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So you won gold at the Pan Am Games. What's next?

JMSB student and Canada synchro captain Marie-Lou Morin checks in from the 2015 FINA World Championships in Russia
July 27, 2015
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By Tom Peacock


“The whole world is there!” This week, Concordia student Marie-Lou Morin is competing in the 16th FINA World Championships. “The whole world is there!” This week, Concordia student Marie-Lou Morin is competing in the 16th FINA World Championships. | Photo courtesy of Marie-Lou Morin

Last night, the 2015 Pan American Games closing ceremonies in Toronto wrapped up 20 days of competition in 36 sports.

One of Canada’s record-breaking 78 gold medals went to the country’s synchronized swim team, captained by Marie-Lou Morin, a student at Concordia's John Molson School of Business (JSMB).

“Performing in front of a hometown crowd — our friends and family and all our synchro fans — was just unbelievable,” Morin says, recalling her team’s July 11 win. “The crowd was so loud and our adrenaline was so high.”

JMSB student Marie-Lou Morin at the 2015 Pan American Games At the 2015 Pan American Games

Marie-Lou Morin: from the Pan Am Games in Toronto to FINA in Kazan

Although Morin and her eight teammates may have wanted to spend some more time in Toronto drinking in the atmosphere after their big win, they packed their bags and left the following day for a training camp in Slovakia.

They had other fish to fry. Morin describes the 16th FINA World Championships, which runs from July 24 to August 9 in Kazan, Russia, as “the biggest competition of them all.”

“The whole world is there!” she says.

On Saturday, July 25, Morin and her team qualified for the finals of the technical team event, scheduled for today.

The preliminary round of the free team event takes place on Tuesday, July 28; then, the combination team final is on Saturday, August 1. “It’s the toughest and longest competition, since we have preliminaries for each routine and the meet extends over eight days.”

After the 16th FINA World Championships

After a hard-earned post-Kazan holiday, the Concordia student is looking forward to resuming regular pool practise. “We’ll start training for the Olympic qualifications in March 2016,” she says. "It’ll be our final fight to get our spot.”

Currently on a break from her studies in Business Management at JMSB, Morin will resume classes next year.

Balancing schoolwork with six swimming practices a week has proven challenging: “The best way is really to be organized and have a detailed schedule when there is a lot of work or studies to be done.”

If Morin’s pre-Pan Am Games training schedule is any indication of what’s in store, the next eight months will be very busy. “We trained 10 hours a day, four times a week, and then six hours the other two times."

Still, it's all worth it: "It was really intense training, but it paid off!”

Find out more about the management program at the John Molson School of Business.

Follow Marie-Lou Morin and the rest of the Canadian synchronized swim team at the 16th FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia.

 



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