By Nathan Sager

For Jade Hannah, the proof was in her perseverance.

A disqualification from a final can rattle a seasoned swimmer, never mind a 15-year-old in the make-or-break atmosphere of national team trials. On the first day of the 2017 Canadian Swimming Trials in April, Hannah was DQ’d in the women’s 100-metre backstroke final. Securing her spot on Canada’s team for the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships involved harnessing the mental skills that the Halifax native has sharpened since she joined the NextGen Swimming program in Victoria, B.C., in 2016. Hannah bounced back with strong swims in the 50 and 200 back, earning a spot on Canada’s 14-swimmer team for the Aug. 23-28 junior worlds in Indianapolis.

That was in character for Hannah, who is not only the youngest swimmer to join NextGen, but also the first to move completely across Canada to do so. Hannah and her mother, Tracy Hannah, became pioneers last summer when they moved some 6,000 kilometres so Jade could join the NextGen.

“The mental skills have probably been the most important thing for me this year,” Hannah says. “It really helped me at Trials because I had a lot of disappointments on the first day. Because I had made the team, got super-excited, then found out I was disqualified. So I definitely had to be tough there in order to come back and race the next day.”

“I cannot credit just one person for the success I’ve been able to have this year — everyone has helped,” Hannah adds. “We’ve really become a big family. Everyone’s helped. All the support staff, nutritionist, mental performance consultant, all the coaches, (NextGen Head Coach) Brad (Dingey) and (High Performance Centre – Victoria Head Coach) Ryan (Mallette).”

Hannah, who says “my mum used to call me a fish because I was always in water,” started out with the Halifax Trojan Aquatic Club. In early 2016, she conveyed just how high her ceiling might be by erasing the 40-year-old Nova Scotia provincial record in 100 freestyle that had belonged to Nancy Garapick, a double Olympic medallist. An extended skein of promising performances — including seven medals at the 2016 Canadian Age Group Championships — led to the opportunity to join NextGen.

“At the end of last year I just felt I needed a change,” says Hannah, a second-generation swimmer whose mother competed at the Canada Games. “I came up to visit the centre and I just loved it from the first practice … We have a good group of swimmers that hang out at our school every day. They really welcomed me in.”

Hannah is one of two current NextGen prodigies headed to Indianapolis, with the other being 16-year-old Faith Knelson of Ladysmith, B.C. The program works in association with the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre — Victoria to give young athletes exposure to the rigours and requirements of world-class swimming.

“We’re putting our resources in pretty small focused places and to have a swimmer follow where we put our resources is actually our plan — it just doesn’t happen that often, so we were pleased to see that,” national development coach Ken McKinnon says of Hannah.

NextGen is already bearing fruit at the senior level; Sarah Darcel was a finalist at the 2016 world short-course championships in Windsor, Ont. In that competitive environment, on any given morning the high school-aged Hannah might be trying to match the pace of 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Hilary Caldwell, her elder by almost 11 years.

“I was really excited to train with Hilary Caldwell,” Hannah says. “It really opened my eyes to what I was able to accomplish this year, and on into the future. I just find it really helpful. It really pushes me to be a better swimmer every day. Sometimes I’ll train right beside her so I can see where I am. Or sometimes I’m in the lane beside her and I’m doing her pace. It’s super-motivating.”

Suffice to say, being in the program reflects not only talent but an ever-buoyant confidence.

“Jade has a couple qualities that are going to serve her well in the long term,” NextGen coach Brad Dingey says. “One is that she’s not afraid of anything. It doesn’t really matter what you ask her to do — she is going to try. If you let her know that a challenge is within what she is capable of doing, she is going to try and that’s really cool. The second thing is she is on a really good improvement curve. No matter what she did the last week, she’s going to come back and do it better.”

Challenging scenarios aren’t a rite of passage for a NextGen athlete; they’re just an everyday occurrence. In other words, the 15- to 17-year-olds are fast-tracked with understanding that, as in any endeavour, one cannot just perform when they feel like it.

“Some days it’s like a Friday morning and it’s raining like crazy and all of a sudden she has to dive into a lane and swim against an Olympic medallist,” he says. “That’s something Jade is starting to figure out. Even if she doesn’t figure it out, she’s more than prepared to give it a go. I’ve seen with developing athletes, late teens or early 20s, those are situations where they start to question themselves. But for her, even if the last session didn’t go as well as she wanted, she starts off the next one with a smile on her face and a confident glow about her, which is nice.”

Hannah notes that Darcel has offered some mentoring at HPC — Victoria.

“Sarah Darcel has really pushed me to be as strong as I can in and outside of the pool,” Hannah says. “I also really look up to (world 100 backstroke champion and record holder) Kylie Masse as well. She such’s a well-rounded girl and she’s super-kind and really humble.”

McKinnon describes both Hannah and Knelson as “strong qualifiers” for the world juniors. The environment of a world championships is a lot for a teenager to get wrapped around mentally. But Hannah’s definitely put in the time while it was an abstract concept.

“Faith and I are really excited,” Hannah says. “When we got our gear the other day it started to feel really real.”