I should mention that Lindsay Seemann of Newmarket swam last night in the 200m Backstroke heats but did not qualify for the semi-final. Lindsay just finished Grade 10 at Newmarket High School, where Connor has also just completed Grade 9.
Lindsay's story is a remarkable one. Only 15 years old, and the youngest member of Canada's Olympic team, she swims for the Newmarket Stingrays, a very competitive club that has seen many of its members head off to the US on swimming scholarships in recent years.
At the beginning of the year, the Stingray team members are asked to list their goals for the year. Lindsay simply wrote 2:12.72 on a sheet of paper, which happens to be the Olympic qualifying time for the 200m backstroke. Pretty focused, and ambitious, given that her personal best at the time was over 2:15.
At the Canadian trials in Montreal in April, Lindsay swam 2:14 in the heats, and then dominated the final, tossing off a 2:12.06, winning the race and qualifying for the Olympics.
The world record for this event is less than 2:07, and is likely to be reduced even further given the rate at which swimming records have been falling here in Beijing. So it would have been a stretch for her to make the semi-final (she would have needed something around 2:10).
Still, she sounds like an amazing young lady, with a very bright future. We should all watch for her in London in 2012.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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2 comments:
Sean... I'd like to report a "comms" problem at 11:20 pm EST - yesterday..... were you working? I was watching CBC (one of the mens 100m races) .... about 10 seconds of audio issues.... got fixed... good job if that was you.
Ha! Yes, I was working, but for NBC. The CBC is up on the third floor here, I haven't even been over to see how they are doing (I don't have a contact there to make an excuse to go visit).
I did get inivted over to TV France across the hall to help explain a feature of the intercom that was confusing them.
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