The 2022 World Para Swimming Championships get under way Sunday in Madeira, Portugal, and a larger-than-usual Canadian contingent is ready to get going.

The seven-day competition runs until Saturday, June 18 at the Penteada Olympic Swimming Complex, with preliminaries set for 9 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET / 1 a.m. PT) and finals starting at 5 p.m. (noon ET / 9 a.m. PT) daily.

All finals will be livestreamed on the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Facebook page and Paralympic.ca as well as CBC Sports digital platforms: the free CBC Gem streaming service, cbcsports.ca, and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices.

Canada will be represented in Madeira, an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, by a group of 30 athletes, significantly larger than the team of 18 that claimed 14 medals (2-7-5) at the 2019 Worlds in London.

Seventeen of the selected swimmers are returnees from London 2019, including superstar Aurélie Rivard of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., who captured two gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the United Kingdom capital to up her career total to 14 podium finishes at the event (4-6-4).

Other world championships veterans heading to Portugal include fellow 2019 medallists Alec Elliot, James Leroux, Shelby Newkirk, Tess Routliffe, Katarina Roxon, Abi Tripp, Nicolas-Guy Turbide and Aly Van Wyck-Smart.

Among first-time participants, 18-year-old Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C., was a three-time finalist in his Paralympic Games debut last summer in Tokyo, lowering his own Canadian record in all four of his events along the way. Bennett once again shattered his national S14 marks in the 100-m breaststroke, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley at Canadian Swimming Trials in April to qualify for Madeira 2022.

Wayne Lomas, Swimming Canada’s Associate High Performance Director and National Para Swimming Coach, looks forward to great performances from the Canadian delegation, which held a 10-day staging camp in Crawley, UK, prior to arriving in Madeira.

“We look for every swimmer to achieve their best on the day that matters, so our goals are personal bests. With such an extensive range of experiences on this team, the opportunity to learn and grow together provided by the camp in Crawley was very positive.

“At the end of the championships, we want every swimmer to honestly assess that they did their best, not only at the championships themselves, but also in the lead up; that they and their coach can identify the two or three things to work on for next preparation to be better, and to reflect on the journey as being fun.”

Lomas is thrilled to see Para swimmers get a chance to compete at a second major international competition in nine months.

“After more than two years of isolation where our Para sport community was more significantly impacted by the health guidelines than its Olympic and professional sport peers, it’s been great to bring our current and future generation swimmers and coaches together to compete at this level. This sets us up for next year’s world championships and the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.”

Senior team coach Mike Thompson, head coach of the High Performance Centre – Quebec in Montreal, leads the Canadian coaching staff in Portugal.

“We have a strong team. We have a lot of diversity, people who have been doing this for 12 years, and people getting their very first shot,” Thompson says.

“It’s hard to really set a general expectation for the team because we have people who are just discovering now what it’s like to perform on an international stage. Also, for some of the veterans, this is the year after the Paralympic Games, where they may have taken a longer break.”

Like Lomas, Thompson says Canada’s success in Madeira won’t be measured by the number of podium finishes.

“I think what we’re trying to do is create a new culture, trying to add more young blood into the game. We’re hoping to put everyone in the best possible position to achieve their goal, whether it’s a personal best or what they’ve been working towards the whole year.

“As is always the case, one of our main goals is for our athletes to represent the country well and represent themselves well. We’re not judging anything on medals or on finals. We’re looking for them to have standout performances and do the best they can.

“For some of the new swimmers, this will be an eye-opening experience because, obviously, it’s not the same as other meets. One of the things I always say when we get to these major meets is ‘Be ready.’ There’s always going to be a welcome to the world championships moment, a welcome to the Paralympics moment. Something is going to blow their mind that they’ve never seen before.”

One of the seven coaches working alongside Thompson in Madeira is Ryan Allen, who is in charge of relays.

The WPS moved to mixed gender relays only at these world championships, and Canada will take part in six of eight available events.

“As far as I know, it’s the first time we have a coach dedicated to relays as part of the staff. In the past, it’s always fallen on the head or senior coach or one of the group coaches. Now that I’ve been engaged in it, I realize it deserves its own role. Just because of the sheer amount of thinking it takes and the time behind the scenes, and the communication between the groups. There’s a lot of balancing to it,” Allen says.

“I think looking at what the Olympic program is doing could and should be a long-term plan. Swimming Canada was looking at doing an S14 relay initiative this past fall but COVID, among other factors, squashed that. But there was an intention to have that event last fall. I think now that there’s this sign of investment, someone just looking after this role, I think it’s a great sign moving forward.”

Allen says Swimming Canada’s increased commitment to relays at Madeira 2022 is not lost on athletes.

“The biggest thing I’m hearing so far is that athletes feel confident that this is being intentionally thought about. They’ve been very vocal about relays being medal events, and now they’re being treated as medal events. Not that they weren’t before. Just not with the same purpose.”

As part of that commitment, Tyson MacDonald of Tillsonburg, Ont., was added to the team a few weeks after the original selection was announced at the end of the Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria in April.

“In order for us to be able to field S14 relays in Madeira, we needed a second male. Tyson didn’t meet an individual event standard at Trials but there’s a stipulation in the WPS rules that allows countries to request an allocation for an athlete.

“The same goes for FINA and the Olympic stream. Over the years, there have been many Olympic program swimmers who have been brought just for relay duty. A name that comes to mind is Taylor Ruck in 2016. She was brought only for relays, and that yielded two Olympic medals for Canada in Rio.

“You’re doing it because you’re allowed to do it but at the end of the day, it’s an investment. It’s an investment in the team, an investment in that individual athlete.”