Clinton News Record, 2016-08-24, Page 22 News Record • Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Olympic athletes are closer to home than you think
A photo of the bronze metal up -close.
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Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
There is a significant
local coincidence for
Goderich for the 2016
Olympics - two 25 year-old
Olympian female swim-
mers, who both won
bronze metals, have par-
ents or grandparents in
Goderich.
The first Olympian is
swimmer Hilary Caldwell.
Although Hilary herself
lives in White Rock, British
Columbia, her grandpar-
ents, Derek P. and Shirley
Douglas, live right here in
Goderich. They were
extremely proud when they
watched Hilarywin bronze
in the woman's 200 m back
Photo courtesy of William Williams stroke in Rio.
"It was an extremely
Photo courtesy of William Williams
Michelle Williams with her family in Rio. From left to right - Guillermo Toro - Michelle's finance,
Michelle, Lydia - sister, Emsie - mother, William - father.
Photo courtesy of Shirley Douglas
Hilary Caldwell receiving her bronze metal.
close race," said Derek, her
grandfather.
Caldwell, who is 25, has
been swimming for her
entire life. She has won sev-
eral
everal titles in her career
including bronze in the
2013 World Aquatics
Championships in Spain,
bronze in the 2014 Com-
monwealth Games in Scot-
land and gold at the 2015
Pan American Games in
Toronto.
Another Rio 2016 Olym-
pic swimmer, Michelle Wil-
liams, has parents who live
in Goderich named Wil-
liam and Emsie Williams.
Michelle was a part of the 4
x 100 m freestyle relay team
which won bronze. Also on
this team was 16 year-old
teammate Penny Oleksiak
who won four metals in Rio.
"We sat with Hilary Cald-
well's parents in the stands
at the moment their daugh-
ter also won a bronze
metal," recalled William,
who noted that the connec-
tion with Goderich was
quite special, with Hilary's
grandparents also living in
this community.
Michelle started swim-
ming at the age of 10 with
the North York Aquatic
Club (NYAC) where the
family use to live before
moving to Goderich in
2012.
Michelle attended Ohio
State University, and after
she graduated, she decided
that she "still had a bit of
swimming left in her,"
according to her dad. She
has spent the last two years
training full-time at the new
PanAm pool in Toronto
under world-renowned
coach Ben Titley at Swim-
ming Canada's High Perfor-
mance Centre in Ontario.
She also has a number of
other titles to her name,
including winning gold in
the 4 x100 m freestyle relay
at the 2015 Pan American
Games and bronze in both
the 4 x 100 m freestyle and
medley relays at the 2014
Commonwealth Games.
"We are very excited and
veryproud, said William.
For an event like swim-
ming, 25 tends to be on
the "older end" of the ath-
letes. For this reason, both
women will likely not
complete in the Olympics
four years from now.
However both women can
now say they are Olympic
metal holders, a title they
have fought long and hard
for.
LABOUR DAY HOLIDAY MONDAY SEPTEMBER 5
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Albert
Clinton
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