N.B. swimmer makes splash in Paris with personal best

It's been a time of debuts for New Brunswickers at the Olympics.

Brooklyn Douthwright of Riverview competed in the heat for the women's 4x100-metrefreestyle relay on Saturday, which put Canada into the finals.

And four-time Olympian Catharine Pendrel had a debut of her own as an Olympic coach.

Douthwright, on top of reaching a fifth place finish with her team in the heat, also set a personal best.

"That was definitely kind of what I came here to do," she said.

"It was kind of a surreal experience, a little bit. I don't know if I even remember much of the race.

"It's been such a big goal of mine to be on that stage for a long time, so I'm super happy that I was able to compete, but then also perform to what I think was my potential."

Standing on the edge of the pool with her AirPods in, Douthwright says she wishes she didn't have Rhianna blasting in her ears after hearing how loud and enthusiastic the crowd was.

But as she walked up to the block, waiting for her teammate, Mary-Sophie Harvey, to pass the metaphorical torch, Douthwright said she knew what she had to do, but she also let herself enjoy that moment.

Canada went on to compete in the finals for the relay, where they placed fourth, but Douthwright didn't compete in that race.

The 21-year-old won five relay medals at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and is a collegiate swimmer for the University of Tennessee. At the age of nine, she started swimming competitively and in 2015, at 12 years old, she became the youngest person to ever swim the Northumberland Strait the 15 kilometres of open water separating New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Douthwright only qualified for the relay, but she is sticking by the pool and continuing with training in case she is needed for anything else.

In her spare time though, she has been able to catch some other races, including the men's 400-metre individual medley where France's Lon Marchand competed, making for an "unbelievable" crowd, she said.

In her time in Paris so far, she hasn't really left the pool or Olympic Village, but she described the village as a "unique experience."

"[I'm] super happy to be getting to do all that and meeting all people from all over the world and stuff, different athletes, different sports," she said.

"I think it's super cool, and something that I'm definitely trying to cherish a little bit."

From athlete to coach

For Catharine Pendrel, the experience has also been new since her last time at the Olympics in Tokyo was as an athlete.

Pendrel, originally from Harvey Parish but now living in Kamloops, B.C., won her first Olympic medal at Rio 2016 where she took home bronze in mountain biking.

The 43-year-old had her last race in 2021 after giving birth to her daughter, Dara, earlier that year.

That same year, she transitioned to a role as a national coach with Cycling Canada. In Paris, she coached brother-sister pair Gunnar Holmgren, 25, and Isabella Holmgren, 19.

"This would be my fifth Olympics, but the first time on the supporting role of things," she said.

"It's definitely nice to come into this Games having had some very varied experiences coming in and just being able to relate [to] all the, you know, emotions, the energy and kind of all those things that are part of an Olympic experience, and to be able to share that with a very young team."

The sibling duo from Orillia, Ont., competed in women's and men's cross-country mountain biking, where they raced on Elancourt Hill the highest point in the Paris region.

Isabella placed 17th in her race and Gunnar placed 30th.

Pendrel said a big part of coaching is done online or over the phone, but she said the best part is getting on the ground with the athletes.

As Pendrel heads back home after the race, she won't be there for long. Two weeks later, she'll be in Andorra preparing for the World Championships.

"We've got a really, really strong cohort of riders coming up," she said of the future.

"[I'll] hopefully see the team through to the next Games, which would be 2028 in [Los Angeles]."