Kaitlyn Hay is looking to swim all over the world.
A member of the Thunder Bay Thunderbolts, the grade 12 St. Pat’s student has been in the pool for longer than she can remember.
“It’s been a long time,” she said poolside at the Canada Games Complex on Saturday as her club hosted the Northwestern Ontario Regional Championships.
Hay has been training 10 times a week for at least two hours at a time in the hope of getting to the next level. And she’s almost there. She recently qualified for the World Trials in Victoria in April, a chance to compete for Canada on an international level.
“It means a lot. I was really excited that I was able to make it,” she said. “It’s really hard. It takes a lot of work.”
While the goal is to make the national team, Hay is just hoping to do her best.
“I’m just looking for best times there,” she said.
Most teens spend their weekends hanging out with friends. Not Hay. She took this weekend’s regional meet to work on what she calls her off events. At the world trials, she’s swimming in the 1500 metre freestyle event. On Saturday alone, she competed in four other events just to see where she’s at.
All of the training and hard work doesn’t leave time for much else.
“Just homework,” she said.
