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Three-time Olympian speaks to swim club

Meeting started with joga session (yoga for jocks)
mvt Brent Hayden Zoom
Three-time Olympian Brent Hayden speaks to members of the Old Rapids Swim Club via Zoom. Submitted photo

OLDS — Members of the Olds Rapids Swim Club got a big surprise when three-time Olympian Brent Hayden, a bronze medallist in the 2012 London Olympics, joined a Zoom meeting to speak to them.

Eight-year-old Adora Johnson was one of the swimmers on the call, held on June 16.

She was pretty impressed.

Hayden, who has since retired from the sport, specialized in freestyle, just like Johnson.

In an interview, Johnson said freestyle is her favourite stroke.

“It’s the easiest stroke for me and I’m faster doing it,” she said.

Hayden had some advice for swimmers.

“He said when we’re doing freestyle and backstroke just to keep your arms up because a couple of swimmers he knows go a little bit sloppy like I do sometimes when I get tired,” she said.

Johnson said when she gets older she wants to swim in the Summer Olympics too.

“The reason I want to be a swimmer is because I love to be in the water and I just feel like when I’m in the water, I can do anything,” she said.

Adora’s mom, Tamara Johnson, said Hayden pointed out it wasn’t an easy, smooth road to the Olympics for him.

“He didn’t succeed on the first try, right? He had to keep trying,” she said.

Tamara said things crystalized for Hayden after he made the move from a summer swim club to a year-round club somewhere between 13 and 15 years of age. 

“Once he transitioned, that’s when it was like, this big ‘aha’ moment for him, that he could really push himself and to go farther,” Tamara said.

“He was a real phenomenal speaker, he really connected with the kids. It was really interesting.”

Adora said not all aspects of swimming are easy for her, either. For example, she finds the butterfly stroke pretty challenging.

“I think it’s just hard to get your arms up because you also have to kick your legs at the same time,” she said, but “I’m getting better.”

Rapids head coach Cecilia Wessels was impressed with Hayden as well.

“He is such a kind, welcoming person,” Wessels wrote in an email. “We even met his dog Chewbucka.”

She added that Hayden told the group how much he missed “his swim family” and that they could reach out to him via Instagram any time.

Before Hayden spoke, the swimmers participated in a joga, which is loosely defined as yoga for jocks.

The session was led by joga coach Susan Benoit, a former swimmer and Nose Creek Swim Association coach who specializes in strength and conditioning.

Adora said the joga class “started out easy but then it got a little bit harder. So like, it got harder once we got into it more.”

She said the squats and pushups were pretty easy but the lunges were harder.

Overall, however, Adora thought it was “really fun.”

Wessels said the joga session was part of the club’s dryland training as the Rapids get ready for a July 13, the target date for the Olds Aquatic Centre to reopen after the pandemic lockdown.

“Swim Alberta is recommending our swimmers to return to in-person training by starting with dryland training to build up their aerobic base prior to returning to in water training.”

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