and CJC. What was presented is there new plan for Canadian swimming for the next quad.
Last I looked Ontarios population is 40 percent of Canada almost double that of Quebec. How many meets does Quebec host versus Ontario. Almost the same number on the schedule.
…and now let’s apply the same approach to compare Toronto and Edmonton. How many people will have to fly to Edmonton from Toronto and how many will have to fly to Toronto from Edmonton for 4 Canadian Open in a row!!!
So over the next 4 years only 2 meets in the Toronto Pan Am pool, one of the fastest pools in the world. This year being the Olympic year, trials go to Montreal???. Doubt there is a coach or swimmer in Canada would have picked Montreal over Toronto given it’s an Olympic year. Curious about how much input the club coaches had in this process. The allocation of meets to facilities looks like SC trying to check a political inclusion mandate. Do credit SC with transparency and forward thinking though.
Anony..you,re absolutely right ,Toronto,s Pan Am pool is far superior to Montreal or Saanich.Toronto being a huge city means access to way better officiating.The last time it was in Saanich ,the missed dq,s were painful to watch.
plus going all the way to Vancouver Island is the most expensive option not to mention massive time spent in travelling (almost 10 hours for swimmers from Newfoundland.The Pan Am pool is one of the fastest in the world and the goal should be to qualify as many swimmers as possible.The pinheads who run Canadian swimming continue to amaze.
Better officiating is a stretch…
Why listen to club coaches when we have JA to tell us everything we don’t know?
Short course nationals in August?? Isn’t that prime long course season?
I remember Winter Nationals being held in February-March timeframe and being short course; we then had Summer Nationals in July which were long course.
Thoughts on the rationale,Brayden or anyone.?
We can ask, but no insights shared yet, and Swimming Canada rarely shares insights.
Brazil does this, though, so it’s not totally unique.
Brazil is in southern hemisphere where it’s winter in August.
Yeah but August is still August in the southern hempishere right?
GB has done it in the past, Australia also do it sometimes
Short course champs in August? Is this correct? Strange
Wish the Yanks would do the same thing. Sure would help w planning.
Ditto for Australia who announced that trials this year will be in Brisbane only 6 months prior. Also there is no programme yet. Who knows what events may double up as it is a 6 day meet. No idea
I don’t know what type of meet they are intending the Canadian Open to be, but Edmonton is not the easiest place to get to if they are hoping for it to have international attendees. Just in terms of people wanting direct flights.
You can fly direct from 24 locations not in Canada, including massive hubs like Denver, Frankfort, Amsterdam, LA, and San Francisco. Combined with Toronto, that means most of the elite swimming world can get there with no more than one connecting flight.
While 52 is not as good as, say, Toronto, where the number is 189, it’s still a pretty good number, and I’m sure there are other factors that motivate them to not just have every meet in Toronto.
I stand corrected! I assumed Calgary would be the main hub out west and most international hubs wouldn’t go to Edmonton too. Sorry, Edmonton, I owe you an apology. I wasn’t really familiar with your game.
🤣🤣🤣
Calgary has more total destinations (93) and international destinations and more big hubs like New York, London, Houston, Dallas, Rome, etc. So definitely bigger of the two. But Edmonton does okay for itself.
A bit surprised that there are no regular direct flights from Texas to Edmonton.
I had Munich-Edmonton-Munich trip two weeks ago, no problem with connections, easy via Denver. Good luck Edmonton, you deserve it