LASC putting on the laps once again

By Dale Woodard on February 25, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDsports@lethbridgeherald.com

The LA Swim Club are diving right back into action.
That also includes some big names going for some big goals.
For the past two weeks, the LASC competitive swimmers as well as the Junior Pronghorns have been putting on the laps Max Bell Aquatic Centre at the University of Lethbridge after getting provincial clearance to return.
“We’ve been able to modify our distances that we keep in the pool and this is our second week. Our membership is all 18-and-under,” said Peter Schori, head coach of the LA Swim Club and the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns.
Needless to say, spirits have been high after all the forced time away due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The excitement goes from the very top all the way down to the bottom,” said Schori. “Definitely, elation is part of it. It’s funny, because we’ve gone through some these starts and stops and its seems like each one of them is a little bit different and obviously the time is part of that. But this does feel a bit different. I’ve seen an unbelievable amount of gratitude from the swimmers, coaches and the parents for the kids having the opportunity to return to sports in the fall. We all had these things in our life before for a reason and we maybe didn’t understand the full value and we’re so close to seeing that full value.”
Among the locals also cleared to return are three athletes with Olympic exemption.
Those swimmers are Rio 2016 Olympian Rachel Nicol as well as Pronghorns Apollo Hess and Christopher Alexander.
“Swim Alberta had asked the clubs and universities to not apply for exemptions on our own,” said Schori. “But they took the task of applying for an exemption for all the athletes who were above the bar. So that went through for the athletes who are on the short list for Olympic Trials.”
Of course, all of that was conditional to the U of L being willing to open the pool for this group, said Schori.
“That was a huge factor because if Swim Alberta puts in a exemption and everything is taken care of, but the university says ‘Sorry, we’re not going to open up for this small of a group.’ It’s a lot of good thoughts and nothing else. So it’s fantastic the university has seen itself as a partner and two of the athletes are Pronghorn athletes.”
Hess and Alexander have been training since Feb. 8.
Nicol spent January training in Dallas and has been back with the group since Feb. 13, said Schori.
Of course, adjustments have been made to heed to pandemic protocol since the swimmers have returned.
“We have this staggered return and all modified,” said Schori. “We’ve taken our sessions that used to be maybe 90 minutes in length and to get more people in the pool we’ve cut them down to 45 minutes. It’s great to be back and great to see the kids not just getting active, but being with their peers and feeling all of those good things sports gives them.”
Schori said the club has worked to meet Alberta Health Services measures and guidelines and also coordinated with Swim Alberta and the university.
“I look at that as a positive thing,” he said. “We have a lot of overlapping layers of safety and protection. Our coaches have been in masks since Day 1. Our big change is the cohorting to the social distancing.”
In terms of competition, Hess, Alexander and Nicol are gearing up for Olympic trials, normally scheduled the first week of April, but bumped back to May 24-28.
“So they’ve moved that by six weeks,” said Schori, adding some swimmers in Canada, such as swimmers at UBC, have been swimming full-time during the pandemic. “This is a godsend that trials have been moved to a time that makes it more fair for everybody.”
But in terms of other meets for LASC swimmers, the Olympic Trials is the only one on the calendar.
“The hope is we’re going to have some kind of competitive opportunity for kids in the summer,” said Schori. “We’re shifting our programming and we’re not taking our normal summer break and offering programming that goes right through into the summer and still gives a little break before the next year.”
“It’ll look different, but right now the kids are so happy to be back in the pool that they’re not asking yet about when they get to race.”

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