World Championships - 2023

By Melanie Buggey

I can’t believe I’m here, I thought as I sat in the call room, awaiting my first race, the 400 IM. What the heck possessed me to sign up for a 400 IM at World’s?

I made eye contact with a giddy Japanese lady in my heat and we both burst out laughing, knowing that despite the language barrier, we both had the same thoughts; I can’t believe I’m here. 

The atmosphere was fiercely different, depending upon who was there. The first timers were instantly recognizable by their sense of awe and excitement at being there. The ones who had medals on the line and had the potential to actually break records had a sort of intensity to them and a focus only seen in truly elite athletes. Then you had the swimmers who have been going to World Championships for years, embracing long lost friends and socially thriving as they interact with swimmers from all over the world, as if thinking these are my people. 

As an excited first timer, I definitely felt in over my head. I had never swam at an international competition before, let alone been on TV while doing it. The qualifying times for the competition were not too difficult to achieve, but for a swimmer who had taken more than a decade off and only started really getting back into it two years ago, I had my work cut out for me. I was ranked last in almost every single event that I had signed up for, which was a bit demoralizing at first, but I knew there was nowhere to go but up. 

Don’t come last ended up becoming something of a mantra. Knowing I had no chance at getting a medal was almost cathartic as it took all the pressure off myself. My singular focus became don’t come last. I was proud to say that for the most part (we won’t talk about the absolute disgrace that was the 100M butterfly), I didn’t come last!

There was also something thrilling about representing Team Canada, something I’ve never done before in any capacity. It added extra fuel to my mantra as for the most part, I was the only 30-34 year old Canadian there! There were two swimming facilities, one for men and one for women. Each day, the men and women would swap facilities. On my first day of arriving in Fukuoka, I went straight to the swimming pool that I would be racing in the next day. I caught the last half of the men’s races and was excited to see our flag hanging in the stands. I planned to make a point of sitting there the next day so I could support Team Canada. I was immensely disappointed the next day when I realized that the flag belonged to the men, and the women didn’t have anything of that ilk. I spent the whole week, not seeing any other Canadian woman, no maple leaves, no flags, nothing! Canadian women, get it together!

The way you had to prepare for a race was a unique experience to me as well. You had to go to a “call room,” at least 30 minutes before your race. If you were not at this room in time, you would be automatically disqualified and not able to race. The downside of the call room was you couldn’t watch the other heats before you. The biggest downside was you didn’t have time to use a warmup pool, so you had to do lots of arm swings and whatnot to get yourself warmed up. 

I think another thing I would have liked to have changed was not racing in your age group. They separated the heats, so you were always racing people your age, but not necessarily the same time. Looking around at all the other 30-year-olds that I was about to race with their Olympic ring tattoos, all while I’m jiggling my arm fat and pretending that I didn’t feel completely bloated, was a humbling experience. I know I would much rather have done my 100M butterfly against 50-year-olds my speed, than 30-year-olds comfortably going under 1:05. Disgusting!

Overall, the experience was fun, if not immensely intimidating at first. It was exciting to race beside people from all over the world. The environment itself was often buzzing with excitement and there was a sort of nervous energy. I plan to go to many more World Championships in the future and I hope to see many more Canadians there, supporting each other!