By Jim Morris

Mack Darragh wanted to quit swimming about one year after he started. Good thing his mother wouldn’t let him.

Basketball was Darragh’s first love. But he suffered from asthma and his mother enrolled him in swimming at the Oakville Aquatic Club as a way to deal with the lung condition.

“It was the one sport, when I picked it up, I wasn’t good at so I wanted to quit after the first year,” Darragh said. “She said no, we’re going to keep going because it helps your asthma.

“After the second year I started getting good at it and then started liking it.”

Darragh used a convincing victory in the 200-metre butterfly at the 2019 Canadian Swimming Trials to earn a spot on the team competing at this summer’s FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

An animated Darragh pumped his fist in triumph after finishing over two seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

“At first I didn’t want to look at the clock,” said the 25-year-old from Oakville, Ont. “I had only been that fast before twice.”

The win wasn’t as easy as it looked.

“I typically thrive off having a race, having someone push me on the last 50 metres,” he said. “It’s definitely a challenge for me to push myself and try to find that speed with no one setting that pace.

“We did everything we could to prepare for it.”

Darragh’s winning time of one minute, 56.68 seconds was .41 off his Canadian record. Ben Titley, Darragh’s coach at the High Performance Centre – Ontario, was impressed by the performance.

“The big challenge for him was trying to get through the trials and to achieve a time which is very close to his best time in a situation without really having anyone to race to the finish,” said Titley.

“It was great to see emotion like that because it means something to him.”

After graduating from the University of Missouri, where he holds school records in the 200-m butterfly and 200-m IM, Darragh has returned to Toronto where he trains at the HPC with swimmers like Penny Oleksiak, Yuri Kisil and Kierra Smith.

“There is more opportunity,” he said. “I worked with Ben a bit previously. He’s a good coach creating really fast swimmers. I thought I would give it a shot. Everything came together very fast.”

Titley said what Darragh might lack in pure talent he compensates for with his work ethic.

“He’s probably one of the hardest workers in the group,” said Titley. “He probably relies more on that hard work and work ethic as opposed to his natural talent or ability in swimming.

“He’s a very good racer. He loves to race.”

Darragh isn’t the first person to get involved in swimming to help deal with the effects of asthma.

Swimming is generally considered a healthy form of aerobic exercise for people with asthma, especially if their symptoms are triggered by outdoor allergies or cold temperatures.

“I have no symptoms now at all,” Darragh said.

After his initial distaste for swimming, Darragh fell in love with the sport.

“I just loved the thrill of the race, competing against other people,” he said. “As a kid, when you start winning races, it becomes a super fun sport to be in.

“That’s what kept me around in the beginning. Since then it’s been making all these friendships, having these goals and achieved goals and the sense of accomplishment.”

Darragh swam the 200-m butterfly at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, where he was sixth, then finished fifth at the Tokyo 2018 Pan Pacific Championships, lowering the Canadian record.

He also swam the butterfly leg of the men’s 4×100-m medley relay that finished 16^th at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Looking back, Darragh thinks he made the right decision to swim instead of playing basketball.

“I’m not sure I would have found the same success in basketball that I found in swimming,” he said.