OAK swimmer Mack Darragh is aiming to compete for Canada at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He’s competed for Team Canada at the Olympics before, but this time, it’s different.
Darragh started swimming at the Oakville Aquatic Club (OAK) after his mother read that swimming would his help with his asthma. At her insistence, he stuck with it. After 19 years, he’s now symptom-free.
Prior to his Olympic participation, Darragh went to Iroquois Ridge High School. He then swam for the University of Missouri Tigers. In the 2014-15 NCAA season, he became an All-American in the 200yd butterfly, an event he holds the school record in (1:41:59).
Darragh’s first senior outing for Team Canada was in 2014 at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia. He finished sixth in the 200m butterfly with a time of 1:58.52. He then made the Canadian team that competed in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He was part of Canada’s four-man team that finished 16th in the 4x100m medley relay in Rio.
After completing a degree in Marketing at the University of Missouri, Darragh made the decision to swim full-time. He is still a member of the OAC, although he trains at the High Performance Centre in Scarborough. He described how he gets money to compete professionally.
“I get my funding through Swimming Canada and through other programs in Ontario,” said Darragh.
Darragh is a recipient of the Quest for Gold program in Ontario and is on the roster of the New York Breakers in the International Swimming League.
When it comes to his best swims, two that come to mind.
“The obvious one would be winning the 100m butterfly at Olympic trials in 2016 to make the relay in the Olympics,” said Darragh. At that year’s Canadian Swimming Trials, he also won the 200m butterfly, and the 200m individual medley (IM). He was aiming to compete in all three events at this year’s Trials prior to their postponement caused by the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak.
Another swim he cherishes fondly was his 200m butterfly at the 2017 Canadian Swimming Trials, where he set the Canadian record.
“That was the swim where I was stuck at a 1:58.3,” said the former Iroquois Ridge student. “That summer, I went 1:56.8. It was a big drop, and I knew that I could swim this race fast again.”
This year, OAK swimmer Darragh was aiming to try and make his potentially last Olympic team. When Canada announced they would not send athletes this year, Darragh thought that his time was up.
“When I saw Canada was the first country to pull out, I was a little nervous that they might be the only team, and I thought it might be my last chance to make an Olympic team,” said Darragh. “It was pretty upsetting thinking that’s how it would end. But when I saw other countries pulling out, and that the Olympics was going to likely be cancelled or postponed, it kind of set how serious the outbreak was in reality, and how important it was for everybody to take care of themselves.”
Thankfully, Darragh has earned a reprieve with the postponement of the Games.
“It gives me another chance to make the team,” said Darragh. “It’s also nerve-wracking that we put all this work into making the team and doing well this year that we’ll have to repeat it next year. But it’s a good thing that at least it’s been set for another date. It could have easily been cancelled and set for the next cycle in 2024, so at least at this point I still have a chance. You take the good with the bad.”
Because the outbreak has closed pools across the country, training has become a little more difficult for Darragh and his teammates.
“No pools are open, so we haven’t been able to train at all,” said Darragh. “The coaches are doing their best to help us out. We got a stationary bike and some smaller workout equipment. It’s all land training, and we’re just going to have to make do and wait to get into a pool 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. Swim Ontario’s Quest for Gold application can be found here.