Fresh off a standout NCAA career, Canadian swimmer Josh Liendo is poised make waves at L.A. Olympics

There is this finite window in the life of a high-performance athlete, a small timeframe when the world is watching — usually during the Olympics — to cash in on success and maximize on physical capability. When there’s an urgency to win now because there are no guarantees.

For some, it’s an Olympic cycle or two. If they’re lucky, maybe more. For others, it never fully materializes. Wrong place at the wrong time.  

The clock is always ticking. Athletes are always getting faster and hungrier. The gaps close quickly. 

And if there are any setbacks along the way — sickness, injury, extended time away — that window quickly gets smaller. 

Canadian swimmer Josh Liendo feels he’s finally found his sweet spot. But not without some turbulence he would later realize was crucial to his development. 

Everything he’s endured, worked for, strived for and built toward has led him to this moment. Now just two years away from the L.A. 2028 Olympics, where Liendo believes he’ll be at his peak superpowers.

“I’m not going to put a limit on it. I’m going to fight. I’m going to race. I’m going to go for as many wins as I can. That’s just that’s just the mentality that I have,” he said. 

And when he says it, you believe him.

The 23-year-old is brimming with confidence, buoyed by a remarkable conclusion to his NCAA career at the University of Florida, which saw Liendo win three individual titles; he won a record-tying fourth consecutive 100-yard freestyle title and ninth title overall. 

With school now in the rear-view mirror, his eyes are squarely fixed on the big prize — capturing an elusive international gold medal in one of his marquee events at the L.A. Games. At Paris 2024, he became the first Black Canadian swimmer to win a medal, capturing silver in the 100m butterfly. This summer, Liendo will be part of the Canadian team competing at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow July 23-Aug. 2.

“This is going to be a big one. You know everyone’s hyping it up already. L.A. is going to be awesome. You can just tell. I think it’s time that all of the pieces come together in my career,” Liendo said. “I don’t feel like I’ve hit a ceiling in any way, shape or form, like I’ve been able to chip away constantly.

“I’m excited to get those things to be second nature. I’ve been trying out a lot of stuff, obviously improving in some ways, maybe a little bit of a setback in some ways, but I’m kind of ready to get it all together.”

Liendo has spent the past four years living in Gainesville while attending the University of Florida. Down there, sports dominate. It’s a college town laced with Gators gear at every turn. 

If you reach athletic greatness around these parts, you’re worshiped. The football team garners most of the attention, but Liendo is recognized for his extraordinary swimming career.

It’s a great story not only in Canada but also for the University of Florida swimming and diving program, because he’s one of the most decorated athletes in our program.– Florida coach Anthony Nesty

“It’s a great story not only in Canada but also for the University of Florida swimming and diving program, because he’s one of the most decorated student athletes in our program,” said longtime coach Anthony Nesty. “And the program is just stacked with Olympians throughout the years. What an awesome achievement. And for him to go out like that was his goal.”

Nesty doesn’t easily compliment but when he does, it’s earned. And he would know. He was also a Gator swimmer for four years, dominating in the pool from 1989 to 1992. Among his many NCAA achievements, he won three consecutive 100-yard butterfly titles. 

At the 1988 Olympics Nesty won Olympic gold in the 100m butterfly, making him the only Olympic medal winner from Suriname. Nesty was the first Black man to win an individual Olympic medal in swimming. 

The Suriname government commemorated his win on a stamp and on gold and silver coins. They also created a bank note showing an illustration of a butterfly swimmer in his honour. 

Now Nesty believes Liendo is primed and ready for a golden butterfly moment in the same distance he competed in. 

“It’s great to see because athletes like that don’t come along quite often and his progression from the time he came to Florida to how he’s improved, that’s unique in itself. And I think he still has another gear to go, in my opinion,” Nesty said. 

Jack Szaranek was coached by Nesty during his time as a swimmer at the University of Florida and is now an assistant coach for the program.

Szaranek works closely with Liendo and recalls watching him early on and knowing that he was going to be special. 

