Commonwealth Games swimming preview: Liendo’s time to shine

The Commonwealth Games start this Thursday in Glasgow, Scotland, bringing collectively some 3,000 athletes from 74 nations to compete in 10 completely different sports activities over the course of 11 days.

In phrases of scale and public curiosity, the Commonwealths are in fact a lot smaller than the Summer Olympics. But one thing they’ve in, effectively, frequent is that swimming and observe and discipline are the marquee sports activities.

With that in thoughts, we’ll have a look at the Canadians swimmers to look at on the Commonwealth Games right now, adopted by observe and discipline tomorrow.

Liendo takes the torch from Summer

For many athletes, the Commonwealth Games are a stepping stone to success on the subsequent Olympics. That was definitely the case for Summer McIntosh on the 2022 Commonwealths in Birmingham, England. Just 15 years outdated on the time, the Canadian swimming phenom received a pair of particular person golds and a silver together with three relay medals. Two years later on the Paris Olympics, she captured a Canadian-record three golds and a silver.

After upgrading her haul to 4 golds and a silver ultimately 12 months’s world championships, McIntosh now has her sights set on matching Michael Phelps’ Olympic report of 5 solo golds on the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. However, the Commonwealth Games usually are not a part of her journey this time as she’s opted to compete in subsequent month’s Pan Pacific championships in California as an alternative.

Also skipping the Commonwealths for the Pan Pacs is Taylor Ruck, who racked up a record-trying eight medals (together with relays) on the 2018 Commonwealth Games and received all 5 of her occasions on the Canadian trials earlier this month.

In their absence, the highest Canadian swimmer to look at in Glasgow is Josh Liendo. The 23-year-old from Toronto received gold within the 100m butterfly on the 2022 Commonwealths, then took silver in that occasion on the 2024 Olympics — one spot forward of fellow Canadian Ilya Kharun, who’s now swimming for the United States after switching allegiances final winter. Liendo additionally claimed a silver within the 100m butterfly fly on the 2023 world championships and a bronze on the 2022 worlds.

Along with the 100 fly, Liendo is slated to swim the 50m butterfly, the 50m freestyle and the 100m freestyle, and he ought to compete in a number of relays. He was a bronze medallist within the 100m freestyle on the 2022 world championships and within the 50 free at that 12 months’s Commonwealths.

For extra on Liendo, who’s the one Black Canadian swimmer to win an Olympic medal, read this piece by CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux.

Other Canadians to look at

While Liendo is the perfect swimmer proper now on Canada’s Commonwealth group, essentially the most achieved is Kylie Masse. The 30-year-old backstroke specialist from LaSalle, Ont., has received 4 particular person Olympic medals, tying her with McIntosh for the all-time lead amongst Canadian swimmers, and 5 solo medals on the world championships, together with three golds. Masse captured back-to-back world titles within the 100m in 2017 and ’19 and added a 50m gold in 2022.

Masse additionally earned six particular person Commonwealth medals throughout the previous two Games, highlighted by three golds — within the 50m backstroke in 2022 and the 100 and 200 in 2018.

In Glasgow, Masse is scheduled to swim the 50 and 100m occasions and likewise step out of her backstroke consolation zone for the 50m butterfly. She might additionally swim the backstroke leg within the ladies’s and blended medley relays.

Back over to the lads’s facet, Canada has one other multi-medal contender in Oliver Dawson. The 18-year-old from Grande Prairie, Alta., swept the breaststroke occasions on the Canadian trials, profitable gold within the 50m, 100m and 200m.

At the Commonwealth Games, Para swimming occasions happen concurrently with the Olympic-class races. Canada is led by Danielle Dorris, who has received back-to-back Paralympic golds and three straight world titles within the ladies’s 50m butterfly S7 class and likewise owns a world title and an Olympic silver within the 100m backstroke.

Other high Canadians embody Sebastian Massabie, the reigning Paralympic champion within the males’s 50m freestyle S4; Mary Jibb, whose three medals ultimately 12 months’s Para world championships included a gold within the ladies’s 200m particular person medley SM9; and Nicolas-Guy Turbide, a two-time Paralympic medallist and former world champion within the males’s 100m backstroke S13 who received gold within the 50m freestyle on the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Nicholas Bennett, who received two golds and a silver on the 2024 Paralympics, will not be competing within the Commonwealths. Same for six-time Paralympic champion Aurélie Rivard, who took gold within the ladies’s 400m freestyle S10 two years in the past in Paris.

Canadian medal projections

We requested our mates at Shoreview Sports Analytics to crunch the numbers, and their mannequin predicts Canada will win eight medals within the Olympic-class swimming occasions in Glasgow. Individually, Liendo leads the way in which with a gold and two bronze, whereas Dawson and Masse mixed for 3 silvers.

Here’s an inventory of the projected medals for Canada’s Olympic-class swimmers, together with every athlete/group’s possibilities of profitable gold and incomes a medal of any color in that individual occasion.

How to look at

The Commonwealth Games swimming occasions start this Friday and run by July 29. The morning heats begin at 5:30 a.m. ET and the finals at 2 p.m. ET every day. You can watch them reside on CBC Gem.

Here’s more on tips on how to watch the Commonwealth Games on CBC’s streaming and tv platforms, and here’s a look on the broadcast group and protection particulars.

For the most recent information, outcomes and video, and full streaming and broadcast schedules, go to CBC Sports’ Commonwealth Games website.