Kyla Leibel of the Catalina Swim Club in Red Deer took home gold medals in the 50 Free and 100 Free events at the Canadian Junior Swim Championships in Calgary July 24-29.

By Sheldon Spackman

Canadian Champion

Leibel earns gold medals at Canadian Junior Swim Championships

Jul 30, 2019 | 10:51 AM

A Red Deer swimmer is celebrating two national titles at the Canadian Junior Championships held in Calgary this past weekend.

Kyla Leibel, 17, from the Catalina Swim Club is the Girls 15-17, 50 Free Canadian Champion after swimming 50 metres in 26.08 seconds on Sunday.

She also captured the Girls 15-17, 100 Free Canadian Championship after swimming 100 metres in 56.36 seconds.

Leibel says she feels good about the accomplishment.

“I feel really confident going into my big competition which is the Pan Am Games this summer and it’s good to get off the blocks and get a couple of wins under my belt,” explains Leibel. “I was ranked first going into both events and I definitely wanted to keep that ranking and go in and try to swim some good times.”

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Leibel admits, however, that she wasn’t fully rested prior to competing at nationals.

“Just going into the race with a confident mindset, I feel that really propelled me to do good in the race,” she says.

Leibel says her sights are now set on competing at the Pan Am Games already underway in Lima, Peru, as a member of Canada’s Senior National Swim Team.

“I have one individual event (50 Free) and then I’ll be helping Team Canada and my teammates on multiple relays,” explains Leibel. “So I definitely want to do the best I can in my individual event and help my teammates potentially get on the podium. I’m just really excited to represent Canada and try and do my best and help my teammates out. ”

Catalina Swim Club head coach Lucien Zucchi says the events were a training competition for Leibel before she leaves for Lima, Peru on Wednesday to compete at the 2019 Pan American Games.

“Her performance in terms of time was a good level,” says Zucchi. “During the season, Kyla has been really committed, she trains around 20 hours a week and I’m hoping that all the effort she did over the season will give her great results in the end.”

Following the Pan Am Games, Leibel says she’ll return to Red Deer before heading to Austin, Texas to attend the University of Texas on a swimming scholarship.

“I’m really excited to take this step in my life and my swimming career and start my schooling,” says Leibel.

“I’m going to be taking economics. But I definitely want to focus more on my nutrition and weights and swimming in general next year when I get down to the university and try and push myself and better myself so I can potentially make the Olympic team next year.”