After a year’s delay, Canada’s swim team finally dove into competition at the Olympic Games. Canadian women bookended Saturday’s opening preliminary session with strong performances at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

First up for Canada were two women in the 100-m butterfly. World champion Maggie Mac Neil (HPC – Ontario/London, ON) swam in 56.55, the fastest time of her heat, ranking in fifth for the semifinals, which will take place on Sunday morning at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre. (Saturday evening in Canadian time zones.)

“It was good to come out and get my first race under my belt, see what I can improve. I feel like my second 50 wasn’t as strong as I would like, so that’s the goal for tomorrow. I’m really inspired by Penny and Taylor after seeing what they did in 2016, knowing they are my age. It gave me chills and it’s really exciting to be here with them,” comment Mac Neil.

Katerine Savard (Club Aquatique Montreal/Pont-Rouge, QC), who recently started swimming the event again after a few years focusing on freestyle, swam in 57.51, her fastest time since 2015. She qualified for the semifinals in 11^th place.

“I’m really, really happy. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would swim the 100 fly in the Olympics semifinals, I wouldn’t have believed it. I was swimming in the outside lane, I couldn’t see the other girls, so I was really able to focus on my own race. I’m trying to make the most of my third Olympic experience and live in the moment,” said Savard.

The women’s 4×100-m freestyle relay team finished the session by posting a time of 3:33.72 in the heats, ranking them in third place heading into the finals, behind Australia (3:31.73) and the Netherlands (3:33.51). Kayla Sanchez (HPC – Ontario/Scarborough, ON) started off the relay in a personal best 53.45, followed by Taylor Ruck (HPC – Ontario/Kelowna, BC) in 54.16, Rebecca Smith (HPC – Ontario/Red Deer, AB) in 53.73, and Penny Oleksiak (HPC – Ontario/Toronto, ON) in 52.38.

“I think we just all went out there and did our best to get into the final. We’ll definitely have more speed tomorrow after a full night of sleep, we’re very excited to see what we can do,” said Oleksiak.

“After not having a big meet in a long time, swimming here and seeing the big lights and the big pool make it that much more exciting and made us swim even faster,” Sanchez added.

Other Canadians in action were Tessa Cieplucha (Markham Aquatic Club/Georgetown, ON) in the women’s 400-m IM, who ranked 14^th in 4:44.54, and Gabe Mastromatteo (Kenora Swimming Sharks/Kenora, ON), who swam the men’s 100-m breaststroke in 1:01.56 and ranked in 38^th place. Both were making their Olympic debut. Sydney Pickrem (HPC – Ontario), who was entered in the 400-m IM, withdrew from the event due to medical reasons unrelated to COVID-19.

Full schedule and results: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games/en/results/swimming/olympic-schedule-and-results-date=2021-07-24.htm