UNM freshman swimmer Archer invited to Canadian Olympic Trials
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BVM) — Madison Archer has known for several years that she was fast enough to compete with the top swimmers in her home country. Back in July 2016 when she was only 13 years old, the native Canadian swam to what would’ve been a qualifying time for the Olympic Trials. Unfortunately, the trials had already taken place three months prior.
But Archer knew should we get another shot, and it’ll finally come this spring.
Swimming Canada released the preliminary list of athletes eligible for the Canadian Olympic Trials, and the University of New Mexico freshman was invited to compete in both the women’s 1,500-yard freestyle and the 800-yard freestyle events.
“I knew that this year they were going to do it by invitation and I had it calculated out like, ‘OK, I should I get invited,’” Archer said, “but you still never know, but when I got the email it was really exciting.”
The Canadian trials, which will decide which athletes qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, are scheduled for April 7-11 in Toronto. It will be Archer’s first real competition in more than a year. What would’ve been her first season of college swimming was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic after UNM decided earlier this month not to compete in the 2020-21 swimming and diving season.
“It sucks because the college experience is something that I’ve been kind of thinking about since I was probably about 10 when I knew I wanted to swim NCAA,” Archer said. “But the chance will come next year and all of the years following so that’s something to look forward to and something that excites me.”
While she waits for the chance to swim at the college level, Archer is looking forward to the opportunity to compete with Canada’s best in the more immediate future. Archer, who calls both Ottawa and Halifax, Nova Scotia her hometowns, is currently training with her club team back home in preparation for the trials, which will include a maximum of 20 swimmers in each distance. Archer’s personal bests of 17:21 in the 1,500 and 9:00 in the 800 are times she hopes to match or beat at the trials, regardless of how those times stack up against the swimmers who qualify for Tokyo.
“Personally, I’m not aiming for the Olympic team,” Archer said. “There’s an open water junior team that is being sent to Seychelles (Africa) if that happens in August and that’s more of my aim. They’re not completely picking that team off of trials. I think they’re going to do something else to help us through that process … In all honesty if I could go [my best] times or a little bit faster, I would be super happy just because of everything that’s been going on, but to go faster and to make that junior team, that would be awesome.”
Archer doesn’t know for sure where her swimming career will take her beyond the Olympic trials, but she’s excited about the opportunity in front of her and the chance to become an even better swimmer at the NCAA level and maybe beyond.
“Personally, I just want to be able to contribute to my college team and to be able to just reach my full potential, whatever that may be,” Archer said. “I’m not super sure what that may be. I’m really interested in open water, so there may be something with that that might take me to the next level, but I just [want] to fulfill my potential and really be the best that I can be.”
