“After my first turn, I could hear the rest of the Canadian team going crazy so I knew I must be close to the record,” said Jonathan Dieleman
He recently set a national record in the 150-metre individual medley at a special meet held in Toronto following the cancellation of the World Championships slated for Mexico City earlier this month.
That meet was postponed due to a serious earthquake. In its place the Canadians, Australians and several others held a special meet to take advantage of the ready state of preparation they had achieved following a training camp at high altitude. Numerous Canadian records were felled at the competition.
Dieleman also swam his best 50-metre breaststroke of the year that should rank him in the top three in the world.
He didn’t just squeak under the old time, he smashed it by over three seconds.
At this level, that’s a remarkable achievement.
Dieleman, who swims with the Richmond Rapids Swim Club, broke a 20-year-old Canadian record in the SM4 150-m individual medley with a 3:17.41. The previous mark of 3:20.59 was set in 1997.
“It feels great. I’ve been chasing this record since the Olympic Trials in 2016 so it feels good, a year-and-a-half later, to actually break it by a good amount of time,” he said.
After a short break, Dieleman has returned to his new home in Quick.
Before returning to the competition circuit, where he will be racing in international meets around the globe in preparation for the 2020 Olympics, he’ll spend some time here and start preparing for some different events such as triathlon.
Dieleman is a relative newcomer on the swimming scene. A lifelong athlete, he lost the use of his legs following an accident and began swimming to train for triathlon and fitness. A suggestion by a local coach led him to Richmond where he was able to access better training facilities and competition.
He says he enjoys coming back to where it all started and likes to see how the local kids have improved.