A handful of Olympic hopefuls from the Western family are heading across the pond this summer to represent Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, U.K., beginning at the end of July.
Mustangs assistant swim coach Richard Hortness and graduate student Joe Bartoch have both qualified to compete for Canada, where they will be joined by Western head coach Paul Midgley.
Hortness qualified for the 4X100m freestyle relay at Canada’s recent swimming trials in Montreal. This will be the second Olympic Games for Hortness, who also competed at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, finishing 27th in the 50m freestyle event.
The 26-year-old also competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, placing 14th in both the 50m and 100m freestyle events.
Bartoch qualified for the 100m butterfly event at the swimming trials. This will also be the second Olympic Games for the London, Ont., native, who finished 10th in the 4x100m medley relay and 34th in the 100m Butterfly event at the Beijing Games.
The 29-year-old was 21st in the 100m butterfly at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai.
Both swimmers train at the London Aquatic Centre under Midgley.
The 31-member Olympic roster is Canada’s largest swimming contingent since 2000 and four more than in 2008. The swimming competition in London runs July 28-Aug. 4.
Former Mustangs badminton team member Alexandra Bruce will represent Canada, competing in the doubles tournament alongside partner Michelle Li. Li and Bruce have previously excelled on the international stage, winning a gold medal at the 2011 Pan American Games in Mexico.
Bruce was an OUA All-Star in her two seasons at Western, as well as the 2008-09 OUA Women’s Badminton Rookie of the Year.
In rowing, a number of alumni will be head to London, including Peter Cookson (BESc ’87), high performance director; Philip Monckton (BA ’75; MA ’80), vice-president high performance; Al Morrow (BA ’72), lead coach women; Glen Burston (BESc ’93; MEng ’02), representative for Hudson Boatworks; Mike F. Murphy (BA ’70, MEd ’77, PhD ’95), president of Rowing Canada Aviron; Lesley Thompson-Willie (BA ’82; BEd ’83), coxswain for Women’s 8; and possible alternates include Sara Black (BA ’12), LWT Double, and Peter McClelland (BA ’07; MA ‘09), Men’s 4 (coxless).