“The first year he was here, I’ve never seen someone as much of a sponge as him. Like he can just take everything in and then he can process it, and then he can output it pretty well. And whether it be from one of the coaches, any one of us,” Szaranek said. 

“His leadership qualities throughout the years developed. He was one of the team captains this year and when he talks, people listen. And obviously he leads by example and I think that is one of the best attributes that he has is his leadership.”

Szaranek knew this past NCAA season was going to be different for Liendo. 

Ahead of each season Szaranek meets with each swimmer to not only talk about their goals but write them down. It gets as specific as writing times down in each event that the swimmers want to achieve. Ahead of this season, Liendo left his blank. Szaranek had questions. 

I was just getting sick. My health just wasn’t good, doing bloodwork and trying to figure out what was going on.– Josh Liendo

“I was like, why is this just blank? And he was like, ‘I just want to dominate.’ That was it. And that’s what he’s done. So I think it was a matter of just dominate and enjoy the moment,” Szaranek said. “Never seen it before. I mean I was a little surprised at the moment. After I thought about it for a bit, I was like, let’s do it. Wow. I loved that. It was the first time he never had any time standards. It was his best college season he’s ever had.”

Liendo needed a season like this because at this time last year, it was all very different. Something was off and Liendo knew it. But he just couldn’t pinpoint what it was. The swimming powerhouse wasn’t himself as last summer’s Canadian trials in Victoria, B.C., approached. 

“I took a bunch of tests. I did have a bit of a sinus thing for a while. I was just getting sick. My health just wasn’t good, doing bloodwork and trying to figure out what was going on,” he said.

“I really wasn’t healthy, I wasn’t sleeping great. That definitely wasn’t fun. It was tough. You do everything you can, but there’s a point where I just had to sit back and just roll with this the way it was and not freak out too much.”

Liendo pushed on, running on empty but trying to catapult himself through the water during the week-long trials. The stroke he specializes in, butterfly, is perhaps the most gruelling of all even when at peak form. 

Liendo’s marquee event, the 100m butterfly, is a race he takes great pride in. He was defeated by Ilya Kharun in a stroke-for-stroke showdown. Nobody could have known during those trials last June what Liendo was confronting as he tried to find answers to his lingering health questions. 

There were no excuses from him and he certainly didn’t speak about it publicly as he was enduring it all. But he definitely wasn’t his usual confident self — Liendo is a physical specimen and daunting figure on the pool deck. He seemed a little less full of bravado than usual that week in Victoria. 

“There wasn’t any worry, but there was definitely disappointment. It wasn’t terrible. And I looked back at it. Everyone else had an amazing race there. But obviously as an athlete, you want to win, right?” Liendo said. 

“That was definitely a rough stretch.”

Despite the setback, Liendo was selected for Canada’s world championship team that competed in Singapore last summer. For the next couple of months following those trials he continued to search for answers.

When it came time to deliver at worlds, Liendo was solid in the pool but admittedly not completely where he wanted to be. He finished just off the podium in fourth place in the 100m fly but would leave with a bronze medal as part of the 4x100m mixed medley relay. 

Then he just shut it down. Completely. More than he had ever at any time in his career. Throughout August, September and into October Liendo rested. 

It’s okay to have setbacks … That’s how you improve. That’s how you get better.– Josh Liendo

“It’s okay to have setbacks. Time heals all. I just went through it. I kind of just stopped worrying about it that much. Just leave it. Leave it behind me and then and then go forward. Right. That’s how you improve. That’s how you get better. Obviously you look at it, it’s going to be a big teaching moment for me. And yeah, I just took it, took it and used it to make myself better,” he said.

Liendo could have never known when he was in the throes of it how much of a blessing this was all going to be. He had to step back to be able to surge forward. 

To this day he still doesn’t have a definitive answer as to what was going on with his body but has chalked it up to extreme fatigue.

“It was probably a combination of things, right? Obviously fatigue. That NCAA format, you’re just racing, racing, racing. It’s tough. And then I was taking a pretty heavy course load as well and then got hit with an illness and then kind of just really couldn’t recover from that,” he said. 

