Rio is only 50 metres away

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This article was published 04/04/2016 (3847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the brink of her race to make Rio, Chantal Van Landeghem doesn’t often think about how her first Olympic bid ended.

It’s not that it’s hard to think about. It’s just that so much has changed from 2012, when Van Landeghem’s dream evaporated in a flicker at the 2012 Canadian Olympic swim trials. At that meet, she touched the wall in the 50m freestyle just .01 seconds behind the qualifying time for London.

At the time, she was only 18 years old, and had come oh-so-close — and then she had to just let it go.

“It was tough,” Van Landeghem said on Monday, over the phone from Toronto. “Ultimately, I think I learned from it. It made me a stronger competitor, and it made me a stronger person. I’m a completely different swimmer and person than I was four years ago.”

Now, as the 2016 Canadian Olympic swim trials plunge into action, Van Landeghem is counting on those changes to put her over the top. 

She’s in a prime spot. Now 22, Van Landeghem is hot off a record-setting 2015 season. In July, she blazed to 53.83 finish at the Pan Am Games, capturing a gold medal and setting a new Pan Am and Canadian record.

The next month, she finished fifth overall in the 50m free at the FINA World Championships, her best showing at the event. She beat her own time twice at that meet, setting two Canadian event records.

Looking back now, the Pan Am Games were “special,” Van Landeghem said. It was the first time she can remember hearing the crowd roaring while she was in the water, and she knew they were cheering for her. But there was something about the worlds in Kazan, Russia that left her on cloud nine.

“Worlds was really great for me,” she said. “That was just a really rewarding race for me. Even though I was only less than 0.1 off a medal, I came out of the pool with the biggest smile on my face. It was amazing to see my hard work pay off.”

All of those milestones were leading up to this moment. Coming into the trials at Pan Am Sports Centre — the same pool where she trains, and set that Pan Am record — Van Landeghem is a favourite. She is the top-ranked Canadian in the 50m free in the 2016 season, and second in the 100m length — and if she can perform up to her own standard, she has an awfully good chance of wearing the Maple Leaf in Rio.

“I’m going in feeling confident,” she said. “You have to be confident. You can’t go in questioning your worth… On the flipside, it’s not who is the fastest is going to make the team. It’s who performs the fastest that day. Even though I’ve had these great performances in the past, they don’t mean anything unless I step up and swim.”

Most of all, she has gone all-in on this Olympic shot. Though she usually competes with the University of Georgia, she opted to redshirt this season and pack up for Toronto, where she trains full-time with coach Ben Titley at Ontario’s High Performance Centre.

“I always knew for an Olympic year, I would want to redshirt and come train in Canada, and not have the extra stress of school to worry about,” she said. “This year’s been great. I’ve been able to focus on swimming, on recovery and things like nutrition.”

Now, she just has to keep herself settled. Van Landeghem’s races aren’t scheduled until Saturday and Sunday, while many of her close friends fight for their own Olympic berth in different races. If there’s one thing she learned in 2012, it’s not to get too caught up in it… though it’s hard to avoid.

“Four years ago, I cried on the first night because two of my friends made the team,” she said. “It’s a challenge not to get too invested into meets like these, especially when you want your friends to do well. So I think I’m not going to go to any of the final sessions, and that will calm me a bit more.”

Well, mostly. “I’ll still be watching and cheering on the live webcast,” she added. “I’ll still get excited. You can’t help it.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca