Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria, one of the true battlers on the Canadian national swim team, will do double duty this year at the FINA world aquatics championships July 14-30 in Fukuoka, Japan, and Pan American Games from Oct. 20 to Nov. 5 in Santiago, Chile.
The teams for both events were named following the stunning Canadian trials last week in Toronto, highlighted by two world records in the women’s 400-metre freestyle and 400-metre IM set by 16-year-old sensation Summer McIntosh.
Bagshaw has so much going for him out of the water, as well. He is in his third year of medical school at the University of Limerick in Ireland and is fluent in English, French and Mandarin.
He’s not too shabby in the pool, either, and at 31 is showing consistency and staying power. Bagshaw has represented Canada in the Commonwealth Games in 2022 at Birmingham, England, and as a two-time finalist in 2018 at Gold Coast, Australia.
The Island veteran and multiple-time Canadian 400-metre freestyle champion will compete in his fourth FINA world championships in Fukuoka, but has just missed making the Olympic team on three occasions and will be hoping to finally land on the biggest stage next year in Paris.
A graduate of St. Michaels University School and a Pac-12 medallist for the NCAA champion Cal-Berkeley Bears, Bagshaw is a Pan Am Games medallist and hopes to reprise in Santiago his podium appearance from Toronto in 2015.
Also named to the 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games swim team is Keir Ogilvie of Victoria, a graduate of Claremont Secondary who swims for the UBC Thunderbirds, and former University of Victoria Vikes star Danielle Hanus, a multiple medallist in the last Pan Am Games in 2019 at Lima, Peru.
Janice Hanan of Victoria will be the Canadian team manager at both the world championships and Pan Am Games.
“This is an important year building into 2024 from the world aquatics championships to Pan Am Games, with Olympic qualification at another world championships early next year, and into our trials,” Swimming Canada high performance director and national coach John Atkinson said in a statement.
Not every swimmer will contest both the worlds and Pan Ams like Bagshaw. For instance, McIntosh will race worlds but skip the Pan Am Games.
“This year, we’ve tried to take a common-sense, individual approach with our swimmers, having different athletes race at different events,” said Atkinson.
“This will be a very experienced group, along with first-time team members, going to the [Pan Am] Games. We look forward to a fantastic Games environment on the pathway to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, gold medallist at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and a big hope for the 2024 Paris Paralympics, was named to the Canadian team for the 2023 World Para-swimming Championship from July 31 to Aug. 6 in Manchester, England.
“We are approaching these world championships very much with a lens toward Paris,” said Wayne Lomas, Swimming Canada associate high-performance director and national Para coach.
