Top Age Group Ranking Profile

We are proud to spotlight a group of 15-17 swimmers who are making their mark within the TAG (Top Age Group) Rankings across Canada. Recognized through the leadership and support of the Canadian Swim Coaches Association (CSCA), these athletes represent the next wave of Canadian swimming excellence.

As we launch this series, we celebrate the coaches, clubs, and families who support these swimmers — and we look forward to following their journey as they continue to rise within Canada’s performance pathway.

Get used to hearing this.

Take note of the name - Olive Rogers.

She has already accomplished a great deal, and yet there is so much more to come.

It’s the many triumphs and the achievements. While it might take some time to review them all, let’s zoom in on two of them - swimming and leadership.

The Canadian Swimming Coaches Association has Rogers in an elite category of achievers across the country. Prosperity, indeed. Same holds true for ascendancy. Rogers is in that upper echelon of teenage female swimmers making their mark.

Scan through the numbers in the Top Age Group (TAG) classification and the facts are obvious. More on the impressive statistics as you read on.

Be that as it may, there are other variables that make Rogers a winner and achiever.

Things like guidance and supervision, her ability to work with others, coach and mentor are a few of them. It’s why the Etobicoke Swim Club – for five consecutive years – recognized Rogers with an achievement award for developing swimmers in its High-Performance section.

A masterful individual, articulate and quite competent, Rogers recently graduated from the High Performer Program at Toronto’s Silverthorn Collegiate. It’s a specialized academic course of study that allows athletes – very good ones – to combine their studies with competing at the regional, provincial, national and international levels.

Rogers also didn’t have to go far to access a pool. The Etobicoke Olympium is about five minutes away. As for the next few years, Rogers – recruited by 20 post-secondary schools - has accepted a scholarship to attend the University of Akron in Ohio. It’s almost a five-hour drive from her home.

The highly competitive Akron swim program owns multiple championships in the Mid-American Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. As for her studies, which is focussing on mechanical engineering, the school is well known for STEM - the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Rogers said she likes building, creating and understanding how things are made. All she has to do is trace the development stages of her swim career.

Coming from a family of swimmers, her mother being a competitive athlete, it was her father who took her to a tryout at the Etobicoke Swim Club. She was eight years old, and took a liking to the water being, as she put it, “something that took away the stress in life”.

“My parents and coaches have been so supportive – and I’m very fortunate,” she said.

It wasn’t long before Rogers dropped soccer, ice hockey and figure skating to focus on competitive swimming. A year later, hard work and likely benefitting from family genes, Rogers was on the podium with that first provincial medal – a bronze in the 50-metres backstroke at an event in Windsor.

These days, she has two racks of medals in her room. It includes her favorite - won at the Trillium Cup that took place at the Olympium. It’s a prominent regional and international age-group swimming competition.

“That one was special,” she said. “I realized that I could go far (in swimming) and enjoyed being good at it. My goal is loving sport, being active, learning, having fun. While I had always wanted to represent Canada in something, I never thought I was good enough.”

Now, for some numbers – and all in the past few months.

In the 50-metres backstroke, her time of 29.44 seconds came at the Ontario Age Group finals in June in Toronto. Then, the 100-metres backstroke clocked in one minute, 02.72 seconds. Also, a superb time in the 200-metres backstroke occurred at the Canadian Open in Edmonton timed in 2:13.78.

Rogers competed at the Bell Canadian Swim Trials in Montreal this summer – and her performances were impressive.

In two events, she had personal best times in the backstroke events, starting with the 100-metres (1.02.56) for a fourth-place finish. In the 200-metres, the time of 2:13.31 was fourth in the Junior race and good enough for sixth spot in the Senior.

As for the 200-metres medley, Roger finished fifth in the Junior race, but her time of 2:19.48 placed her in ninth in the Senior event.

“This year has been a good one and the plan is to build on it,” added Rogers, who stressed the word “dedication” throughout our conversation.

Flourishing in the sport, and then having it lead to mastery, doesn’t occur by just jumping into water.

Rogers devotes 18 hours a week to training in water and more time to dryland training which includes lifting weights.

“It’s very easy to get burned out,” said Rogers. “I’ve learned to work and deal with stress and know how to perform. My coach (Marc Spackman) has a great swimming knowledge, communicates well and has been superb, very inspirational.”

To understand where Rogers is now, it’s important to know where she was – and that includes misfortunes. She had a few. With effective problem-solving, taking actionable steps, Rogers adjusted her mindset and dealt with the challenges in a constructive and positive manner.

Back in grade 9, while testing a vertical jump, she fell and landed on her left hand. Three months after breaking a bone in her hand, Rogers tripped on the sidewalk while going for a run and jammed her foot. The result: a fracture.

“It was not a great year – an air cast for my foot and a water cast for my wrist,” she said. “It was frustrating and trying to come back was difficult. I wasn’t doing well mentally and physically and didn’t know how to ask for help. Then Mark (her coach) came on board and things really improved from there.”

In addition to her studies and swimming, that leadership word enters the scene. It’s what she does in her spare time. Rogers was selected to the inaugural Speedo Canada Ambassador Program which was created to “connect young athletes from across the country through social media, athlete storytelling, and engagement within the swimming community”.

It’s to provide guidance, cultivate and develop youngsters in swimming.

“I have coached at the Etobicoke Swim Club and run a summer (swim club) camp, recruiting kids from the area to come to the Olympium for a few weeks,” she said. “It’s very rewarding and especially when the little kids come to me and you see they want to learn. I can remember those days.”

David Grossman is a veteran multi award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster with some of Canada’s major media, including the Toronto Star and SPORTSNET 590 THE FAN, and a Public Relations professional for 50+ years in Canadian sports and Government relations. In 2026, he was inducted to the Toronto Sports Hall of Honour with a Lifetime Achievement Award.