Ahead of his first night of racing at the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials in Toronto last month, Blake Tierney was admittedly a pile of nerves.
He stared down a finals heat that could determine his lifelong goal of making a Canadian Olympic team.
“In between the prelims and the finals I remember my heart rate was probably like 200 [beats per minute],” said Tierney. “It wouldn’t go down because I was just so nervous about racing at night.”
Luckily for the Saskatoon product, those nerves didn’t get in the way of the biggest race of his life.
Tierney narrowly beat out Javier Acevedo in the men’s 100-metre backstroke final with a time of 53.48 to not only win the Canadian title but reach the Olympic standard as well.
Booking his ticket to his first Olympic Games this summer in Paris, sharing the moment with his family in attendance.
“Lots of tears, lots of hugs,” said Tierney. “Not a whole lot of words I’d say. We were pretty speechless, but I think we all knew what I had done. My parents made me call all of my relatives on FaceTime and stuff like that, so I got home pretty late to the hotel.”
Growing up competing with the Saskatoon Goldfins swimming program, Tierney now trails full-time in British Columbia with the UBC Thunderbirds.
Goldfins head coach Steven Hitchings was poolside for the moment that his star student reached the Olympic standard, which he said was a full circle moment for Tierney.
“He’s always wanted to improve that little extra percent,” said Hitchings. “If he could improve one percent at practice he would do it, so that’s just started to pay off. People think that improvement comes in giant leaps, but it’s really all of those thousands and millions of little steps that lead up to that one big moment.”
That was just the start for the 22-year-old however, as he would go on to win top spot in the 200 metre backstroke as well to set a new Canadian record in the event with a time of 1:56.74.
“I was kind of thinking he would do something special there,” said Hitchings. “I didn’t know it would be quite that special. I’m really proud to see him go out and do that, and be now Canada’s fastest 200 [metre] backstroke swimmer.”
Tierney broke Markus Thormeyer’s mark of 1:56.96 which was set at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships.
The record-breaking race was one in which Tierney said he felt a lot less stress compared to his first final of the week which already punched his ticket to Paris.
“That was pretty fun I’d say and a lot less pressure on my shoulders,” said Tierney. “I felt like I could just go out there and have a little bit more fun.”
Tierney’s appointment to Canada’s Olympic team continues a run of Olympic and Paralympic athletes in the pool hailing from Saskatchewan this year including Regina-born Kelsey Wog, pending Paralympians Nikita Ens, Shelby Newkirk and Hannah Ouellette, and divers Rylan Wiens and Margo Erlam.
According to Hitchings, he’s seen firsthand the competition that goes on with the high-level athletes who are performing in Saskatoon and Regina.
“The athletes start to see each other do it on the other side of the pool,” said Hitchings. “If they can do it over in diving, how come we can’t do it in swimming? If we can do it in swimming, how come we can’t do it on the [para-swimming] side? I think that all just starts to build off of each other.”
Along with his wins at the Olympic Trials, Tierney is coming off a five-medal performance last year for Team Canada at the 2023 Pan-Am Games in Chile.
While Paris will be a larger stage than anything he’s experienced before, he said he’s ready for the challenge of wearing the maple leaf in France.
“I’m sure I’ll definitely feel pressure,” said Tierney. “It’s the Olympics, so it will probably get to me a little bit. I made it through trials, so if I made it through that and I performed well I think I’ll be able to repeat it again hopefully.”
Tierney will first compete in Paris on July 28 with the heats of the men’s 100-metre backstroke.
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