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National Special Olympics swim team training in Orangeville

October 29, 2014   ·   0 Comments

Members of the 2015 National Special Olympics Swim Team will stay at Teen Ranch from Thursday to Sunday and will hold a training camp at the Alder Street Recreation Centre on Friday morning.

The team is preparing for the 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles from July 25 to August 2, 2015. Although members trained in August and September, this is the first training camp for the team selected at the National Games held in Vancouver in July.

The team sought group lodging and proximity to the airport so ended up selecting the Orangeville area for their training camp. The camp will include nutrition counselling, strength training, and fitness testing.

“We are pleased to welcome the National Special Olympics Swim Team to Orangeville and to our recreation centre,” said Mayor Rob Adams.

“I’m sure the training camp will be an intense period for these athletes and we wish them well as they prepare to represent Canada next summer.”

The 22 swimmers on the national team will join the 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches from over 177 countries to participate in 26 different summer sport activities throughout the nine days of the Games.

Swimmers will enter a variety of official events including freestyle, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 metres; backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly stroke, 25, 50, 100, and 200 metres; and individual medley 100 and 200 metres.

As well, team members are required to participate in either a freestyle relay or a medley relay consisting of four swimmers and 25, 50, or 100 metres for the freestyle or 50 metres for the medley relay.

“This is a very exciting time for Team Canada. We get to welcome an amazing group of athletes and coaches on to our team and begin our focused training and preparation for World Games,” said Chef de Mission for Team Canada, Johnny Byrne.

“Every new member has earned their position on this team through hard work, commitment and their performance at National Games.”

Members of the national swimming team come from across the country and were selected based on their exceptional skills in aquatics. Members are: Julia Longo (Ontario), Lexie Senior (Ontario), Meagan Michie (Ontario) Gordie Michie (Ontario), April Lam (Alberta), Mary Jean Lawson (Alberta), Avery Newton (British Columbia), Amanda Schleppe (British Columbia), Kelsey Wyse (British Columbia), Carrie Dignan (British Columbia), Magnus Batara (British Columbia), Josh Low (British Columbia), David Tatta (New Brunswick), Eleanor Hobbs (Newfoundland),  Matthew Hunter (Nova Scotia), Mark Epelon (Northwest Territories), Valérie Gagnon-Paradis (Quebec),  Andrew Perez (Quebec), Valmor Quitich, (Quebec), and Michael Qing (Saskatchewan).

The head coach of the swimming team is Alain Maillé of Quebec and other coaches are Jessica Moreau of Quebec, Marie Telder of British Columbia, Jackie Powell of Saskatchewan, Eric Dunn of Quebec, and Jocelyn Boileau of Quebec.

For more information about the 2015 World Summer Games and specifically the Special Olympics Team visit www.specialolympics.ca.

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