By Jim Morris

Joshua Liendo isn’t thinking about a ceiling as he prepares for the FINA World Championships.

“I’m not going to put any limits on myself,” said the 19-year-old Toronto native who trains at the High Performance Centre – Ontario. “I’m going to try to be up there with the top guys. I’ve proven I can be up there.

“I’m still learning, still improving. I’m not going to give myself a set time. I’m going to work as hard as I can then swim as fast as I can.”

Liendo produced a string of impressive results at the Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria. He won the 100-metre butterfly plus the 100-m and 50-m freestyle to earn a spot on the team competing at the world championships beginning June 18 in Budapest, Hungary.

In winning the 100-m fly, Liendo lowered his own Canadian record to 50.88, resulting in him being named Olympic swimmer of the meet. He also broke Brent Hayden’s 13-year-old mark in the 50 free with a 21.63.

“I wanted to throw down good times,” said Liendo. “There’s always things that can be better but I did have some good takeaways from the meet in the way I swam.

“I got a lot of good information. I took it back into training and worked on things.”

While happy with the results, Liendo wasn’t totally satisfied.

“Best times you can’t go wrong, and seeing the improvement from where you were before,” he said. “But then you still see things that you can work on and fix. Even my coach told me after the butterfly, there’s room in this race to improve.

“It’s good to see there’s room for improvement. You want to get back into training and improve those things.”

Like other young swimmers, Liendo is making the transition from just being happy to make a senior national team to seeing it as a stepping stone toward a larger goal.

“The big thing is moving forward, getting better and being prepared for the big meets,” he said. “That’s where results really count.”

The last three years have been a steep learning curve for Liendo.

In 2019 he qualified for his first senior national team and swam at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. He was a member of the 4×100-m medley relay that finished 10^th and individually was 44^th in the 50-m butterfly.

Last summer in Tokyo, Liendo competed in his first Olympics. He was part of the men’s 4×100-m freestyle relay that broke the Canadian record and finished fourth. He also swam the butterfly leg of the men’s 4×100-m medley relay that placed seventh. Individually, Liendo finished 11th in the 100-m butterfly, 14th in the 100-m freestyle and 18th in the 50-m freestyle.

A few months later he won three medals at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25-m) in Abu Dhabi, including a gold as a member of the mixed 4×50-m freestyle relay.

His busy season resulted in Liendo being named Swimming Canada’s Junior Male Swimmer of the Year.

Every competition fed Liendo’s hunger to improve.

“I took a lot from those competitions, then applied it and that made me a better swimmer,” he said.

“The number one thing is seeing that other level of competition and realizing what it takes to be there. You realize your preparation has to be better. How you carry yourself plays a big role at that level.”

Liendo was never intimated by the other swimmers at major meets, but now feels more comfortable in the environment.

“You know you belong in that kind of arena with the best in the world,” he said.

Swimming different strokes like the butterfly and freestyle helps Liendo’s training.

“Fly is like a power stroke,” he said. “Having that power, I feel it does translate a little bit into freestyle.

“They are different strokes. I have to work on things differently in each. Being able to do the two different strokes is good.”

Liendo believes the combination of more experience and a better understanding of how to train has made him capable of reaching a final in Budapest.

“I think I’m at that stage I can be challenging for medals,” he said. “That’s my goal.

“I’m excited, very pumped. I’ve gotten a little better and want to see what I can do on that stage this time around.”