By Chad Feehan / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Mount Pearl will have strong representation on this province’s 2025 Canada Games team.
Artistic swimmers Amelia Coady and Abigail Tee, who are both Grade-12 students at O’Donel High School, have participated in various competitions in the Atlantic region as well as in Ontario, but the Games will be their most daunting yet.
“I’m really excited, but there's a bit of nervousness behind it because it's a really big competition,” said Tee.
Both girls have been swimming for eight years, and together for seven. They both perform solo, duet, and team artistic swimming, but consider the variety of movements in team scenarios as particularly enjoyable. Complex maneuvers like throwing swimmers into the air are among the feats that just aren't possible in duet or solo swimming. Cascading, nearly-tandem movements also look visually stunning in team settings.
“In duet you can only do so much because it’s just two people,” said Coady.
However, they look forward to the possibility of a duet performance together at the Games, in addition to team swims and technical performances.
Participating in the team sport that they do, both girls are lucky to enjoy the company of their teammates as well as coaches including Alicia Vey and Victoria Easton, who make it easy for them to come back to the Summit Centre year after year.
Fortunately, the pair also work great together as a team, having similar styles, skill levels, and drive for the sport.
"We actually didn’t choose to go with each other, we got put together by our coaches and it just worked really well,” said Tee.
The road to making the team was long, Tee admitted, and included a half-year of evaluations, but seeing all of the girls push themselves to do their best was a great experience.
“There’s been so much improvement, especially between both of us,” she said. “We’ve improved so much just from the evaluating process itself, so I can’t wait to see what the Canada Games will bring when we’re actually on the team and training consistently.”
They’ve grown to love the sport in a different way than the bright-eyed excitement of early childhood. Due to a deeper understanding of artistic swimming, they have more fun now than ever, but it was that initial excitement that brought them to where they are today.
“Our parents put us in it,” said Coady. “We just tried something new and really, really liked it.”
