By Simon Hopkins
Julie Brousseau has her eyes set on the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
The 18-year-old Nepean High School swimmer is already on the path to success. She competed nationally at the senior level for the first time in 2022 at the Canada Summer Games held in Ontario’s Niagara Region.
“The Canada Games was my first big meet where I was on the tour team,” said Brousseau. She won 11 medals at the tournament, tying the record for most at a single Canada Games.
Brousseau started swimming as a kid at her family’s cottage and immediately fell in love with being in the water. When she was eight, the Kitchissippi resident began swimming competitively. In high school, she joined the Nepean Kanata Barracudas, a high-level swim team.
“I moved to NKB in high school for a more competitive environment,” she said.
Following her national success, Brousseau qualified at Canada’s trials for the junior team and travelled to Israel for the World Junior Swimming Championships in 2023.
She won seven medals at the tournaments: four as a member of relay teams and three individual medals.
A few months later, Brousseau was flying high again as she qualified at Canada’s trials for the team heading to Santiago, Chile for the 2023 Pan American Games.
“It was really cool to get to go to South America for swimming,” said Brousseau. It was her first time traveling for Canada’s senior national team. “It was so cool getting to be in an [athletes] village environment.”
Then 17, Brousseau went as a member of a relay team with whom she won a gold medal for the 4x100m freestyle relay. When another swimmer was unable to compete in their event, she excitedly took their place.
Brousseau swam the 400m medley and won gold and set a personal best swimming the 400m freestyle.
“If you work really hard, getting a personal best feels better than even getting a medal,” said Brousseau.
Now Brousseau has her eyes on the Olympics. Canada’s trials for the team traveling to the games in Paris are this spring. She’s training extremely hard to prepare for the competition.
“I’m training for the trials in May for the junior team and the Olympic team,” said Brousseau. “I’m swimming at the Sportsplex nine times a week, doing free weights and mainly training for the 400m freestyle and medley, those kinds of events.”
Brousseau does all this while being a grade 12 student with post-secondary aspirations.
“It’s tough,” she said, “I’m studying sciences and math.” To help manage the logistics of her busy training schedule, Brousseau takes half of her courses online.
Next year, Brousseau plans to attend the University of Florida who recruited her for their swim team two years ago. She committed to them last fall after considering her post-secondary options.
“I went on three recruit trips, talked to a bunch of schools, and I liked Florida the best,” Brousseau said, adding she plans to study sciences while swimming for the Gators’ Division I team.