Athletes drove the choice of Toronto for swim trials, says Swimming Canada chief
Athletes in favour of Toronto as a Plan B for the Olympic and Paralympic swim trials drove the decision to relocate there from Montreal, says the head of Swimming Canada.
Toronto’s Pan Am Sports Centre was built for the 2015 Pan American/Parapan American Games and was the site of Olympic and Paralympic trials in 2016 and 2021.
A tried and tested venue gave the athletes a sense of comfort amid the upheaval of trying to find an alternate location for the May 13-19 trials that will determine who goes to Paris this summer.
“The voice of the athletes from the beginning was about performance,” Swimming Canada interim chief executive officer Suzanne Paulins said Tuesday in a conference call with media. “It was about coming to a pool that would give them that performance advantage, that edge, and Toronto’s Pan Am pool was that choice.”