Latest news with #JoshLiendo
Global News
07-08-2025
- Sport
- Global News
Concerns raised over Canada's aging aquatic facilities
Competitive swimming clubs are raising the alarm that communities across Canada are dealing with aging aquatic facilities and as a result, the chance for Canadians to reach elite swimming levels is diminishing. 'What happens after every Olympic and Paralympic Games is we have so many boys and girls who want to be the next Summer McIntosh or the next Josh Liendo,' Jocelyn Jay with Swimming Canada told Global News. According to the organization that governs competitive swimming in Canada, there are 5,060 publicly-owned pools as of 2020. More than half are near the end of their life. 'I think what's scary is down the road, based on the influx of interest, based on the success of our high-performance programs, we're not going to have the pools and the lane space to be able to manage the numbers that are interested,' Jay added. Story continues below advertisement 1:34 Olympic-length pool not feasible for a new Vancouver Aquatic Centre staff say The Vancouver Aquatic Centre's Olympic-length pool will be replaced with a 25-metre pool despite opposition from the swimming community. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'I think swimming in general will decline,' Kelly Taitinger with Dolphins Swim Club said. 'If you take a 50-metre pool and you shut it down for three years and you've got Hillcrest, which is the only other 50-metre pool that the city runs, I think the lessons — they say they have 8,000 on the wait list now — it's going to probably double. 'If that's the case in three years you are going to see a decline in people who even learn how to swim.' Swimming Canada said it would like to see a national strategy that would make funding available to municipalities for pools and recreation centres, saying swimming is an important life skill.
Yahoo
03-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Canada earns relay bronze at swimming worlds, McIntosh on pace for 3rd gold
Canada captured bronze in the mixed 4x100-metre medley relay Wednesday at the world swimming championship, its fifth medal of the meet. The team of Kylie Masse, of LaSalle, Ont., Oliver Dawson, of Grande Prairie, Alta., Toronto's Josh Liendo and Taylor Ruck, of Kelowna, B.C., finished in three minutes 40.90 seconds, just ahead of the Netherlands. Neutral Athletes B — a team of Russian swimmers competing under a neutral flag — won gold in a meet-record 3:37.97, with China taking silver in 3:39.99. Russia is competing under a neutral banner due to ongoing international sanctions following the country's invasion of Ukraine. WATCH | Canada wins medley relay bronze: Meanwhile, Canadian and Olympic champion Summer McIntosh cruised into the final of the women's 200m butterfly. The 18-year-old Toronto native qualified second in a time of 2:06.22 behind Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers (2:06.13). McIntosh captured gold at the 2024 Olympics, and won world titles in 2022 and 2023. McIntosh has already won gold medals in both the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley events in Singapore. She'll swim for a third butterfly title on Thursday at 7:02 a.m. ET. WATCH | McIntosh advances to 200m buffterfly final: Earlier in the day, Ilya Kharun of Montreal placed fourth in the men's 200 butterfly, finishing in 1:54.34 — just 0.17 seconds off the podium after winning Olympic bronze in Paris. It's an event he earned a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024. American Luca Urlando, a breakout star, won the gold medal in 1:51.87, while Poland's Krzysztof Chmielewski took the silver in 1:52.64. Australian Harrison Turner earned the bronze with a time of 1:54.17. WATCH | Urlando wins 200m butterfly, Kharun 4th: Canadians Ingrid Wilm and Masse both advance to the final of the women's 50m backstroke. Fellow Canadian Tristan Jankovics failed to qualify for the final of the men's 200 IM. Marchand breaks 200IM world record Leon Marchand broke the world record in the 200m IM, clocking 1:52.61 seconds to surpass the 1:54.00 set in 2011 by American Ryan Lochte. The Frenchman set the mark swimming in the semifinals and, in theory, could break it again in Thursday's finals. Marchand won four Olympic gold medals a year ago in Paris, but he's swimming only the 200 and 400 medley — and relays — in Singapore. Planning the lighter schedule in what he calls a "transition year" keeps him fresh to chase the world marks. Marchand didn't just break the 14-year-old record, he shattered it. "What's crazy is that it's a whole second — and it's still hard to believe," he said. "1:52 on the 200 meters — that's insane." Marchand will swim the 400 IM on Sunday, the final day of the world championships. He holds that record of 4:02.50 set in the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan. "Today I felt really good before the race," he said. "In the water, I felt light, I was taking in a lot of water and technically everything felt clean." Asked about swimming a lighter schedule he replied in understatement: "It was probably the right decision." Marchand was about 1.8 seconds under the world record after 150 meters and powered home with the final freestyle leg. Though this race did not yield a world title — that will come on Thursday in the final — it did win Marchand a check for $30,000 US. "In the end I went out hard from the start," he said. "But I stayed super-relaxed. I didn't make many mistakes. I didn't realize I was going that fast but I gave it absolutely everything. Arms at full speed all the way to the wall. At that point I wasn't even thinking about technique anymore." WATCH | Marchand smashes world record: Jaouadi savours 1st world title after depression battle Ahmed Jaouadi said he spent months battling depression following a disappointing end to 2024 but the Tunisian was all smiles after winning the 800m freestyle title in the third-fastest time ever at the world championships in Singapore. Jaouadi had finished third in the event at the Budapest short course world championships last December and the 20-year-old was so disheartened by the result he did not return to training until March. However, his performance at the Singapore Sports Hub proved he had no reason to doubt himself. Jaouadi reached the wall in seven minutes, 36.88 seconds, a time that sits behind only China's Zhang Lin (7:32.12) and fellow Tunisian Ous Mellouli (7:35.27) in the all-time list. Both Zhang and Mellouli achieved their marks in 2009 wearing high-tech "supersuits," which are now banned. "Actually it means a lot. It's the third-best time ever," said Jaouadi. "It feels great. Especially this season. I didn't go back to training until March. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this. After Budapest, I got into some kind of depression and I wasn't ready to go back to training at some point. "It makes me really happy. During the last days of training, I was expecting this, and I knew that I'll go fast. But at some point, I didn't have a lot of confidence going through. "My team, my staff, the people around me knew how to control things and helped me through this." Jaouadi made his move after the halfway mark to beat the German pair of Sven Schwarz and Lukas Martens in the final and win his first major title. "I just pushed my head down. I saw that as soon as I started to push down on my arms, I started to go faster than the others, I started to pull away," he added. Jaouadi dedicated his gold medal to compatriot and Tokyo Olympics 400 freestyle champion Ahmed Hafnaoui, who was given a 21-month suspension in April by the Aquatic Sports Integrity Unit for three whereabouts failures. "This one was for Hafnaoui," Jaouadi added. "He's having some hard times now and I'd like to offer it for him." Reporter Devin Heroux will be on site in Singapore speaking to Canadians following their races, and will join every day after finals, with Brittany MacLean Campbell hosting from Toronto. The show will include Canadian highlights, athlete interviews and analysis.
CBC
02-08-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Montreal's Ilya Kharun claims bronze in men's 100m butterfly final at World Aquatics Championships
The 20-year-old Olympian reached the podium with a time of 50.07. Fellow Canadian Josh Liendo finished fourth with a time of 50.09.
CBC
01-08-2025
- Sport
- CBC
What to watch this weekend: McIntosh's drive for 5 and other key races
Today, we'll look ahead to the key races remaining at the swim world championships, including Summer McIntosh's drive for five gold medals and an all-Canadian showdown. Plus, a pair of intriguing Canada-U.S. matchups are on deck at the National Bank Open. McIntosh's path to five, and other key duels at swim worlds It was a quiet day in the pool for Canada at the world championships in Singapore. The weekend, however, could get quite noisy. Friday's top result was a fourth-place finish for Blake Tierney in the 200-metre backstroke — an excellent showing for the 23-year-old, who did not even advance through heats at last summer's Paris Olympics. Tierney also broke the Canadian record, then did it again, in heats and semis on Thursday. Canada may win as many as three solo medals on Saturday at the swimming world championships. And Sunday could be a coronation. Here are the three key duels to watch: Josh Liendo vs. Ilya Kharun in the men's 100 butterfly, Saturday, 7:53 a.m. ET A friendly (of course) Canadian rivalry is budding between Liendo and Kharun, who both won medals in this event at last year's Olympics, with Liendo taking silver and Kharun grabbing bronze. Now, gold medallist Kristof Milak is out of the picture — and the top step of the podium appears up for grabs. For Liendo, even after snagging bronze as part of the 4x100 mixed medley relay team, the entire meet is down to this one event. He failed to advance through the 50 freestyle heats on Friday, then told CBC Sports reporter Devin Heroux that he's "all in" on the 100 fly. The 22-year-old owns the Canadian record at 49.99 seconds from Paris, when he became the first Black Canadian to win an Olympic swimming medal. Kharun's focus entering Singapore was not as solely squared on this event. But after missing the 50 