Mackenzie Padington has been diving into pools all over the world for the last month and a half.
Instead of participating in graduation, the former Killer Whale swimmer, travelled with Team Canada to Paris for a swim meet, then to a staging camp in Austria for two weeks followed by two weeks in Budapest, Hungary for the FINA World Championships.
Earlier this year Padington qualified for World Championship in what she called ‘the race of her life.’
She had the chance to swim alongside what she called “world class athletes” at the championship in Budapest.
“I swam fairly well for my first international meet ever, I was right on my 400 free best time and a couple seconds off in my 800 and that’s all you can really ask for is trying your best,” she said.
Padington finished 16th of 38 in the 800 metre freestyle swim with a time of 8:40:68. She didn’t qualify for the final, which was won by Katie Ledecky with a time of 8:12:68.
In her other event, the 400 metre freestyle she finished 12th of 36 with a time of 4:09:88. She didn’t qualify for the final which was won by Katie Ledecky with a time of 3:58:34.
At the moment she is in Montreal for the Canada Swimming Championships which take place from Aug. 4-7. After the competition she is returning to Campbell River for the rest of the summer before heading to the University of Minnesota.
“I’m going to be a Golden Gopher!” she said.
She is also planning on representing the Killer Whales at upcoming meets where she can’t swim for the university, which means on paper it will say that her home club is the Killer Whales.
“I wanted to represent the team that got me where I am,” she explained.
