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Workhorse Taylor Ruck will use world championships as a test drive for next year’s Olympics

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By Jim Morris

This summer is going to be a test drive for Taylor Ruck.

Ruck and her coach Ben Titley at the High Performance Centre – Ontario will use the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, as a yardstick to decide how many events she might compete in at next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Ruck was a workhorse at international events last year. The effervescent 18-year-old swam six individual events plus relays at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships where she won five medals, including a gold in the 200-metre freestyle.

At the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Ruck won a medal in all eight events in which she competed. Her gold medal in the 200-m freestyle set a then Commonwealth record while her silver in the 50-m freestyle came in Canadian record time.

As they prepare for the world championships Ruck and Titley will be paying special attention to the timing of different events in Gwangju. That will help decide which races Ruck will compete in.

“It definitely will be a testament to see what I can actually do, how many races I can handle,” Ruck said.

Ruck is targeting four individual events – some with heats, semifinals and finals – plus the relays. Titley isn’t so much worried about the load involved as to when the events will happen.

“Even though we have been down this road before and managed a heavy program . . . this will be the biggest challenge for her,” said Titley. “Not the people she is racing, or the level that she’s racing, but the level of time she will have to do on multiple occasions.

“She is going to have a lot of swims. It’s going to be about managing, recovering and also using this year to a certain extent of a trial run for what we might look to plan to happen in Tokyo.”

One example of a timing conflict, the 100-m backstroke final is just 21 minutes before the semifinal of the 200-m freestyle.

“You can get away with that at a Commonwealth Games,” said Titley. “The semifinal of a world championships, to get through will take a lot faster time.”

The rest and recovery gained by dropping an event could pay dividends for Ruck in other races.

“That’s kind of what Ben and I were talking about for certain events,” she said. “It wouldn’t be the end of the world if I gave one event up for something I think I could do better in.”

Over the last three years the native of Kelowna, B.C., has won 15 medals at major international competitions.

At her first Olympics, the Rio 2016 Games, Ruck was part of the bronze-medal winning 4×100-m and 4×200-m freestyle relays.

Her eight medals at the medals at the Commonwealth Games left her tied with Canada’s Ralph Hutton (1966) and Australians Emily Seebohm (2010) and Susie O’Neill (1998) for the most medals won by an athlete at a single Games.

Later on that year Ruck became the first Canadian to win five medals at a Pan Pacs.

Ruck has also won 13 medals at the FINA World Junior Championships, more than any other swimmer.

Even with her impressive medal haul Ruck will be venturing into new territory in Gwangju where she will compete in her first senior world championships.

Asked about nerves, Ruck shrugged.

“I can’t say because I haven’t been before,” she said. “I think it’s going to be like any other major international competition.”

Reaching the podium at the world championships would not only be another step in Ruck’s progression but also help draw a blueprint for the Olympics.

“Finding out whether those things are possible or whether it’s too much or whether it’s manageable,” said Titley. “If we have more information for next year, I think that will probably be one of the biggest factors for us to learn from Korea.”