Haley Black, Canadian Olympian.
That's how Black would like to be described some day. After qualifying for two 'B' finals at the 2012 Olympic trials and watching others around her land spots on the current Olympic team, the 15-year-old member of the Prince George Barracudas swim club has all the inspiration she needs to reach the ultimate long-term goal.
"I want to go to the Olympics," she said, with absolutely no hesitation in her voice. "Four years from now, maybe eight -- I'll work hard for it."
The trials ran from Tuesday to Sunday in Montreal. Each 'A' final featured the fastest eight swimmers in the country, and Black swam so well that she made the 'B' final in the 100- and 200-metre butterfly races. In the 100m 'B' final, she placed fourth with a club-record time of one minute 1.58 seconds. In the 'B' final of the 200 fly, Black touched the wall in third place and set another Barracudas record in the process. Her clocking of 2:15.88 eclipsed the mark she set in the preliminaries, 2:17.95.
For both of those 'B' finals, the biggest races of her life, Black was able to keep her composure and was rewarded.
"I think I was more confident," she said. "Usually I get too nervous and I overthink it but I thought about my race, more than what was going to happen -- more positive thinking, I guess."
In the long course (50m pool) national rankings for her age group, Black is now No. 1 in the country for the 100m and 200m butterfly races.
"It's very exciting," said Barracudas head coach Jerzy Partyka. "She had very good performances. Every single race was perfect."
Black also established new club standards in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley.
Two other current members of the Barracudas, Danica Ludlow and Sterling King, also did themselves proud at the trials.
Ludlow shattered club records in all four of her swims. In the 400m freestyle, her time of 4:21.86 obliterated a mark of 4:39.85, set way back in 1984 by Patricia McCaffrey. In the 400 free, Ludlow finished 20th overall, her best result of the meet.
King, meanwhile, became the new Barracudas standard-bearer in three of his five events at the trials. His top placing was 21st in the 1,500m freestyle. In that race, he broke his old club record of 16:23.76 with a new mark of 16:14.90. He also established himself as the top-rated 16-and-under male swimmer in Canada in the 400m freestyle (4:03.16).
"They are happy and they are motivated for the next few months," Partyka said of his athletes. "I'm really happy with what they did. It's very good stuff."
Even though they are now training in post-secondary programs, Katie Mann (University of New Hampshire) and Grace Ni (Simon Fraser University) also represented the Barracudas in Montreal. Mann made the 'B' final in the 400m IM and finished eighth (4:57.82). Ni's best effort came in the 100m backstroke, where she placed 83rd in a club-record time of 1:07.17.
The trials saw former Barracudas Brian Yakiwchuk (University of Alberta) and Kit Moran (Dalhousie University) in the pool as well.
