No longer treading water, Canadian swimmers take confidence into London Olympic Games

There's a difference between hoping and believing.

When competition begins Saturday at the London Olympic Games Canada's swimmers will carry a swagger onto the pool deck and confidence into the water.

"The main difference is the standard we have set for success,'' said Julia Wilkinson of Stratford, Ont., who will swim the 100-metre freestyle and 100 backstroke plus the relays. "We want to win medals and we expect to win medals as opposed to wanting to make the finals.

"That attitude from those people at the top has filtered down and you can see it in the rookies. You see these rookies who have a very different attitude than I felt like I had as a rookie. It's a very good thing.''

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When Ryan Cochrane of Victoria won a bronze medal in the 1,500 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics it ended an eight-year Olympic drought for the swim team. The goal for the 33 athletes competing in London is three medals and reaching 13 to 15 finals.

Canada's expectations may seem puny to swimming powers like the United States and Australia. But they show the evolution of a Canadian team that looked dead in the water after failing to win a medal at the 2004 Athens Games and managing a single bronze in 2000 at Sydney.

The man mostly responsible for breathing life back into the program is Pierre Lafontaine, who was hired as Swimming Canada's chief executive officer in April 2005. A former coach in Canada, the U.S. and Australia, Lafontaine sounded like an evangelical minister as he quoted from the gospel of hard work and preached confidence.

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Four years ago in Beijing some of the Canadian swimmers still looked starstruck to be in the same pool as Michael Phelps. Now they are concentrating on the podium, not who is in the lane beside them.

"It's a team that is more solid on it's feet about the outcome they want,'' said Lafontaine. "In 2008 we were hoping. In 2012 we feel we have certainly set the team so we are knocking on the door on so many more fronts.

"We are way more competitive in so many more events. We have much more depth in the program. We don't rely on one or two kids only.''

Canada's medal hopes took a hit when Annamay Pierce, the world record holder in the 200-metre breaststroke,and veteran breaststroker Mike Brown both failed to qualify for the Games at the Olympic trials.

The team still has some big fish to put in the water.

Besides Cochrane, Canada's other medal hopes will rest with Hayden of Mission, B.C., a former 100-metre freestyle world champion; Toronto's Martha McCabe, who won a world championship bronze medal in the 200-metre breaststroke; and Wilkinson in the backstroke.

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Open-water swimmer Richard Weinberger of Surrey, B.C., also has podium potential after winning an Olympic test event at the Hyde Park venue.

Included on the Canadian team are 18 swimmers making their Olympic debut. The squad arrived in London after a training camp in Obia, Italy.

Cochrane will swim the 400 metres on Saturday, a distance he finished fifth at the last world championships. After that race he will move out of the athletes' village into a hotel before racing the 1,500 metres on the final day of the swim competition.

Randy Bennett, the Olympic team head coach, said he has seen a shift in attitude among the athletes. In the past some swimmers seemed satisfied with simply doing their best.

"As a coaching staff we have created expectations on the athletes,'' he said. " think the athletes are way better with the expectations. We talk about winning medals.''

Hope has turned into belief.

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