PRO & SC Quebec Training Camp 2025
Provincial & Senior Competitive
Quebec Training Camp 2025
Quebec City, QC
April 4th to 13th, 2025
(Written by Coach Francois Coetzer)
Just over a week ago 17 members from Provincial and Senior Competitive completed a 10 day training camp and competition in beautiful Quebec City. Accompanied by one of the best chaperone teams the kids overcame a language barrier, being away from home, and were able to lock-in to the sport of swimming in a controlled environment.
The swimmers trained out of the Desjardin Aquatic Facility at the University of Laval, a 10 lane 50 meter pool built to model that of an NCAA facility. The training environment was perfect for these swimmers to shake off their spring break rest and get right into high level workouts to set them up for the remainder of the season. Over the course of 7 days they swam over 42,000 meters! Then to top off the camp they competed at the Rouge et Orr invitational, a highly competitive swim meet with teams from all over the province of Quebec. The goal for the swimmers was to race some very unfamiliar competition, and experience racing in “French”. And yes, that was a thing as the swimmers had to learn what “take your marks” sounds like before a race. Olympian Swim Club was well represented in a meet of over 500 swimmers bringing 12 medals total (4 Gold 🥇, 4 Silver 🥈, 4 Bronze 🥉). We also had some swimmers who got best times which is an amazing accomplishment considering the training leading into the meet and shows that this camp was a massive success in making the swimmers more brave and resilient.
Another major component of the camp was for the swimmers to learn how to be “swimmers out of the pool”. To achieve this they had the chaperones use their field of expertise to teach the swimmers skills to help them grow. Scott Kingston did an amazing presentation on the physiology of muscle grows, use and recovery. He explained to the swimmers how swimming impacts their performance and gave tips on how to take care of their muscles. Sharleen Cheung used her expertise in nutrition to teach the swimmers the importance of fueling their bodies and tying it in with Scott’s presentation they learned how what and when they eat has a major impact on their ability to train and compete. And finally their final presentation came from Maureen de Kock who gave them the tools to better manage their time between school, swimming, recovery, homework and friends/family. Having all those influence a swimmer in a positive way can help them overcome anything to be their best. So a massive thank you to our chaperone team for not only taking care of the swimmers but also sharing their knowledge knowing it will benefit them going forward.
We would also like to thank the University of Laval for accommodating our training schedule and having us compete at the meet! These swimmers were able to create some amazing memories and learn a lot about the sport of swimming in a very short amount of time.
Some highlights of the camp:
- Tour of Old Quebec City
- OSC Amazing Race through the city
- Poutine!!
- Team Movie Night
- 3 Educational Seminars
Swim Meet Highlights:
- Emmitt Kingston and Michael Woo’s 50m Free showdown for Gold and Silver medals for OSC.
- Bozhena Penner claiming a Bronze medal in 1500m Free
- Jamie de Kock claiming a Bronze and Silver in 50m and 100m Backstroke
- Over 40 best times!!!