By Simon Hopkins
Nepean’s Julie Brousseau dove headfirst into her first Olympic games in August.
The 18-year-old Nepean High School graduate landed in France a couple of weeks before the start of the games. The Canadian swim team spent time west of Paris training together. The group arrived at the Olympic Village a few days before the games opened to settle into their rooms and adjust.
Swimming was one of the first events to get underway at the Olympics, and some athletes had to compete in the morning after the opening ceremonies. For this reason, the Canadian swim team sat out the opening ceremony, choosing to watch it from the village as a team instead.
Brousseau didn’t have a race until day six, which meant lots of sitting around, and the long wait gives plenty of time for the nerves and excitement to build.
“I wish my race was earlier on,” she said in an interview with KT. “You want to watch the races, and it’s exciting, but we had to watch ourselves and try not to walk around too much or stay out late.”
She spent the days training as she would leading up to any other competition. She was in the pool a couple of times a day and put in time in the weight room with teammates.
Brousseau was competing in the 4×200 M freestyle relay race, during which each of the four team members would swim a 200 M leg with a front crawl.
On race day, Brousseau got a chance to sleep in. She explained to KT that the first race might often be at eight or nine in the morning at swim competitions, making for a very early wake-up call. But in Paris, her team didn’t need to be in the water until after 11:00 a.m.
“Me and the girls from the relay went to breakfast together, took the bus to the pool, had a meeting and did a little activation,” Brousseau said. After their preliminary race, the team prepped themselves for the final. They walked out to cheers and lined up at the blocks.
“We walked out, and the crowd went crazy,” she said. “It was definitely nerve wracking. I’ve never been a part of something like that before.”
Brousseau stayed bundled up at the back of the line and would swim last.
Mary-Sophie Harvey dove in first, racing against some of the best in the world. China is the defending Olympic champion, but Australia and the USA were also favourites for this race. Australia’s relay team started with the Olympic record holder for the 200-metre freestyle and finished with the world record-holder in that distance.
When Harvey was halfway through her swim, she trailed the entire field, but by meter 200, she had crawled into seventh — second to last. Ella Jansen splashed next and maintained Canada’s position while trading spots with her Hungarian counterpart. Summer McIntosh rocketed through the water on the third leg and gained ground on the competition, moving Canada up three places into fourth before Brousseau’s final stretch.
Brousseau began her swim with Australia and the USA clear in the lead, chasing China and battling Great Britain for fourth. Brousseau reached the halfway point of her swim just a finger-length ahead of the Brits, but she pulled herself forward, and at the finish was a full body ahead.
In the end, Canada finished fourth, while the Australians took gold with a new Olympic record for the event.
Canada’s four swimmers embraced as Brousseau climbed out of the pool. “We were disappointed but more excited for the future,” said Brousseau, saying she and the young team are already looking towards the future Olympics games to come.
Brousseau spent the next couple of days taking in the sights and sounds of the Olympics in Paris and attended the rest of the swimming races alongside other events.
Then she took a trip to the south of France with her family, taking a few days to unwind before heading back up to Paris for the closing ceremony.
“Canada was the first country to walk out, which was super cool,” Brousseau said. “And my sisters were watching in the stands.”
Brousseau started her first year at the University of Florida at the end of August and will compete with the Florida Gators swim team in the upcoming NCAA season, making a splash wherever she goes.