WINDSOR, Ont. – The FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) will be a chance for Canadian swimmers and coaches to gain valuable international experience on home soil.

The world short-course championships run from Tuesday through Sunday in Windsor, Ont. The WFCU Centre, home to junior hockey’s Windsor Spitfires, has been converted to house a temporary pool where 933 athletes from 164 countries will compete for 46 gold medals.

Preliminary heats are at 9:30 a.m. each morning, with finals set for 6:30 p.m. each night. CBCSports.ca is streaming the championships beginning Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. ET. at http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/aquatics/world-short-course-world-championships-1.3881730

Sportsnet One will also be airing a highlight show each morning at 6 a.m. ET.

Canada’s young team will be focused on progression, improvement and gaining race experience in the lead up to next year’s long-course worlds in Budapest and on to Tokyo 2020.

“Having the FINA world short-course championships is a great opportunity to start the Tokyo quad,” said Swimming Canada High Performance Director John Atkinson.

Quadruple Rio 2016 medallist and 100-m freestyle Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak headlines Team Canada, along with fellow individual Olympic medallists Kylie Masse (100-m backstroke) and Hilary Caldwell (200-m backstroke). Masse, who is from Windsor, has served as an ambassador for the event and featured prominently in promotional materials around town.

“Obviously the Olympics was an amazing experience but in swimming we’re always moving forward, so just trying to keep improving on my own times and my places and rankings,” Masse said. “Coming off the summer I know that it’s a completely different race from long-course to short-course, so I’m just focusing on what I’ve been doing the past few months to see what I can do.”

Day 1 will be busy, as more than half of Canada’s 31-member team (16 men, 15 women) is expected to get off the blocks. That includes the women’s 4×100-m freestyle relay, which was a successful event for Canada in Rio. Four of the five Rio bronze medallists – Sandrine Mainville, Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck and Michelle Williams – are competing in Windsor.

A total of 17 Rio Olympians will represent Canada

“For them it’s a return to international competition. It also brings valuable experience for 14 other Canadian swimmers in a home championships environment, which we saw in 2015 with the Pan Am Games can be really great for performances,” Atkinson said.

“That said, only four of the 31 competed in the world short-course championships last time around in Doha in 2014. Therefore it’s a relatively inexperienced team in terms of racing short-course. As such, our team goals, as through the last quad, will be improvement, converting heat swims into finals and racing hard in all the relays. Continuing to strategically develop our relays – both Olympic and non-Olympic – will continue as an important strategy of the team through the Tokyo quad.

Williams is coming in off a strong performance on the short-course Asian World Cup tour, where she grabbed two medals in the 50-m free. Meanwhile Katerine Savard, a 4×200-m freestyle relay medallist in Rio, has added butterfly back to her repertoire, with a recent World Cup medal to show for it.

Meanwhile, the meet is also an opportunity for Canadian coaches. Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Victoria Head Coach Ryan Mallette is assuming the head coach role. After serving as a team coach for Canada’s successful Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the 36-year-old takes on his first head coach title, Canada’s fifth different head coach since 2014.

“Part of our philosophy the last quad has been to rotate the head coach of the team role through different coaches. This is great experience for Ryan, who will do a tremendous job in this position. It’s all part of creating opportunities for coaches in Canada. They all work together really well. We’re looking to maintain that great coaching environment from Rio and carry that momentum into 2017,” Atkinson said.

Mallette has been on the senior national team staff for every major meet since 2014. He is supported by an outstanding coaching group that also includes Olympic Head Coach Ben Titley, 2015 World Championships Head Coaches Tom Johnson and Claude St. Jean, Rio 2016 team coaches Linda Kiefer and Kevin Thorburn, as well as Mike Blondal (University of Calgary) and Peter Schori (University of Lethbridge), and Swimming Canada’s National Development Coach Ken McKinnon.

“A home world championships not only gives experience to our athletes but also to our team coaches. Having nine coaches on the team staff gives a great opportunity to continue developing our coaching ranks as we start the journey to the 2020 Games,” Atkinson said.