Former Oakville Aquatic Club (OAC) swimmer Tessa Cieplucha is aiming for a spot on Canada's Swimming Team for the 2020 Olympics. But she never thought she would get back to the level she is at now.
Cieplucha (pronounced chi-PLOO-ha) had fallen ill, but her teammates at the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers swimming team were counting on her.
“During my first year after Christmas, I actually got really sick; I got mono, so that definitely took a toll on me,” said Cieplucha. “I was able to bounce back a little bit and still qualify for NCAA’s that year, but I think that whole season and the following year was kind of challenging for me to get my head back into the right space to practice and push myself every day.”
Cieplucha’s love for swimming came from within her family.
“I have an older sister who was swimming a few years before, and I’d always go to her swim practices and swim meets,” she said. “I figured if I’m going to be at the pool watching, I might as well be swimming myself."
She swam with the OAC before committing to the Lady Vols swimming program. She wanted to choose a team where she would be able to perform well, but also learn from more experienced swimmers.
“I fell in love with the University of Tennessee because of the coaching staff and how they made the school and the program feel at home and very welcoming from the first time I stepped on campus,” said Cieplucha. “I personally didn’t want to go to a team where I was either at the very bottom or at the very top. I wanted to be in the mix with the whole team, and I thought Tennessee was a very good choice at that for me, personally.”
Cieplucha considers herself as an all-around swimmer, instead of specifically excelling at one of the four strokes.
“I think anybody who swims the IM (individual medley) events are all-around swimmers,” she said. “IM has always the race I’ve been the best at. IM is kind of an interesting event because you have four different pieces you need to keep up and stay on top of. When you can race a stroke individually, it’s kind of fun. But it helps overall to try and make your total IM better.”
It took Cieplucha a year to rebound from her illness. She worked with her coaches, teammates, and the school’s mental training resources to regain her motivation and focus.
And rebound she did.
The former OAK swimmer qualified for a spot on the Canadian team competing in the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. She won the gold medal in the 400m individual medley with a time of 4:39.90, over a second quicker than the silver medallist.
“It was a really exciting, cool, memorable experience,” she said. “That was my first big, senior-level international meet. I’d been on a few junior teams, but this was my first senior team that I was able to make.”
Cieplucha had used the Pan Am Games as her main motivation leading up to it.
“For the four months leading up to the event, that was what was on my mind every day, and I was getting excited for that in training and in workouts. Leading up to it, I knew I had done the work. So, when I was standing on the podium, it was relieving and really exciting that I was able to accomplish what I had put my mind to four months earlier.”
The former OAK swimmer carried the momentum through to this season with the Lady Vols. She was instrumental in helping the Lady Vols win the team’s first SEC championship.
“I was part of the group that won the 800m freestyle relay, and I also won the 400m IM,” she said. “It was a really cool accomplishment for the team, and it was really exciting to make history.”
Unfortunately, that’s where her season ended.
The Lady Vols had qualified to go to this year’s NCAA championships hosted by the University of Georgia. However, the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak forced the cancellation of this year’s championship.
Similarly, Cieplucha was planning to compete for a spot at Team Canada's swimming team for the 2020 Olympics. She was going to participate in the 200m & 400m individual medleys, as well as the 200m breaststroke at the Canadian swimming trials. The trials were scheduled to take place from March 30 – April 5, but it was postponed.
“At first, it’s a sad announcement,” said Cieplucha regarding Canada’s decision to not send athletes if the Games were to be held this year. “It’s everyone’s biggest dream to go to the Olympics. But when you think about it, this whole pandemic is much bigger than sport. I think that it was the right call for Canada to postpone sending athletes to the Olympics for everyone’s health.”
Cieplucha is not letting the lockdown stop her, though. She’s back home, and she is continuing to train. To her, the announcement that the Olympics would be postponed up to a year comes as a blessing in disguise.
“It gives us a whole another year to train, and it gives us more time to figure out what we need to be doing during this downtime before pools open up again,” the former OAC swimmer said. “Hopefully pools open up within the next few months so we can get back into training, but it gives us more time to relax and re-think our training plans and get back into it before trials happen again.”
The OAK is currently closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. If you would like to register for OAK programs once the club reopens, click here. You can also learn more about the programs, as well as program fees. You can also donate to two memorial Swimming Canada funds and bursaries here.