Sport: Swimming
Age: 24
Hometown: Mission BC

Medal Potential: Very Good - 200m Freestyle, 4×100 Freestyle Relay

The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was an ignominious one for the Canadian swimming team. No medals and an overall poor performance. This was a change for Olympics past as one of the surest bets for Canadian medals at the games was the swim team with the 1984 games being the pinnacle of Canadian success in the pool. Management problems and squabbles among coaches lead to a wholesale shakeup of the team exemplified by the return of Alex Baumann to bring a winning work ethic back to the team.

It may be too soon on how these changes will benefit the Canadian team now in Beijing but this year there is the possibility that medal hopes may be realised once more even if it is just one person.

Brent Hayden may be unfairly given the responsibility to bring back the glory of swim teams in the past but he has shown himself quite capable of handling that responsibility. At the World Aquatic Championships in 2007, he shared gold in the 100m freestyle, the first Canadian to win gold in years. Yet he is entering one of the most competitive fields in years. He is also recovering from a back injury from earlier in the year and even though he feels he has fully recovered, the field may not be so sympathetic.

But he is a driven soul, filled with a desire to excel and exceed all expectations for himself but as he did last year in the championships. However, as a member of the freestyle relay team, he perhaps has his best chance for a medal and indeed perhaps the only medal for Canada in the pool. But no matter what, how he and the rest of the team perform in Beijing, one hopes it is a beginning for much more success in the future especially in London in 2012.