It’s a good thing Meredith Levorson got over her dislike of swim lessons.
The 16-year-old Vernon Kokanee Swim Club member is preparing for one of the biggest meets of her life, the Canadian Olympic trials, April 5-10 in Toronto.
“I started swimming in summer club in Golden but I did lessons before that and I hated it,” laughed Levorson, a Grade 11 Vernon Secondary student who has been swimming with the Kokanee since she moved to Vernon with her parents, Greg and Alison, eight years ago.
“My parents saw I wasn’t too bad at swimming and wanted me to keep trying it.”
A former ballet dancer, basketball and volleyball player, the 6-foot-3 Levorson gave it all up to concentrate on swimming.
She’s in the Vernon Rec Centre pool six days a week for two hours each day with Sunday off (unless she’s in a swim meet).
Levorson qualified for the Olympic trials in the 50- and 100-metre freestyle races by swimming qualifying times at meets in 2015 in Kamloops and Fort McMurray.
She warmed up for Toronto by breaking her own club records in both events at the B.C. AAA championships in Victoria, where she swam away with two silver medals, a bronze and a new senior national qualifying time in the 200-free.
“I’m really excited,” said Levorson of the upcoming trials. “I’m hoping to improve on my best times and it will be about the experience of getting to go and race all of the athletes from across the country, which will really be interesting.
“I’m hoping to do the best I can without being too nervous. I’m not nervous yet, but I’m building up to it.”
One person Levorson can lean on for help and experience is Kokanee head coach Steven Vander Meulen, who represented Canada, along with his brother, Gary, at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
This year’s Summer Olympics are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and reaching a final in either event in Toronto (which would be a top-20 placing) is a secondary goal compared to Levorson swimming best times and gaining valuable experience, perhaps for a shot on the national team for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
“If we can keep working hard on the areas she needs work in, and maintain all her strengths, I believe she has a real possibility to make national teams in the future and certainly the 2020 Olympics would be a great goal to attain,” said Vander Meulen, who rejoined the Kokanee as head coach in 2015.
He has been impressed with Levorson’s focus on training and racing.
“She has been very coachable throughout a transition in coaching and has an excellent work ethic,” said Vander Meulen. “I can see a great future ahead for Meredith in all her endeavours whether it be swimming or school or work.”
Levorson competes in all of the swimming strokes but says freestyle is her favourite.
Asked what she likes to do away from the pool, Levorson laughed and said she isn’t really away from the pool, other than weight training with the Kokanee on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Her favourite school subjects are sciences, particularly chemistry and biology, and she hopes to land a college scholarship.
“I want to go to university and swim, for sure,” said Levorson. “I’m not really sure yet what I want to study.”
