Swimmer Justice Migneault of Maple Ridge won a silver medal with Team B.C. competing in the Ontario Junior International swimming competition.
Justice and his relay teammates finished second in the men’s under-18 400m medley relay and. Migneault swan the freestyle leg of the relay.
The B.C. team also finished fourth in the men’s under-18 400m free relay.
The event was held Dec. 14-16 at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.
Migneault, 16, is in Grade 11 at Archbishop Carney secondary in Port Coquitlam.
The Ridge resident was a member of the Haney Seahorses Swim Club from the age of about six, but with the closure of the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre he was one of the club members who chose to find a new team.
He now swims for the Surrey Knights Swim Club, and was even joined by his Seahorses coach Dave Geary.
Now, his main coach is Reg Shaw, who was the Team Canada paralympic games coach.
Migneault was one of the Seahorses stars, and last year at the provincials in Kamloops he won the 100m fly, 400m individual medley, 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley and the 100m free.
The previous year, he competed at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, as one of 12 B.C. boys on the team in his age group.
The goal now is to win a scholarship to an NCAA swim team in the U.S., which will prepare him for his ultimate goal – to swim for Canada in the Olympics.
“I’ve always had the goal of being an Olympian, and first getting a top-notch scholarship,” he said.
He has been getting faster, and hitting new personal bests regularly, and in his age group is one of the top swimmers in B.C. in freestyle, fly and medley.
His times have caught the attention of U.S. college recruiters, and he is confident he will land with a first division program.
But he would love to end up at Arizona State University, or the University of Texas – two of the strongest programs in the country, and Arizona is the home of coach Bob Bowman, who trained record-breaking American swimmer Michael Phelps.
Migneault believes the key to fulfilling his Olympic dreams will be to get onto an elite NCCA swim team, so he needs to get faster.
“It’s about a good program, self motivation, and working hard,” he said.
For schooling, he hasn’t decided, but is leaning toward a career in aviation.
He knows these high school years are key to his development, as years when his times can get faster in big jumps.
He’s working hard, training for the provincials in March, followed quickly by the Western Canadian championships.