The McGill Swim Team has dominated the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), taking home the championship for the past three years. The team started this season strong at their first meet, where they racked up 1,187.5 points, 477.5 points above the second-place team, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. They have also made their mark nationally, when the women’s team came in fourth place and the men placed third at the 2024 U SPORTS championships last spring. Members of the team sat down with The Tribune to discuss the group’s recent successes, their rigorous schedule, and how support from team members can have an impressive effect on an individual sport.
The team follows an intensive schedule that spans from preseason in August to the U SPORTS championships in March. Swimmers participate in at least seven practices each week, including double sessions twice a week and weight training sessions. This means that on particularly busy days, swimmers can train for up to five hours while balancing their academic commitments. On top of this, the team competes in meets every other week. Women’s Captain Naomie Lo, U3 Engineering, discussed the training schedule in an interview with The Tribune.
“Training that amount of hours on top of school is not an easy pursuit, and that’s where a team is really important, to kind of help motivate each other,” she said. “We’re 50 swimmers, which is a lot, but it’s nice because there’s 50 other people going through the exact same thing as you, and we do a really good job of bringing each other up, especially when we’re down.”
As Lo explained, it is clear that support from the team is one of the pillars of McGill Swim’s success. The team has bolstered the positive group dynamic outside of practice and meets. 2024 McGill Female Rookie of the Year Maya McGhan credits the team’s trip to Puerto Rico last year as a beneficial team bonding experience.
“From there, so many friendships and connections were built that are super important to me now, and I think that really made me feel welcome on the team and brought us together before nationals,” she said.
Along with the hours of practice and the supportive team culture, much of the team’s success is attributed to their coaching staff, led by Head Coach Peter Carpenter, who has been the Martlets’ and Redbirds’ coach for 16 years. Carpenter focuses on individualized coaching, saying he moved away from a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach after advancing to the university level.
“I started focusing a lot more on coaching the person rather than coaching the athlete,” Carpenter said. “The distinction there is looking at each person as an individual and trying to provide what they need in all aspects of their lives to make a more holistic approach.”
The McGill Swim Team’s future is looking bright. McGhan expressed that some key recruits have joined the team in recent years, and the returning players are excited about their prospects. While some teams might see past successes as added pressure that hinders athletes from performing their best, Men’s Captain Bruno Dehem-Lemelin, U6 Engineering, explained that the swim team views it as a motivating factor that helps them reach their full potential.
“Especially before the first meet, we are […] never 100 per cent sure of where the other teams are at,” he said in an interview with The Tribune. “Coming into Cup One is always a bit stressful, and then seeing the good result makes us happy and excited about the rest of the year. We’ve won the RSEQ the past four seasons, so we’re hoping [to do it again], and it’s looking good after Cup One, but it’s obviously not done.”
Hearing from the swimmers themselves, it is clear that McGill Swimming will continue cementing their success in the RSEQ and U SPORTS history books. One can expect to see great things from the team this year and for years to come.