“It was pretty bad, so I don’t want to be back in that spot again. It was definitely a big teaching moment for me. And I think I’ve been a lot better since then in terms of taking care of myself.”

If you spend any time at all with Liendo you’ll come to quickly understand how chill and calm of demeanour he has away from the pool. He radiates a warmness and welcomeness that makes him magnetic to people. His joyful disposition is appreciated by all, especially as he roams the hallways of the University of Florida — he’s spent the last four years as a Gator taking down NCAA opponents in the pool.

He’s a completely different person as soon as his skin touches water. It’s like something inside of him is awakened and Liendo’s competitive juices are activated, his senses heightened and his fierce desire to win engaged. 

Liendo was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. By the ocean. Being in water is almost second nature to the Canadian swimming phenom. He reminded himself of the freedom and joy he felt as a kid when he’d splash around in the seawater. 

“I love being around water. Go to the ocean, right? Even going to swim, the sound, it’s just kind of calming for me. And when I was going through a bit of a tough time, I just kind of thought about that,” he said. 

“What do I enjoy about it? It’s not a chore. It’s something I love to do. I love to compete. But not even just competing, just being in the water, the people you meet.”

Fully recovered

With his newfound appreciation for his sport — and fully recovered — Liendo prepared for the World Cup of Swimming in his hometown of Toronto last October.

Feeling healthy again and ramping up for another season, he decided to take a different approach. 

He had no expectations for the short course meet, no time standard he wanted to hit. Liendo set no goals. 

What happened next would change the course of how Liendo now approaches each time he gets into the pool — and likely why he never put down any times to begin his NCAA season.  

On a late October night at the Pan Am Sports Centre, Liendo shocked even himself by winning gold in the 100m butterfly in a short course world record time of 47.68. 

He smashed his arms into the water in celebration, jumped onto the pool lane rope and then triumphantly threw his hands in the arm as hundreds of fans went crazy in the crowd. 

“I just focused on enjoying it. Obviously I took a big break after Singapore, so I wasn’t expecting much. Like it wasn’t like I worked for this long and I was building up something big. It was just kind of let’s have some fun. And then and then I got a huge surprise at the end of it,” Liendo said.

“You have to remember the things that you enjoy about the sport. I enjoy competing a lot. And I enjoy bettering myself each day. That’s kind of what I love about sport in general. So now obviously I was pretty good with taking care of myself before, but I never kind of want to get back into that space. So making sure I do everything right. Supplements, you know, everything I need in terms of vitamins, all that stuff.”

Liendo didn’t figure this all out on his own. The support team around him — his family and the coaches at the University of Florida — have allowed him to thrive again. 

Nesty and Szaranek have placed an importance on rest and recovery, something Nesty believes is going to allow athletes who are later in their careers to continue to swim as fast as ever.

“He can keep getting better. Just because you’re getting older, doesn’t mean you can’t get faster. I don’t believe in that. But with recovery, strength and conditioning, the coaches, that’s how you can improve in the sport no matter your age. I’m a big believer that people can do that. Others can do that, and certainly Josh can do that as well,” Nesty said. 

“I think rest and recovery is huge. Nutrition is huge at this level, taking care of your body is huge at this level. And sometimes if those things don’t mesh, you’re going to have a hard time performing. So he had to teach himself how to take care of him.”

Nesty thinks he can get better. When Szaranek was asked how much better, he didn’t flinch. 

“The best ever,” Szaranek said, and then smiled. 

Learn the hard way

Liendo isn’t thinking about any of that right now. He had to learn the hard way that sometimes all of this doesn’t go as planned. 

And the clock keeps ticking, waiting for no one. 

He’s staying present, thinking about the sound of water, moving through it and the joy it brings him. 

That’s how he believes he’ll end up on the top of the podium in LA.

“You can get so in your head about these goals and trying to hit these times. And if you don’t hit these golden times, the world’s over. But that’s honestly not how it is,” he said.

“I got to understand that process, I think that process is more important. I found out how to get there, how I’m going to do that, how I’m going to give myself that margin for error so small I got to leave no room for any doubt. Anything to creep in. And, you know, it’s hundredths of a second that we’re talking about in my races especially.”