18-year old Sydney Pickrem has broken her own Canadian National Record in the women’s 200 IM by swimming a 2:10.94 on Sunday morning in the preliminary heats of the event at the 2015 FINA World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia.
The time improved upon her 2:11.16 swum two weeks ago at the Pan American Games in Toronto. The ability to swim best times two weeks apart is a good sign for the Canadian team, who went big for their home-event in July, raising some concern about the ability to hold their taper and rest over to these World Championships – which are a globally more significant event.
Comparative Splits:
| Fly | Back | Breast | Free | TOTAL | |
| Pickrem Pan Ams | 29.01 | 32.94 | 38.09 | 31.25 | 2:11.29 |
| Pickrem Worlds | 28.98 | 33.13 | 37.95 | 30.88 | 2:10.94 |
The splitting almost shows that she’s “settling in” to her final taper a little bit. Her first three splits were very similar to what she did at the Pan Am Games, but the big difference was her closing kick that was the fastest in the field aside from top-qualifier Katinka Hosszu.
Pickrem is a part of a rising group of young Canadian women, many of whom are being trained in the United States, that have demonstrated an impressive resilience (Emily Overholt, who was DQ’ed at Pan Ams after touching first in the 400 IM, came back to win the 400 free the next day – she’s trained at home in Canada).
Pickrem was born in the United States, but holds Canadian citizenship. She is currently committed to swim at Texas A&M University beginning this fall.