A young girl walks across the deck of a pool in Oakville, Ontario. She’s eight years old, in that chubby phase every kid goes through, swimming her first novice swim practice ever without any goggles. When she finishes, the first thing she says to her mum, after asking to get some goggles, is when the next swim practice is. All it took was one swim practice to get her hooked, and she hasn’t looked back since.
Tera Van Beilen is an unbreakable force in the pool. In a solid 15-year career, she’s made waves in the world of competitive swimming. She has been a part of four CIS championship teams with the UBC Thunderbirds, participated in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010 and won a pair of silvers at the 2011 and 2013 Universiades. Most notably, she qualified for her first Olympic Games in 2012 in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events.
But after 15 years of furious training and competing, Van Beilen has decided to hang up her suit and goggles, and retire from competitive swimming after missing the qualifying standard for the Rio 2016 Olympic games. This can be a heavy hit for most athletes, but Tera was smiling and positive when she spoke to us.
“I’m a little shocked to be going through as much joy as I am now. I love the sport so much, and I will miss it … Swimming teaches you how to deal with these situations and making the best of what comes about and I think that's been really important in this transition phase,” Van Beilen said.
This was not an easy decision either. After devoting years of her life to this sport, she reflects on her career and has no regrets.
“I didn't want to go into Olympic Trials thinking ‘If I don't make the Olympics, life is over’. I wanted to go in with confidence that I could potentially make it, and at the end of the day I actually swam the fastest that I ever had in four years and I have no regrets about the way I swam and the training and the last year. It's just the other girls were faster.”
Van Beilen isn’t unfamiliar with this change in dynamics and "passing the torch". When she qualified for the Olympics back in 2012, she beat out reigning Canadian champion and record holder Annamay Pierse for the gold medal and the elusive spot on the Canadian team.
“Making the Olympics was something that I actually didn't think I would realistically do in 2012, I thought it would be more of a 2016 goal and ended up doing it. In the moment after touching the wall, it was still something that was so surreal. Now, looking back on it, I will forever be an Olympian.”
You could argue that she owes a bit of her success to the time that she’s spent in Vancouver, especially at UBC. Despite receiving offers for full-ride scholarships from many American colleges, Van Beilen made the “hardest choice of her life.” She decided to attend UBC to pursue her Olympic dreams.
“The head coach of the Vancouver (High Performance) Centre flew to my house for dinner, and told me everything about UBC, and I was like it's a no-brainer. I need to come to this school. I would be training with Joseph Nagy, who's one of the best breaststroke coaches in the world, and putting myself in a tough environment where most of the members of the team had qualified for international competitions, all while earning a degree. Really, there’s no other choice that seemed as perfect as UBC,” said Van Beilen.
After five years of gruelling high-performance training — including 10 two-hour swim practices a week alongside five hours of dryland training and balancing full-time schooling — Van Beilen feels blessed to have had this opportunity.
“I came [to UBC] because I wanted to make the Olympic team, that was my dream since I was a little kid. So I said whatever is going to get me there, I'm going to do. To get a degree at the same time too? It was tough, but I'm glad it did it,” Van Beilen said.
As she heads into her final months at UBC, Van Beilen is finishing up her kinesiology degree and hopes to hit the pool again sometime soon. More importantly, she’s looking towards the future with bright eyes, a positive attitude and some valuable life lessons under her wings.
“There are flips and flops in swimming, and that's what is so exciting. You win and you lose. Here I am now, happy and excited,” said Van Beilen.
Who knows what’s next for this Olympian, but we’re sure it won’t be the last we see of Tera Van Beilen.
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