The young swimming star: Sorcha Canning

Photo: Owen Crandall // Neighbors of Park City.

Meet Sorcha Canning, a rising Freshman at Park City High School, excelling in swimming. Her love for swimming began in New York, before she moved to Park City in 2nd grade. At the young age of four, her parents enrolled both her and her sister, Aoife, in swim classes at Storm Valley Aquatics. But for now, it wasn’t competitive, merely a way for the girls to build skills to be safe in the water and grow relationships with similar aged peers. However, Sorcha was inspired, and highly competitive with her older sister, which drove her to begin to compete, and by the time she moved to Park City her skills were well built. Joining the Park City Swim Team at the age of seven, Sorcha continued to swim competitively and began to set and achieve goals. 

One of these daunting goals she set at the age of 11, and finally achieved it this last spring. Her goal: qualify for sectionals. For those of you, like me, that are unversed in swim language, this may seem simple. But after my interview with Sorcha, and some research on my own, I am wholeheartedly impressed that she achieved this extensive goal. Sectionals is the third largest competition in the United States in which someone must qualify to race by having a certain time in an event. The US is split into 4 sections––Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern. A swimmer from Utah, like Sorcha, would compete in the Western Sectionals along with athletes from Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Hawaii, and Alaska. On top of the large pool where athletes could be coming from, sectionals is particularly hard since it is a “Senior Meet,” meaning athletes could be any age so long as they have the qualifying time. Sectionals is also highly competitive as it opens the door to qualifying for Futures and Junior Nationals. 

When Sorcha set this intimidating goal at 11 years old she knew it would probably take a few years to reach. Even though the goal felt like it was in the distant future, Sorcha began to implement daily practices that she hoped would eventually result in success. One major change she adopted last summer was joining the Senior Team at Park City as the youngest swimmer there. Joining this team made her practices increase, from 6 swims and 3 drylands a week, to 8 swims, 3 drylands, and 2 extra weight lifting practices at Athletic Republic. On top of increasing her training load, Sorcha also tried to make sure that her timed practices were productive. She explained that, “I try to give 100% effort at practices…through the sprints particularly.” Outside of training time, Sorcha also works to dial in her nutrition, stretching, and sleep. Making sure that every night she sets aside time to do her PT for her shoulder, roll out, and get full nights rest so she could get the most out of every training session.  

Her extra training didn’t have immediate results, which is normal, but frustrating particularly since she was trying to qualify her times for sectionals by a certain date. Every year there are two sectionals––long course and short course. Sorcha is stronger in long course, and therefore was trying to get the qualifying times for the Short Course Sectionals in the Spring of 2024.  Last summer, she competed in various events trying to get the qualifying time of 1 minute 6 seconds and 8 milliseconds (1:06.8) for the 100 Fly in long course. At age-group states last spring, Sorcha attempted to get the qualifying time for the 100 Fly but was annoyingly .2 seconds off. Her last chance to get the needed time before the Spring Sectionals of 2024, was South West Age Group Regionals in California. Sadly, she was still .2 seconds off, and didn’t qualify in time for 2024 Sectionals. But instead of letting the loss get to her head, she continued to show up to training and set her eyes on qualifying for 2025. Later that summer in early July, Sorcha competed at Senior State. In a team relay, Sorcha raced the 100 Fly and swam a 1:04.8. Since it was a relay with a different entrance dive, her time didn’t qualify her for Sectionals. However, it gave her the hope that she could swim the needed 1:06.8 the next day in the 100 Fly. The following day, nervous, Sorcha raced the preliminary race and got a 1:05, qualifying her for Sectionals. Following this successful preliminary race, she talked with her coach, Gadi, and he set the intimidating pace for Finals; telling her to go out at a 29 (meaning the first 50 meters would be completed in 29 seconds), and finish in 1:04.8. Sorcha, trusting Coach Gadi, went out hard, hearing the screams of immense support and excitement from her teammates, and finished the race to look up the timing board saying ‘1:04.7’. This time qualified her with over 2 seconds to spare for the 100 Fly. Though this event was her main focus, Sorcha also qualified for Sectionals in two other events at Senior States, the 100 Back and 1500 Free. 

In the eight months she had to prepare for Sectionals, Sorcha didn’t change much about her daily routine. She continued to show up to training, rested, fueled, stretched––ready to give it her all. While preparing for the big Sectional event, she was able to qualify for additional 4 events––1000 Free, 200 Fly, 200 Back, and 500 Free, meaning that in total she qualified for 7 events. In March of 2025, Park City sent the largest team ever to go to Sectionals to Boise, Idaho for the 4-Day Meet consisting of Sorcha, Anna Klug, and 6 other male swimmers. Here at Sectionals, racing against people of all ages across the Western United States, Sorcha, only 13 years old, made it to Finals in all 7 events. In the 1000 Free, she medaled with 8th place finish. And for her favorite event, the 100 Fly, she got a personal record of 57.02 in a short course pool during the preliminary race, placing her in the B Final for a top 16 placement. 

Just as soon as Sorcha achieved this massive goal to qualify for Sectionals, and race it, she had already begun to set new goals. First of which is to swim a 1:02.7 in the 100 Fly, dropping 2 seconds off her current time, which would qualify her for Junior Nationals. In addition Sorcha has her eyes on Junior Nationals in December in Texas. For the long term, the dream is to qualify for the Olympics, all whilst keeping the sport enjoyable. From setting lofty goals, working towards them, not succeeding at first, and enjoying the reaping of her hard work, I think we can all learn a little bit about resilience from this young athlete, Sorcha Canning.