Taylor Ruck

Ruck was suffering from bronchitis during the trials for Canada's Olympic team and did not initially qualify, but officials took her illness into account and named her to the team for the 2016 Summer Olympics.[12][13]

There, as a sixteen year old Olympian, she swam the last leg in the heats and the second last leg of the finals in the women's 4×100 m relay final for Canada. Ruck competed with Penny Oleksiak, Chantal van Landeghem, Sandrine Mainville, and Michelle Williams and swam to a bronze medal, behind Australia and the United States. After the win Ruck said of "I’m definitely not one to cry easily but I was about to...I feel 110 per cent Canadian now!"[14] The medal was the first Canadian women's freestyle relay medal at the Olympics in 40 years.[14] She became the first athlete born in the 2000s to win an Olympic medal along with fellow Canadian swimmer and relay partner Penny Oleksiak.[15]

Ruck then won her second bronze medal as a part of the 4×200 metres freestyle relay team. She swam in second spot in the heats alongside Katerine Savard, Emily Overholt and Kennedy Goss, and second again in the final event, with Brittany MacLean and Oleksiak replacing Overholt and Goss. She last competed in the 4×100 metres medley, swimming the anchor leg in the trials before being replaced for the finals, where the Canadian team placed fifth.[13]

To end the 2016 season, Ruck and her teammates won a gold medal in the FINA short-course world swimming championships 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Ruck, swimming the second leg, posted the fastest split time of the final with a 1:51.69.[16] She also won a bronze medal in the individual 200 m freestyle. For the 2017 season, Ruck relocated back to Canada to train at the High Performance Centre – Ontario led by Ben Titley.[17] There she began training with teammates Oleksiak, Toro, Van Landegham, Rebecca Smith, Sandrine Mainville, Kayla Sanchez, and Richard Funk.[17]

Following her Olympic success in 2016, Ruck swam in the Canadian trials to compete at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. There she was unable to place higher than fourth in any of the events, meaning she failed to qualify for the Canadian team in any of the events and missed worlds.[18]

Ruck was part of the gold medal 4 × 200 m freestyle 2017 World Junior Swimming Championships team in Indianapolis. In the process the team broke the junior world record and championship record.[19] Ruck would add gold medals and world junior records in both the 4×100 m relay and the 4×100 m medley. She set the world junior record in the girl's 100 m backstroke semis, but would lose the record and the gold medal to Regan Smith while winning the silver medal in the event. While swimming in the 200 m freestyle event, she lowered the championship record twice when she set a 1:57.08.[20] Ruck also set a 100 m championship record while leading off the 4×100 m relay when she swam to a 53.63.[20]

Ruck competed as part of Canada's 2018 Commonwealth Games team in her buildup to the 2020 Summer Olympics.[21][22] The first day of competition in the Gold Coast was in fact a golden one when Ruck out-swam Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeon to win the 200m freestyle in a Commonwealth Games record 1:54.81.[23] The time was also a Canadian record. Later that night she added to her total with a silver in the 4×100 m freestyle relay together with Penny Oleksiak, Kayla Sanchez, and Alexia Zevnik. The next day Ruck kept amassing medals, winning three more Saturday evening. She started the night tying for silver in the 50 m freestyle event medaling with the Campbell sisters. Next Ruck won a bronze in the 100 m backstroke behind winner, teammate, and world record holder Kylie Masse. She would cap the night with a silver in the 4×200 m freestyle relay.[24]

She continued her winning ways, winning a silver behind Masse in the 200 m backstroke, but finishing ahead of Emily Seebohm,[25] and a bronze medal in the 100 m backstroke. On the final day of competition, Ruck tied the Commonwealth Games record for total medals at a single games with eight, when she anchored the 4×100 m medley relay team to a silver medal. Her eight medals tied Canadian Ralph Hutton, and Australians Susie O'Neill and Emily Seebohm; it also made her the most decorated Canadian female athlete ever at a single Commonwealth Games.[9] After her gold, five silvers, and two bronze medal performance at the games Ruck said that "I'm just so honoured to be able to win that many medals. This meet has been so much fun, and I'm so glad to finish it with these girls by my side."[9]

Following the Commonwealth Games, Ruck carried her success that season into the 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Tokyo. Ruck began the meet with a bronze medal in the women's 100 m freestyle, while adding bronzes in the 4×100 and 4×200 m freestyle relays. She then beat American star and fellow Stanford swimmer Katie Ledecky in the 200 m freestyle, leading from start to finish. CBC commentator Byron MacDonald said of Ruck's race and form that "anytime you beat the best female swimmer in the world… it's a huge step forward."[26] Ruck finished the competition in the 200 m backstroke where she out-touched Regan Smith at the wall for silver in the event. This gave her five medals, the most by any Canadian at a single Pan Pacific championships.[27] After a fantastic meet and a tremendous season put the world on notice, Ruck said of swimming in Tokyo, the site of the 2020 Olympics, that "this sets my expectations higher. I just love Japan and hopefully I'll be able to come back here in two years."[27]