Four-time Olympic medalist Taylor Ruck has announced that she will not be competing at the 2023 Canadian Swimming Trials this week in order to rest. The meet will be used to select the team for the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan this summer and Ruck was entered in the 100 free (ranked first), 200 free (ranked second), and 100 back (ranked third.)
“I need to put myself in the best position to perform to my goals at the Olympics next year,” Ruck told Swimming Canada about her decision. “Right now that means I need to unplug for a little while, so I can come back refreshed and ready to be at my best in the pool.”
The Stanford senior just finished a busy NCAA season where she defended her NCAA Championship title in the 200 free at the women’s NCAA Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee. Ruck also swam on Stanford’s 800 free, 200 free, and 400 free relays, all of which placed second, and she helped Stanford to a third-place finish overall. In December, she represented Canada at the 2022 FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne.
After NCAAs, Ruck joined a training group at the High Performance Centre in Ontario in order to prepare for Trials. But, she was feeling exhausted and ultimately decided to take a break. After discussing her long-term swimming plans with Stanford head coach Greg Meehan, HPC-Ontario head coach Ryan Mallette, and Swimming Canada High Performance Director and Swimming Canada National Coach John Atkinson, they supported her decision to withdraw from the Canadian Trials.
“We need to keep the long-term best interests of each individual athlete at the forefront,” Atkinson said in Swimming Canada’s press release. “With so many events on the calendar last year, and between now and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, not every swimmer is going to be able to swim them all.
Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak also withdrew from the Canadian Trials in order to continue recovering and rehabilitating from the knee injury she suffered in the summer of 2022.
“Everybody’s got to do what they need to do on their path, based on where they are physically and mentally. Everybody’s on their own path to Paris, and those paths are going to converge next year.”
It appears that her break will not be too long, though, as both Atkinson and Ruck plan on her training at the Swimming Canada camp in Mallorca in May and then racing at Mare Nostrum.
Remember Spitz’s Mex City ’68 disaster? He learned there; all do, particularly the NCAA swimmers (those who haven’t been to them yet, that is): To say the Olys is/are THE meet(s) of a swimmer’s career is still to understate it grossly. Spitz used his terrible disappointment to…uh…yeah, everyone knows.
I love all the armchair athletes questioning her decisions. Lol.
I’m glad Taylor is taking a bit of a break.
Ultimately competing in Paris is the long term goal for both her and Penny and if by chance either or both of them can swim at the Worlds this summer that would be considered a real bonus.
People are ignoring the obvious fact, she’s a college student and college is f**king hard.
Taylor is in an unusual situation as she has several options to consider. She needs to decide if she is going to use either of her two years of NCAA eligibility that remains or to turn professional. The main thing is Taylor is a remarkable person and a great teammate! Her team at Stanford adores her and wants nothing but the best for her!
I don’t believe she has any ncaa eligibility left.
The NCAA grants 6 years to complete 4 seasons, with the Covid Year. Ruck has redshirted 2 seasons, and has competed in 3 seasons. She has 1 year left.
her most recent post on instagram seems to indicate that her college career is over
Just terrible calendar format for the Canadians who swam NCAA this year. The athletes. Canada’s national team & the sport of swimming all lose here.
Canada made it clear in the last generation that they had a strong preference for Canadian athletes to live and train at home and not go to the NCAA. They might not say that publicly, but their activity made that pretty clear.
Maybe this is an extension of that.
Which is a valid viewpoint for them to hold. However, the reality is that a number of their leading swimmers ARE swimming in the NCAA system.
The other key reality is that by clinging like limpets to their schedule of early Trials; they are not exactly facilitating “best practice” with regards to high performance given both the NCAA swimmers along with their own USports swimmers are coming off SC competition with very minimal if any LC racing.
Going to the NCAA is, indeed, not for everyone and for all those domestic and internationals who DO thrive; there are also the significant (but unmentioned) percentage for whom it does not work out. Having said that, Swimming CAN does need to acknowledge… Read more »
Swimming Canada has made it clear since the 90’s their intention is to discourage swimmers to swim / go to school in the US by making a number of important trials just after NCAA’s (Olympics, Worlds, Pan Pacs, Commonwealths). As an athlete you also lose carding (stipends).
It’s well known in the swim Canada community that this is deliberate and acts as a deterrent for Canadian swimmers entering the NCAA. You would think they would change their stance after so many swimmers like Maggie have developed into literally the best in the world going through that program.
It also just doesn’t make sense in that a swimmer in high school who may not even be on the cusp of making a major team is probably not going to the thinking of the timing of a trials 1-4 years down the road as a major factor in their decision, if they even think to consider it!
Why bother having a Trials in Canada if they can just appoint anyone they want.
I kind of agree. I fully support athletes doing what’s best for them but if she still gets a spot I feel bad for the swimmer who may have earned it at trials but gets bumped.
I’m not concerned about bumping. Under the selection criteria Swimming Canada’s High Performance Director can select eligible swimmers where space remains (for events where two swimmers did not meet the A standard at trials). The HPD can also select swimmers to enhance relays. The top four in 100 and 200 FR will be named to the team and not displaced by discretionary selections. The discretionary provision simply allows the HPD to select additional swimmers, whether that is the 5th and 6th place swimmers at trials, or another swimmer(s). This discretionary provision is particularly helpful in cases where a top swimmer is injured or ill at trials. Taylor Ruck was added to the team for Rio as a discretionary pick to… Read more »
I wouldn’t feel it is unfair if she only takes spots in events that they don’t have two A qualifiers
They won’t be bumped if they qualify under the criteria.
Best of both worlds for a mid sized swimming country like Canada. Neither the cutthroat all or nothing Trials are ideal unlike in the US with all that depth. But they are still valid as a step 1 to get the pressure cooker racing atmosphere for 90% + of the team.
Then to have back doors for swimmers like Taylor, or a still recovering Penny, or swimmer or two who didn’t ‘hit’ at Trials but did so later in the spring. We are not the US where if someone falls short there is automatically someone else to take spot. This is the best hybrid “Canadian model” way to get the best swimmers on a given team.
OR consider changing the timing of their Trials ? Just because “it’s the way we’ve always done things” does not mean that it is necessarily current “best practice”.
No one who peaks for late March/early April Trials will be able to hold their taper for another 3+ months so that means another new “preparation”. AUS clung to a similar Trials timing for the same old “it’s the way we’ve always done it” until the cold realities of the terrible strike rate for swimmers being able to match/better their Trials efforts 3-4 months later.
The reality is that a very sizeable percentage of their swimmers will not necessarily now be in top LCM condition having just come out of NCAA and… Read more »
I’m not saying there’s not an argument for later Trials as you outline, just replying to the earlier comment about ‘why have one’. In that I believe our greatest success at major meets is incumbent on the best possible group of swimmers ‘getting there’, which may mean additional back door qualifying post “Trials”. Not that anyone should be bumped, just that holes could and should be filled when possible.
Australia’s later trials have yielded pretty good results, too. We can’t, of course, declare that this is precisely an impact of the movement of the dates – but at a minimum, moving the dates didn’t degrade whatever other positive movements that were happening to cause better results.
Ruck racing at the Mare Nostrum tour means she might be at worlds…She’d be added to the team at the discretion of the high performance director
Without Oleksiak and Ruck, Canada women’s swimming is just not the same.