By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
The 2021 Canadian Olympic Trials will in fact take place in Toronto, Swimming Canada confirmed on Thursday.
The meet has been pushed back on two separate occasions, with an announcement coming in late April that it would be postponed from May 24-28 to June 19-23, due in part to a stay-at-home order implemented in Ontario last month.
When announcing that the meet would be held in June, due to the restrictions in Ontario, Swimming Canada had also started exploring potential replacement locations, including Montreal and Winnipeg.
Now, after “reviewing multiple options and scenarios,” Swimming Canada confirms the meet will remain at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC), June 19-23.
“The organization has explored several options, including holding the Trials elsewhere in North America,” said Swimming Canada CEO Ahmed El-Awadi.
“Each scenario comes with its own positive and negative factors, but we believe holding Olympic Trials in Canada, at our premier pool in the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, is the best option.”
Top Canadian swimmers based in Ontario got their first chance to compete amongst one another for the first time in a long time at a High Performance Time Trial on May 7-8, which was also held at TPASC.
“We have confirmation from Toronto Public Health that the event can proceed under the High Performance Exemption implemented by the Government of Ontario,” added El-Awadi. “We are working with our partners at the City of Toronto and Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre to ensure this will be a safe event that gives us the opportunity to select the best team to represent Canada.”
In December it was announced that the plan for the previously scheduled April trials would be timed finals only. Now, Swimming Canada says the objective is to have prelims and finals for 50, 100 and 200-meter races, and timed finals for the 400s and up.
Swimming Canada also announced that the swimmers who qualify for the Olympics will have a training camp at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver prior to flying to Tokyo.
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