16-year-old Winnipeg swimmer having great success in the youth circuit

16-year-old Winnipegger Lucas Bewick is a swimmer on the rise, recently earning gold medals in every event he competed in during a meet in Regina.

After being named the top swimmer in his age group at the event, he followed up the achievement with another strong performance on Saturday in Winnipeg, setting three personal bests.

He says his success stems from the hard work done behind the scenes.

“Since last year we’ve bumped up the volume, I’ve switched coaches—yeah, so there’s been lots of changes to my training, which has helped improve a lot since last year,” said Bewick. “And then the weight training went up as well. I’ve been trying to eat more—lots of things.”

Craig McCormick, coach of the Jr. Bisons swim team, praised both Bewick’s work ethic and progress.

“He’s in the water about 10 hours a week, and then we have another three hours of dryland strength training—or as my brother calls it, ‘off-ice.’ But yeah, it’s a jump in workload. It’s the intensity he shows in practice—he loves to go fast,” said McCormick.

Next up for Bewick is a swim meet in Vancouver, but he’s also eyeing the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s this coming August.

Bewick has made it to the final cuts for Team Manitoba and is hoping for a chance to showcase his talent on a bigger stage.

“Hopefully—obviously—I want to make the team, and then get there and try to compete, make a final, and see where it goes from there,” he said.

McCormick says the Canada Games are often a stepping stone to even higher levels of competition.

“Canada Games has often been considered a stepping stone to international teams—junior international teams, and then hopefully a senior international team,” he said. “He’s ranked pretty high in certain events in the country in his age bracket. I believe he’s second in the country in 50 freestyle for his age group. So you start with age bracket comparisons, and then you’ve got to start comparing yourself against all the big guys.”

Despite his rising success, Bewick remains humble and grateful.

“I’m really thankful for my parents—they have to drive me to practice and back every day. And then my coaches too, really good quality training. I’m just really thankful that they’ve put the time in to help me get to where I am—and hopefully farther,” he said.

The Canada summer games runs in St. John’s from August 8-25th.