Minic has also recently accepted a swimming scholarship to the University of Indiana (Photo supplied by Catherine Minic)

By Shane Clausing

Tokyo in her Sights

Grande Prairie’s Catherine Minic invited to Team Canada Olympic swimming trials

Jan 6, 2021 | 1:43 PM

Grande Prairie’s Catherine Minic has been invited to participate in the upcoming Swimming Canada Olympic trials this April.

The 17-year-old swims out of the Grande Prairie Piranhas Swim Club and recently accepted a scholarship to the University of Indiana this past summer. She was originally committed to the University of Iowa, however, following the COVID-19 pandemic, Iowa was forced to cut it’s swimming program.

While this year has been full of ups and downs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Minic tells EverythingGP the invitation to the Olympic trials caught her off guard.

“I was a little surprised. I was just worried that I wasn’t going to make any events at all, so getting (selected) for two events is really cool and exciting.

“I’m so excited because the last trials were cancelled because of COVID, so this year is the first trials I’ll have been to in two years.”

According to Minic, since there haven’t been any competitions this year, the times that were chosen by Swimming Canada were from the last sanctioned event that she competed in, which is why Minic didn’t know if she was going to get an invitation to the trails at all.

At the Olympic trials, Minic will participate in the 200m Fly and the 400m Individual Medley.

Her latest recorded times for the 200m Fly is 2:16.52, which is good enough for the 20^th fastest time in Canada.

Minic’s time in the 400m Individual Medley is 4:55.32, which is 24^th in the country.

Minic thinks that she’s faster now than she was back then.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I could go at least 2-3 seconds faster in the 200m Fly and I don’t know about the 400. The only downside is we haven’t trained in a month. I think if we had continuous training up until trails, I think I definitely would’ve improved on my times.”

While the Olympic qualifying process is a little wonky because of COVID, Minic added that getting a little rest before she gears up for the trials might not be the worst thing for her. She says she’s hopeful she’ll be able to get back in the pool in January of February when restrictions get lifted.

Despite making the Olympic trials in April, Minic thinks that it’ll be a tough road to make it to Tokyo this summer.

“It would be really cool, but I don’t think I’m quite at that level yet. I think maybe in a couple of years I’ll be more in the realm, but this year I’m thinking (making) a junior team would be really cool. It’s my last year to qualify being 17 now, so if they do have one, that would be awesome for me.”

In a Facebook post from the Grande Prairie Piranhas Swim Club, they said that Minic is one of only a handful of Albertans to get invited to the Olympic trials.