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Normally held every two years, the World Aquatics Championships are a jewel of the Olympic sports calendar. The excitement increases when it’s the last worlds before a Summer Games, as athletes jockey for qualifying in swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming while giving us a sneak peek at the potential stars for the following year’s Olympics.
But this one is different. Due to a cascade of pandemic-related postponements, the World Aquatics Championships are, for the first time, about to take place in an Olympic year. In fact, they’re happening less than six months before the opening ceremony in Paris — and just six months after the 2023 world championships in Japan.
It’s impossible for the world’s best swimmers to peak three times in the span of a year in their gruelling sport — at least not if they want to bring their best selves to Paris. So most of them are staying home, including Canadian stars Summer McIntosh, Penny Oleksiak, Maggie Mac Neil, Kylie Masse and Josh Liendo. Only seven of the 22 individual swimming gold medallists from last year’s worlds are competing in Doha, where competition begins Friday with some diving and artistic swimming events before swimming takes over the pool on Feb. 11.
Despite the meet’s marquee sport being severely depleted, there are still some good Canadian angles to follow. Here are the most interesting:
Canada sent a strong diving team.
Unlike the swimmers, Canada’s diving contingent in Doha is at full strength. Recent world-championship medallists Pamela Ware, Caeli McKay, Mia Vallée, Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray are all slated to compete.
Vallée won silver in the women’s 3m springboard event and bronze in the non-Olympic 1m springboard at the 2022 world championships in Hungary, where Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray took bronze in the men’s synchronized 10m platform. Ware and McKay grabbed bronze in the solo women’s 3m and 10m events, respectively, last year.
Canada has secured one Olympic berth in each of the women’s 3m, women’s 10m and men’s 10m events and will be looking to add more Olympic entries in Doha. Which divers get to fill those spots will be determined at the Canadian Olympic trials in May in Windsor, Ont.
Diving competition in Doha begins with the women’s 1m and mixed team events on Friday and continues through Feb. 10.
It’s the last chance for Canada to get a water polo team to Paris.
The men’s squad is eliminated from Olympic contention, but the women can grab one of the two spots left in their event. Those will go to the top two finishers who haven’t already qualified for the Games.
Half of the 16 women’s teams in Doha have punched their tickets to Paris, so Canada is competing against seven other teams for those two Olympic spots. The Canadians will face two of them in the group stage as they meet Great Britain on Tuesday and Italy, the bronze medallist at last year’s worlds, on Thursday. Canada’s opening match is Sunday against South Africa, which clinched the lone Olympic spot from the relatively weak African region.
The top team in each group advances directly to the quarterfinals. The runner-up goes to a one-game playoff for a spot in the quarters. The other two teams will be eliminated from championship contention, and probably the Olympics too.
The Canadian women made it to the quarterfinals in Tokyo in 2021, but the country has never won an Olympic water polo medal.
Canada’s artistic and open-water swimmers can qualify for the Olympics too.
Artistic swimming (formerly known as synchronized swimming) still has five Olympic spots open in the team event and eight in the duet. The world championships are the last chance to grab them.
Attempting to reach Paris in the duet is the Canadian pairing of two-time Olympian Jacqueline Simoneau and Audrey Lamothe, an 18-year-old who placed fourth in the non-Olympic solo free event at last year’s worlds. In team competition, Canada will be competing with seven other countries for the last five Olympic entries. Five other teams in Doha have already clinched Olympic spots as continental champions.
Artistic swimming competition opens Friday and continues through Feb. 10.
Four Canadian open-water swimmers are vying for a spot in the Olympic 10km events — the only outdoor races on the Paris program. The women’s race on Saturday includes teenagers Emma Finlin and Laila Oravsky. Sunday’s men’s race features Eric Hedlin, a two-time worlds medallist in the 5km distance, and Hau-Li Fan, who placed ninth in the 10K at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. A top-13 finish in Doha gets you into the Olympics.
How to watch:
Live streaming coverage on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem begins Friday at 7:30 a.m. ET with diving’s mixed team event and continues every day through the end of the world championships on Feb. 18. The CBC TV network will have additional coverage on Saturdays.
See the full streaming and broadcast schedule here. Watch former Canadian Olympic swimmer Brittany MacLean’s three reasons to watch the World Aquatics Championships here.