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Close to a year after thrilling the country by racking up six medals at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics and another eight at the Paralympics, Canada’s swimmers return to the pool this week for their first major events since those Games. The world championships start Saturday in Hungary, while the Para world championships got underground yesterday in Portugal.
Canada wasted no time piling up the podiums in Portugal, winning six medals on Day 1. The highlights of Sunday’s haul were gold medals by Shelby Newkirk (in the women’s 100m backstroke S6 category) and Aurélie Rivard (in the women’s 50m freestyle S10). This was Rivard’s third consecutive world title in this event, and it raised the 26-year-old’s career world championship medal total to 15, including five gold. For Newkirk, it was the first world title of the 25-year-old’s career.
The other Canadian medalists on Day 1 were 18-year-old Nicholas Bennett (silver in the men’s 200m freestyle S14); James Leroux (bronze in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB9); and Tess Routliffe and Camille Bérubé, who took silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7. Canada did not add any medals today, although Newkirk broke the Canadian record in the women’s 100m freestyle S6 as she finished fourth. Read more about the Canadian medal winners from Day 1 and watch highlights here. Competition runs through Saturday. You can watch live races each day starting at noon ET on the CBC Sports app, CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
As the Para swimming worlds are coming to a close Saturday in Portugal, the world aquatics championships will be just getting started in Budapest. Swimming, the marquee sport at the 16-day meet, begins that day and runs through the following Saturday. Same for artistic (formerly known as synchronized) swimming. Water polo gets going next Monday, with a Canadian team in both the women’s and men’s tournaments. Open-water swimming and diving both begin on June 26, with the latter running right through to the July 3 conclusion of the worlds.
All of these sports will be streamed live daily on the CBC Sports app, CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, plus weekend coverage on the CBC TV network. We’ll have plenty more about the aquatics world championships in this newsletter over the next few weeks, including a swimming preview later this week.
