Finlay Knox left no room for doubt with a return to a second Olympic Games on the line.
The 23-year-old Okotokian placed first and broke his own national record in the 200m individual medley (IM) in a time to 1:56.07 at the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials on May 18 at Toronto’s Pan Am Sports Centre to put an exclamation point on his qualification for Canada’s Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games swim team.
“We’ve been putting a lot of work on that and obviously that’s paying off,” said Knox, in a Swimming Canada release. “One thing I’ve learned from this last year is to take every bit of confidence you can get. Celebrate the small wins, celebrate the big wins and tonight’s a big win.
“Winning the world title was a big win, and just using it as fuel to the fire and every time I step out now, I know what I’m capable of doing.”
Knox shaved off considerable time in the 200m event from his world championship performance in March (1:56.64) in the race which also brought him gold at last year’s Pan American Games in Chile. The 1:56.07 performance is the fourth fastest time registered across the world this year.
The 29 athlete Canadian Olympic swim team was officially announced on Sunday evening, a group that includes 17 women and 12 men.
The Okotoks Mavericks alumnus, who finished 17th in the 200m IM at the 2020 Olympic Games, was in a good position to make the team ahead of his signature event with a strong week at trials.
He also won the 100m breaststroke, in a final that also featured former Okotoks teammate Justin Lisoway, who finished eighth.
Knox, who trains out of the High Performance Centre in Vancouver, also earned an Olympic qualifying time in the 100m freestyle to put himself in a good position to be on Canada’s 4x100m freestyle relay team at the Games.
For good measure, Knox added another Olympic qualifying swim in a bronze medal performance in the 100m butterfly on Sunday, posting a 51.42 seconds finish, the third fastest in Canadian history behind teammates Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun.
The Mavericks were represented at trials by two its current stars in Wells Ginzer and Lucy Wiens.
Ginzer, a multi-time national medallist, won the 100m butterfly junior finals in Toronto and finished seventh in the junior finals of the 100m backstroke and 50m freestyle.
Wiens had personal best swims in the 100m backstroke, 200m butterfly and in the 200m freestyle time trial event.
