Future Looks Bright For Madison Broad
Wallaceburg’s Madison Broad showing off her hardware in Winnipeg following the 2014 Canadian Age-Group Swimming Championships – Contributed Photo
The 13-year-old, Holy Family student received her first gold medal on Wednesday in the 200-metre backstroke. She finished the race with a time of 2:19:59 beating her personal best time and qualifying for the senior nationals. Broad took home yet another gold in 50-metre backstroke with a final time of 29.77 and received a silver medal in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 1:05:26. Broad wrapped up her tournament on Sunday by adding another silver medal before heading home.
Broad says this experience was an opportunity of a lifetime.
“To compete at the national level is really great because I get to race the fastest kids in all of Canada. It’s what I need to improve on my times. When I’m there it is so exciting getting up on the blocks knowing I really have to push myself in order to even make a final.”
Competing at the national level helps to push Broad to her next level in swimming.
“To compete at this national level, it means a lot to me because it means I’m levelling up,” says Broad.
“That has been a huge goal for me. Now I once again have levelled up into the senior national level. This is huge for me; I have been working very hard to get these times. I attend every meet to keep pushing myself to reach my goals. I definitely want to swim more at the national level, as this is where I find myself pushing harder to hit my goals.”
Broad is looking forward to attending UCC in the fall and having the opportunity to potentially compete with the Lancers swim team.
“I would love to swim on a high school team as well as the Chatham Y Pool Sharks. I’m hoping that UCC will consider doing a high school swim team in the fall as it would give me even more chances to compete to get my times down,” says Broad.
The young swimmer says her goal is to one day to make it to the Olympics and wants to perfect her techniques.
“I am going to really work on my technique as I am really fast now without good technique. When my technique improves this coming swim season, so will me speed.”