Merissa Redwood ended her competitive synchronized swimming career on the highest note she could.
The Springbank High School student brought home two gold medals in figures and solo from the Canadian Open Championships, which were held May 2-6 in Victoria, B.C. It was Redwood’s fourth and last National competition.
“I have never even come close to winning at Nationals, so this was a huge deal,” she said. “Especially because it might have been my last year, I was ending on a good note.”
Two years ago, Redwood, who has been swimming competitively for nine years, was on track to one day compete at the Olympics. She was training 22 hours a week with the Calgary Aquabelles and began attending the National Sport School in Grade 9. However, her dream was derailed when she injured her back during a dry-land workout.
The injury forced Redwood to take a year off and leave the National Sport School. She later joined the Killarney Synchronized Swim Club in Calgary and began training for her comeback. She returned to competition in July 2011, competing at the U.S. Open, her first international tournament.
In March, Redwood competed at the Western Divisional competition in Winnipeg, winning first in figures, second in solo and first in championships, which combines the figures and solo scores. She had only two practices off between Divisionals and Nationals before she was back in the water training for the competition in Victoria.
If dealing with the nerves and lingering pain in her back wasn’t enough, Redwood came down with a cold and the stomach flu just as the competition began.
“It was tough to battle through, but I must have had really good swims because I ended up winning Nationals,” she said.
While winning two gold medals far surpassed the 16-year-old’s expectations, she did have a specific goal heading into Nationals. At the beginning of last year, Redwood’s coach had her write down what score she wanted to obtain for her routines. She was hoping for a 70 and it was a score of 71 that won her a gold medal for her solo routine.
“I was super excited about having actually achieved my goal,” she said. “I didn’t know I had actually won. (My coach) was super excited because she knew I had actually won.”
It was a bittersweet win for Redwood. The first-place finishes would have allowed her to tryout for Team Canada, but instead she is leaving competitive swimming behind. After discussing her future with her mom Betty, Redwood decided her back wasn’t strong enough to handle the six-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week training regiment required to compete at an international level.
“My back injury hasn’t been going away at all,” she said. “I’ve been going to (a chiropractor) twice a week and it starts to feel better, but then it starts to hurt again. I guess I could do one more year, but then I’d have to stop to go to university. I want to swim, but I don’t know if I want to go through what I went through this year and I don’t want to go through the pain again.”
Redwood is currently finishing up her Grade 11 year and is hoping to attend UBC Okanagan after she graduates high school, majoring either in nursing or marketing. She also hopes to stay involved in the sport and is considered taking up coaching, which she has done before.
“I’d be willing to do it again, but I’m definitely going to miss competing,” she said. “I love to compete and I’m a really competitive person.”
