Athlete of the week: Aidan Spiers

“Aidan (Spiers) is the hardest working swimmer that our club has in the pool,” says Muskoka Aquatic Club head coach Morgan Kierstead. It’s high praise, and well-deserved. The 13-year-old has spectacular work ethic, says Kierstead, and he is “a driving force at competitions, qualifying for championship competitions in older age groups and winning medals at the swim meets he attends in his age group.”

For the last 4.5 years, Spiers has been swimming for the exercise and to be with his friends. Last year, his swimming ability escalated to the provincial level when he qualified for the ‘Festivals’ Junior Provincials.

“That made me focus more on swimming than I had before,” says Spiers. He also qualified for the Ontario Youth-Junior Championships last summer, which inspired him to up his training. He’s now in the pool eight times a week over six days.

Spiers specializes in the Butterfly stroke as well as in the IM (individual medley), which consist of swimming each of the strokes in one race. He feels his bests races are the 100M Butterfly and the 200M IM, and adds, “I’m beginning to become good at the 200M Butterfly and the 400M IM.”

Spiers best swim moment so far was when he qualified for the 15-year-old time standards as a 13-year-old at the Ontario Youth-Junior Championships in Markham in March 2019, the highest level of competition that 13-year-olds can attend in the province. He narrowly missed the 200IM Eastern National standard for 14-year-olds, again as a 13- year-old, by only 0.15 seconds.

(Above left) Aidan Spiers (in red) and his coach Morgan Kierstead on the way to the podium at the Ontario Youth-Junior Championships where he received a silver medal (above right) for the 100M Fly (supplied photos)

Spiers goal now is to qualify for the Canadian Junior Nationals in Calgary in his best two events, the 100M Butterfly and the 200M IM.

As for long term goals, he says, “I still don’t know where this sport will take me, so it’s always changing. My ultimate goal would be to train and compete at the National and International level for Team Canada.”

“Aidan is a team mate that can be relied on by all and he applies his leadership every opportunities he gets, including instructing our pre-competitive program weekly,” says Kierstead. “The potential in him is limitless and I look forward to seeing his results in the future!”

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