Cailyn (CiCi) decided at the beginning of the 2015/16 Synchronized Swimming Season that she was going to make the Ontario Provincial Synchro Team, as a representative of the Burlington Synchronized Swimming Club. She was 10 at the time of this decision.
If you can imagine the Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner, this was CiCi in her determination. She trained at least 20 hours a week and would practice on her own any time there was extra pool hours. Despite spraining her ankle in 3 places at her last competition of the season, she competed her figures and placed 23 out of 168! It wasn't the top 3 she was hoping for, but it was still awesome.
A month of physio later, she was successful in making the 11/12 Ontario Synchro Team and so proud to have achieved her goal. Training starts in 10 days in Toronto; 6 hrs/day, 4 days on and 1 day off for 3 weeks. Then she travels to San Juan, Puerto Rico to compete with her team against other PanAm countries over the Labour Day weekend.
Synchro is a very expensive sport and is akin in cost to paying for a goalie in hockey. Training, coach time and pool time, competition suits, team uniforms, googles and nose plugs; lots of nose plugs! Not to mention the cost of commuting for practice and travel to and accommodations in San Juan. Have you seen the Cdn dollar lately?
All funds raised will go towards the cost of paying for CiCi's training and competition for this endeavour. Any remainder or surplus will be used to pay for her continued training through Synchro Ontario during the upcoming season. Did I mention her newest plan and goal? Making the 13-15 Provincial Team for this season.
As a single mom, who spends countless hours driving her to and from practice at crazy hours, sweating it out in pools for competitions and being her endless supporter, cheerleader and believer of all dreams possible, I would appreciate all the help I can get to help her achieve her goals. CiCi will of course, be forever grateful and all that more determined to bring Gold home for Canada at the UANA Games.
If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she will tell you with conviction, "I'm going to be in the 2020 Olympics". This is just one step in her achieving that ultimate dream and goal.