Sports

Local swimmer returns from Canada Games with four medals

August 28, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Local competitive swimmer Matthew Blackwell attended the Canada Games in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and achieved some stellar results, including winning two gold medals.

Swimming events at the games took place from Aug. 8 to 16.

On Aug. 12, Matthew won gold in the men’s 100m butterfly with a time of 55.84. He won by 1/100 of a second over a swimmer from Alberta in the highly competitive field.

His second gold medal of the games came on Aug. 13, when he swam the butterfly leg with Team Ontario in the 4x100m medley relay. The team finished with a time of 3:49.14.

Matthew won his third medal of the games in the 200m butterfly. He finished in second place for the silver with a time of 2:05.

On Aug. 14, Matthew wrapped up competition by competing in the 50m butterfly. He finished in third place with a time of 25.42 for the bronze. In that race, the top six swimmers touched the finish within one second of each other.

Matthew had to post one of the top two times in the province in order to qualify for the event and be part of the Team Ontario entry.

“They take the top two swimmers in each stroke, so for me, that was in Ontario,” Matthew explained. “I was one of the top two in the ‘fly.’ Three days before we flew out there, there was a staging camp where all the athletes selected for the team went to Toronto.”

Matthew does a lot of dryland training during the year to remain fit; however, he said he stops physical training three days before a meet to rest up for the event.

Matthew said the experience was a lot of fun, not only being able to compete at such a high level, but also because of the camaraderie among the competitors.

“There’s a lot of fun compared to some other meets because you get to compete at the top level,” Matthew said. “I’ve been in national competitions since I was 14. I met a lot of my friends from other provinces and other national competitions. At the same time, it was kind of stressful because you’re racing for the province.”

Just like in the Olympics, athletes trade pins from their province as souvenirs.

Athletes were under strict rules of conduct during the event. This included no smoking, no swearing, being in bed by 11 p.m., and generally behaving in a way that maintains the dignity and decorum of the event. Anyone breaking the rules could be asked to leave and lose their medals.

The rules even dictated no fraternization between the sexes.

Matthew is an Olympic hopeful and one of the local athletes to watch over the next few years.

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