By Jim Morris

The time had come for Yuri Kisil to move on.

It wasn’t anything personal but after six years of training at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver, Kisil wanted a change of scenery. That prompted his decision to move to Toronto and work with head coach Ben Titley at the High Performance Centre – Ontario.

“Training, I just kind of wanted to change things up for myself,” said Kisil, who is part of the Swimming Canada team competing at this summer’s FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

“Vancouver, I love the city so much (but) at the same time I really wanted to get some new experiences. Coming to Ontario seemed the right move. So far I’m just loving it.”

Kisil said the split from Vancouver was amicable. He praised Tom Johnson, the head coach in Vancouver, and former teammates like Markus Thormeyer and Carson Olafson for molding the early part of his career.

“I would never have got as far as I have today without Tom’s help and my teammates,” said the 23-year-old Calgary native.

“Tom’s also been very professional about this. As soon as I told him he was very understanding and said if I ever wanted to come back to Vancouver the door is always open. Whenever I see him it’s almost like immediately back to old times. It’s the same with my teammates. They are still my best friends.”

Titley said Kisil brings a different dynamic to the Ontario centre, which also features swimmers like Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak and Commonwealth Games medallist Kierra Smith.

“He brings an energy and a fun sense of mischief to the situation,” Titley said. “He’s a good guy to have around.”

Working with a different coach has already proved positive.

“Any professional eye sees different things,” Kisil said. “Ben sees a lot of stuff Tom might not see. But then I go back to Vancouver sometimes and Tom picks up a lot of stuff that Ben might not necessarily see.

“It’s really helpful to get the best of both worlds with such great coaches.”

One aspect of his swimming Kisil has been working to improve is his starts.

“I’ve always been behind in the start my whole career, then had to catch up in the swim,” he said. “I’ve usually been able to do a decent job of that, but, when it gets to the world stage, where the guys aren’t that easy to catch up to, it becomes a lot harder.”

After several months of work with Titley and biomechanist Ryan Atkison, Kisil is learning what a good start feels like.

“I never knew what the feel was like to have a good start,” he said. “Just doing dives, getting critiqued on certain things, then feeling the difference . . . I know that feeling now in my head what a good dive feels like.

“I have a target I’m trying to hit now. Before I just really didn’t know what a good dive really felt like.”

Kisil has won three medals at two previous world championships, all in mixed relays.

“It’s a different battle altogether,” said Kisil. “It’s super fun.”

Kisil’s first individual international medal was a bronze in the 50-m freestyle at last year’s Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo.

At the 2019 Canadian Swimming Trials Kisil finished second to Thormeyer in the 100-m freestyle. He’s excited about joining Thormeyer, William Pisani and Olafson on the 4×100-m freestyle relay team at the world championships.

The relay teams need to finish in 12^th place or better to gain Canada a spot at next year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Kisil likes the speed the team has already shown.

“I think it’s going to be a great relay for the future and also a great building block going into Tokyo,” he said.

Titley said the relays will be Kisil’s focus this summer.

“That will be the target for this summer, to try and get some best times individually, whether leading off the relays or in the relay splits,” he said. “Trying to get those relay teams into the medals for the mixed relays and the men’s team qualified for the Olympics next year.”