By Jim Morris

Judging growth can be a challenge.

Calculating a person’s height and weight is easy. Measuring their leadership skills and ability to shoulder expectations is more difficult.

Since his Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games Josh Liendo has grown physically. He’s also evolved into being the leader of the Canadian men’s team heading to this summer’s Paris Olympics and relishes the challenge of facing some of the best swimmers on the world’s biggest stage.

“I feel more comfortable,” said Liendo, who since Tokyo has won 11 medals at two world long course championships, a short-course championships and Commonwealth Games. “A lot has changed.

“The main thing is experience. I’ve had experience at the top level of racing, racing the best.”

Liendo’s goal in Tokyo was to get his feet wet. He plans to make a bigger splash in Paris.

“I’m definitely more calculated going into this meet,” said the 21-year-old from Toronto’s North York Aquatic Club, who trained at the High Performance Centre – Ontario before spending the last two seasons swimming at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

“I know what I need to do, whether it’s managing energy or how to carry myself.”

Liendo went into Tokyo as a swimmer with promise, there to learn from veterans such as Brent Hayden. He was part of Canada’s fourth-place men’s 4×100-m freestyle relay that set a Canadian record and since then he has emerged as a legitimate contender in individual events. The experience he has gained on the international stage, plus being a two-time NCAA champion in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle relay, has prepared him for this summer.

“It’s just a learning thing, like handling the pressure,” he said. “In the NCAA, being the defending champion, you kind of feel that pressure.

“Being able to manage that, just being focused, trying to be as relaxed as possible. It’s a learning thing you’ve got to go through. Sometimes you make mistakes. You have to be willing to learn how to handle it.”

Liendo showed his learning curve at Swimming Canada’s Olympic & Paralympic Swimming Trials, Presented by Bell, setting Canadian records in winning the 100-m butterfly and 50-m freestyle. He also won the 100-m freestyle.

His time of 50.06 seconds in the butterfly was the fifth fastest of all time.

“The goal is to get better going into an Olympics,” said Liendo, Swimming Canada’s Olympic Program’s Male Swimmer of the Year in both 2023 and 2022 after being named male junior swimmer in 2019 and 2021. “It’s just fine-tuning, training, working on the things we saw at the (trials) that we can improve on.”

At the Tokyo Games, Liendo finished 11^th in the 100-m butterfly, 14^th in the 100 free and 18th in the 50 free, in addition to the agonizing yet encouraging fourth-place relay. He also swam the butterfly leg of the men’s 4×100-m medley relay that placed seventh.

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games Liendo won gold in the 100 fly and took bronze in the 50 free. He also earned bronze in the 100 freestyle and 100 fly at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest.

Liendo was the only Canadian man to earn a medal at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, taking silver in the 100 fly in Canadian record time.

As his prowess improved, so did Liendo’s stature as a team leader.

“It kind of came pretty quickly,” he said. “It seems like just the other day I was asking Yuri (Kisil) where to go to the ready room.

“I’ve kind of stepped into that role. I’m happy to give advice to anyone who needs it. I know how much it would have helped me when I was younger.”

Liendo sees leadership as bringing the team together while setting standards.

“You have to hold people accountable,” he said. “You establish a standard. It’s important that everyone has the same goals if you want to succeed.”

The pool swimming competition in Paris will be held July 27 to Aug. 4 at the Paris La Defense Arena. That 4×100 freestyle relay comes on Day 1 and could set a tone for a men’s team looking to break through for its first Olympic medal since Hayden, Ryan Cochrane and Richard Weinberger at London 2012. Liendo’s individual program gets going on July 30 with the 100 free.

Liendo heads to Paris as probably the top Canadian male contender for a medal. He sees those expectations as a challenge, not a burden.

“The pressure is racing to my own expectations,” he said. “It’s getting up on the blocks and doing the things I want to do.

“My goal is to perform the way I want to. All the work I put in, all the work that my family has put it, I feel like that is what has carried me through.”