Canada in Tokyo – Brent Hayden – Swimming

One thousand nine hundred days.

That is how long it has been since swimmer Brent Hayden last made the Team Canada roster for an Olympic Games.

Now, after battles with injury, mental health and seven years of retirement, the veteran is set to enter the pool at his fourth Olympic Games.

“It’s just been a wild ride,” Hayden said before flying to Japan. “I gave myself less than a year to try and make the team.”

The Maple Ridge, B.C. product will represent Canada in the 50-metre freestyle in Tokyo, nine years after winning bronze in the 100 metres at London 2012.

Hayden explained how he had developed a negative relationship with the water, and that chronic back spasms left him unable to walk just two weeks before his London podium.

“It was the worst year of my life leading up to London,” Hayden said. “My mental health had really deteriorated.”

Hayden has been very open with his struggles with mental health in his life — his wife Nadina also is a sufferer from PTSD — but he says that the pair’s willingness to talk about it has really saved him.

“A lot of people get scared to talk,” Hayden explained. “Especially for me as an athlete or male, we are sort of expected to tough it out and ‘man up.’

“I tried to strongman my way through these struggles and that is when I am actually in my darkest places. I want to make sure other people know it is OK to talk.”

“After I retired I noticed my brain chemistry started to change. I had to recalibrate my brain, ‘Bring Brent back’ in a way,” he added.

Hayden said that without his openness, his Olympic medal in 2012 would simply not have been possible, a day that even now he does not tire of talking about.

“I had everything going wrong that day and ultimately I succeeded. It is one of the greatest days of my life. It’s always fun to reminisce and makes me really proud,” Hayden said.

Hayden and his wife were running swim camps for children back in Nadina’s homeland of Lebanon when his love of the water came back. Despite the challenges with COVID-19, his return came somewhat out of the blue.

So much so, on his return to Canada he had to live with his mother-in-law because he was renting out his own home, not expecting to be back in the country.

A diverse swimming team sees the now 37-year-old Hayden on the same team as debuting young stars like Cole Pratt and Joshua Liendo, who are both 18, as well as Summer McIntosh, who is just 14.

Hayden is heading to Tokyo with the goal of putting up a time to be proud of, but is also embracing the opportunity to use his experience to offer guidance to the roster.

“It’s actually a lot of fun. We all sit at the tables together, there’s a huge age range,” Hayden said.

“We always try to find things we can have in common, music, movies or hobbies.”

While the eight-time Commonwealth Games medal winner says that the young group of Canadian swimmers are amazing, you should not count him out of taking a shot at a fifth Olympics in 2024.

“That is definitely not off the books,” Hayden said. “It’s a conversation my wife and I still have to have. As long I’m still in love with the sport and my body still wants to keep going, there’s a chance.”

Not bad going considering how bullying and mocking growing up made him consider quitting the sport before his professional career began, after shots at his body image and having to wear a Speedo.

But asked if there is anything he wished he could say to those people, Hayden had the perfect response.

“So many things I want to say, much fewer things I would actually say! I guess I would just show them the medal.”

Hayden, along with Josh Liendo, Yuri Kisil and Markus Thormeyer set a Canadian record in the 4x100m freestyle relay on July 26, finishing fourth.

His quest for a second Olympic medal continues on July 30 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre

Listen to the full interview – https://iono.fm/e/1078966