fly final by one one-hundredth of a second, then placing fourth in the 200 fly, all of his eggs are in the 100 fly basket, too. And so both Canadians will be hungry to reach the podium — but it's anyone's guess who will come out on top. Liendo and Kharun have gone directly head-to-head in this event twice this season: Liendo won NCAAs in a short-course pool (Kharun placed second) before Kharun clipped Liendo at national trials with a personal-best 50.37 seconds in an Olympic-sized pool. "I've been chasing Josh every time we race during trials or in college at NCAAs," Kharun said. "It just makes it fun." During Friday's semifinals, they each placed second in their heat. Liendo posted the second-fastest time at 50.24 seconds, and Kharun was close behind in fourth at 50.39. They'll line up next to each other in Lanes 5 and 6 for the medal race. Read more about today's action here. McIntosh vs. Ledecky: Who will touch the wall first in the 800m freestyle final? 4 hours ago The showdown we've all been waiting for is here. Katie Ledecky and Summer Mcintosh will go head-to-head at the World Aquatics Championships at 8:21 a.m. ET Saturday morning on CBC Sports and CBC Gem. Summer McIntosh vs. Katie Ledecky in the women's 800 freestyle, Saturday, 8:21 a.m. ET There is little left to say to tee up this event. It's been dubbed 'The Race of the Century' — a rising superstar in Canada's McIntosh going up against American legend Ledecky in her strongest discipline. History is at stake for both — McIntosh is three-fifths of the way to matching Michael Phelps' record feat of five solo golds at one worlds, while Ledecky is just four wins away from matching Phelps' all-time mark at worlds. McIntosh vs. Ledecky isn't quite a rivalry — they haven't competed against each other in a major final yet — but to use a cross-sport analogy, it reminds me a bit of Patrick Mahomes taking on Tom Brady in the 2021 Super Bowl, the young star being hailed as a future great vs. the GOAT. Brady won that battle, and now he'll always have that notch on his belt. Can Ledecky do the same? On Friday night, both athletes easily advanced through heats, with Ledecky touching in eight minutes 14.62 seconds and McIntosh in 8:19.88. But you can throw those numbers out: "It was a little boring, I'm not going to lie," McIntosh said in her post-race interview. Watch her full heat here. The times you should know: Ledecky set the world record in May at 8:04.79, and McIntosh cracked the Canadian mark in June at 8:05.07. Australia's Lani Pallister, who also set a national record in June at 8:10.84, is expected to set the pace early, providing a strategic wild card for McIntosh whose biggest weakness against Ledecky is experience. Italian record-holder Simona Quadarella could also be in the mix. But all eyes will be on McIntosh vs. Ledecky. Take it from McIntosh herself: "I'm super hyped for the final. The final definitely won't be boring." Check out a numbers-based look at the race here. We broke down the tale of the tape in yesterday's newsletter. And CBC Sports' The Ready Room show also previewed the event here. McIntosh vs. Michael Phelps in the women's 400 individual medley, Sunday, 8:15 a.m. ET OK, so we took some creative liberties in calling this a duel. But if McIntosh is indeed able to take down Ledecky in the 800 freestyle, she will be racing against the American icon Phelps' mark as much as any competitor in the pool during Sunday's 400 IM — the final individual race of the championship. Thanks to McIntosh's quiet competitiveness, it appears unlikely she'll melt under the moment — after all, she won her first three gold medals without much sweat, and barely even smiled after her 200 butterfly victory because her time was not a world record. Plus, the 400 IM is arguably McIntosh's most dominant event. She broke the world record at last year's trials, won Olympic gold by nearly six seconds weeks later, then lowered her standard again in June to 4:23.65. For context, the silver medal-winning time in Paris by American Katie Grimes was nearly 10 seconds slower at 4:33.40. McIntosh has the three fastest times ever in the race, and six of the top 10. Her main competition at worlds is once again Grimes, whose personal best is still well behind McIntosh at 4:31.41. One other factor to watch: disqualifications can be prevalent in this event thanks to tricky turns between strokes. In Paris, American Alex Walsh was knocked off the podium for an illegal turn. Still, in its race preview, top-notch swimming website SwimSwam put it succinctly: "It's not a question of if [McIntosh] wins, but rather by how much." How to watch You can stream live action from the World Aquatics Championships on and CBC Gem, with additional weekend coverage on CBC TV. See the full streaming and broadcast schedules for details. can be found here.
CBC
01-08-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Canada's Josh Liendo advances to finals of men's 100m butterfly
Toronto's Josh Liendo posts the second fastest time of 50.24 in the semifinals of the men's 100m butterfly. Montreal's Ilya Kharun finished fourth and also advanced to the final.
