Five interlocking gold rings encrust Byron MacDonald’s right ring finger. As he waves his hands in the air, directing lanes of traffic at the Athletic Centre’s 50 metre pool, the shiny metal glints off the championship banners hanging from the rafters. The Olympics, the pinnacle of the amateur sporting world, is a place this U of T swimming coach has been before. If all goes according to plan, he will be there again.
MacDonald, who coached Team Canada’s Olympic squad in 1992, has also been coaching the Varsity Blues men’s and women’s swim teams since 1978. Inheriting the program “when it was on the verge of international success,” he has since seen 100 of his swimmers named All-Canadians, 50 of whom have gone on to compete at an international level.
Surrounded by reminders of past victories and the clamour and splashing of the pool deck, MacDonald unflinchingly boils down the past 25 years of his chlorine-addled success. “This group,” he hesitates only for a second, “is arguably the best.”
He’s referring to the group of talented female swimmers who are currently representing U of T and Canada, both at home and abroad. Along with the host of girls who’ve helped the team win three provincial titles in the past three years, there are several who have repeatedly distinguished themselves in the international theatre.
There’s Julie Gravelle, a freestyle and butterfly competitor heading to the Dominican Republic in August to swim for Canada at the Pan-Am Games. Jennifer Porenta, U of T’s latest recruit, swimming straight out of high school at the World University Games in South Korea at the end of next month. And last but not least, the crown jewels of the women’s team, national champions Liz Warden and Jennifer Button. Both swimmers have just completed a tour of duty in Barcelona, at the World Aquatic Championships.
“Success breeds success” rationalizes MacDonald, as he explains the stacked team’s formidable run. But what he does not mention is the persistent, if still silent death knell sounding off stage. The 2002-2003 season marked the fifth and final year of university-level eligibility for star swimmers Warden and Gravelle. Button has already been off the official roster for a year.
With the gifted core of the team returning only to train, not to compete, the Blues find themselves in the throws of a rebuilding year-one in which the coveted provincial championship will be up for grabs.
Perhaps the most debilitating blow to the 2003 Varsity team has been the unexpected loss of international-level contender Iris Elliot. Elliot, who will be returning to her third year of studies in the fall, will not be able to fill the empty shoes of leader and veteran left by Warden and Gravelle. If she does, she risks triggering permanent paralysis of the neck.
During a routine practice relay back in December, Elliot bumped against a floating innertube. Ten minutes of paralysis later, the gifted young swimmer learned she suffered from congenital neck fusion known as Kliepel Fiel syndrome, and would have to put swimming on hold in favour of surgery.
“Apparently it’s an ‘easy,’ surgery for a neurosurgeon to perform,” Elliot says of the procedure in which a piece of her hip and titanium rods will be inserted in her neck to enhance and facilitate movement. However, due to SARS, the surgery-and her swimming career-have been put on hold.
“We were actually in a pretty good position if we hadn’t lost her [Elliot],” says MacDonald of next year’s potential. So instead, the coaches and team are looking for salvation in an unlikely place-the dozen or so talented rookies who are making up the biggest recruiting class U of T has ever seen.
Porenta, who was actively recruited by MacDonald, is one of these prodigal daughters. “We have 11 women that can walk right on to the team,” counters MacDonald to the prospect that the team may have dwindled in size and star-power. In the encouraging tones of a coach experienced in winning he adds, “we will probably actually end up a stronger team.”
And what do Gravelle and Warden think of it all? With young blood waiting to dive in on the sidelines, MacDonald at the helm, and their own Olympic training to worry about, the Blues graduating class doesn’t think their presence will be that sorely missed. Before jumping in the pool to pound out MacDonald’s orchestrated greatness, Gravelle makes a prediction: “the team’s gonna be just as good next year. It’ll just be a closer race to the end.”
