The Tribune sat down with star McGill swimmer and London Olympic hopeful Steven Bielby in order to find out what the life of an elite university swimmer consists of.

What’s the day-to-day training of a swimmer like?

As a swimmer you just fall into a routine. We have training on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, [and] Saturday mornings, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights, so that’s nine workouts a week.

How long are these workouts?

They’re two hours each, so 18 hours a week. That includes pool and dry land workouts like the gym, too. It eats up a lot of your free time, which is problematic if you want to hang out with friends and stuff, but I enjoy it.

What kind of experience did you have before university? How is the Canadian high school circuit? Did it prepare you for the university circuit?

There is no Canadian high school circuit. There’s no training, practices, or anything, maybe one or two meets.

Can you see yourself promoting the high school level of the sport?

I think it would be good to build on it, definitely, because in the States it is huge and it would also just get people more involved in sports, in general. It would be something to build on, for sure.

This is your last year at McGill. How does it feel knowing you’re going to graduate soon?

Pretty good, scary at the same time. I honestly have no idea what I’m doing next year … I looked into a masters program, so hopefully that will work out.

What level of swimming do you plan on maintaining after you graduate?

We have Olympic trials coming up this April, so that’s the goal for the immediate future. That’s the main focus for this year. It will be tough, but I like to think I have a decent shot.

Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories a day to support his training. Is that a classic training diet or he just a superhuman?

Maybe if you are in a training camp, training two or three times a day, every day. For training camp when you go 12 times a week, then maybe. But yes, 12,000 calories is absurd, that’s about three times as much as I eat during training.   

There was a controversy around the Olympics about the use of wetsuits in competition. Do they actually make that much of a difference?

They make a huge difference. The one that they had at the Olympics was the Speedo LAZR and that one was a huge step from the last one. It feels like you’re gliding over the water, so it makes sense that they ban them. It’s definitely not a gimmick.

What is the best perk of swimming for a university team?

I enjoy going and seeing different places. My first year when I qualified for the Canadian university team, we went to Serbia for the World University Games. On training camps we’ve been to Barbados, Hawaii, Florida, and now Aruba. It’s definitely a lot of fun and I really enjoy it.

McGill swimming Head Coach Peter Carpenter mentioned the charity work the swim teams are doing at the Roddick gates. Tell me something about that.

Yeah, it will be this Tuesday, November 1 at the Roddick Gates. Our assistant coach, Genevieve Gregoire, was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. She got over that and has a different form of cancer now, so we hope it will be good. Last year we raised $2,000, so hopefully we will do well again.

For more information on the Cedars Cancer Institute, visit their website at cedars.ca