Newmarket swimmer Brayden Taivassalo doesn't quite have the words to describe how he feels after achieving a chance to swim for Team Canada.
After a first and two third-place finishes at the Canadian swim trials last week, the 18-year-old earned his chance to compete with the team at the next world championships and other international events.
“I’m just really honoured to be a part of what people that I looked up to growing up (did),” he said. “It’s a feeling beyond words, that everything you’ve ever dreamed of and worked toward … it’s all finally coming to fruition.”
The longtime local swim star earned his place with a first-place finish in the seniors men category of the 200m breaststroke. He followed that up with third-place finishes in the 100m and 50m breaststrokes over the course of the week.
It has been a long journey for Taivassalo, who started swimming with the Newmarket Stingrays at age eight, until the pandemic hit. He then spent time in Florida for further training before returning to Canada to compete with the Markham Aquatic Club.
But he praised all his coaches and teachers in Newmarket for helping him along the way.
“Everybody from Newmarket has just been incredible and instrumental in helping me get to the point that I am,” he said.
Now, Taivassalo will be getting ready to travel with the team and compete in Europe in the summer.
Family affair
Taivassalo was joined at the swim trials by his sister, Kesa Taivassalo, who was competing in the junior women’s races. She placed sixth in the 200m breaststroke and ninth in the 100m breaststroke.
“I was honestly just a really cool competition to be competing with high-level athletes like that,” she said. “It was my first time competing at that level … and it was just really exciting and motivating to see all these fast swimmers.”
At the younger end of her age category, she said she hopes to improve and get on the junior national team after another year of training.
The competition just “reassured confidence in myself,” she added.
Brayden said he is “just as invested in her swimming as my parents are. She’s put in a lot of work … At the end of the day, this is all just good experience.”
Meanwhile, Kesa said she is happy to see her brother advancing after all the work he has put in and the sacrifices he made.
“I’m just so proud of the fact he’s performing well and really making his dream come true.”
Their father, Petja Taivassalo, said they were a "bundle of nerves" watching their kids compete and cheering them on throughout the week.
He added that It was emotional seeing Brayden earn a place with the national team.
"There truly are no words that could accurately capture the emotions we as a family felt when Brayden's name was announced to wear the Maple Leaf this summer for Team Canada at the World Championships," he said.
"Thinking back of Brayden taking his first strokes as a Newmarket Stingray in the Magna pool to now racing against the world's best brings chokes me right up. I mean he has worked so hard and has sacrificed so much in missing many of the common teenage moments to chase his dreams."
