Penticton athlete Tyler Wall couldn’t have a better last name for the object that has defined his swimming career for the past two years of his life.
As a competitive swimmer, carded by Swimming Canada, he always wants to be the first to touch the wall in the pool. However, sometimes it takes a little motivation to get him from just sitting on it. Luckily, KISU coach Tina Hoeben provides the kick he needs so the latter doesn’t happen. And for that, he can thank her for helping him bring home two medals from the Junior Pan Pacific Championship, held Aug. 23-26 in Suva, Fiji.
Related: Wall leads the way for local athletes at Canada Summer Games
“That was definitely my biggest accomplishment ever,” said Wall, who won a silver in the mixed medley and bronze in the men’s medley with Team Canada. “I went in expecting to just swim in the preliminaries and no relays, but my first race everything changed. I moved up into third place from 14th and the coaches decided to add me to the relay teams.”
It was a shock for Wall, who was the lead swimmer in both races.
“I’ve always done relays, but not at this level. I guess I proved I had fast times and they added me to the relay team. In the mixed relay, it was my third time racing the 100 back(stroke) that day. I was tired going into it, but my team was so supportive,” said Wall, who is going into Grade 12 this year. “In the men’s relay, we finished in third place by 0.1 of a second. It was indecisive when we touched the wall but we guaranteed ourselves a medal, so it didn’t matter to me. A few people on our team hadn’t won medals yet either, so it was pretty exciting.”
Related: KISU swimmers get Swimming Canada recognition
Canada finished behind the U.S. in the mixed medley relay, with Japan in third place. The U.S. again held on for gold in the 4x100-metre men’s medley relay with Japan taking silver and Canada bronze. Wall finished fourth in the 100-m backstroke and, as part of the men’s 4x100-m freestyle relay, Wall pushed his team to fourth place.
Wall was selected to the Canadian team after setting the standard time in the 100-backstroke against the best under-18 swimmers in the country. However, it is the 50-free that he considers his best event.
“That might have changed now,” he said with a laugh. “I really wasn’t expecting to make the time needed going into the tryouts so it was a bit of a shock. On the second day I set the time and then had to wait to see if anyone would beat it. When they announced my name at the pool that I had accomplished it, I was pretty excited.”
Wall has been swimming competitively for seven years, but it was just last year that it clicked that he has a good opportunity to go far in the sport. He came home with nine medals in his suitcase from the Canada Summer Games to add to his already giant collection.
“I usually put all my bigger medals, like the two I just won, on a shelf at home. But I do have a box of about 200 medals and don’t have a place to put them so they are in a big box. I actually tried to put them all on my neck awhile back to see how much it would weigh.”
Wall’s goal now is to keep racking up those medals by having another strong season and to try and make the Junior World Championship that will be held in Budapest, Hungary (Aug.20-25, 2019).
While the swimmer admits he doesn’t have a swimming role model, and just goes out and ‘does his thing,’ there is one person that has pushed him from just dangling his feet over the pool wall to swimming as hard as he can — Hoeben.
“Yes, definitely she does. Heading into the Canada Games year it was really tough for me to get motivated. So I told Tina to have very little give for letting me sit on the wall. This year she has been hammering me for sitting on the wall, constantly asking me what I am doing there. I am not sure any other coach would push me like that. She really pushes me to the top and gets me motivated to do the things I should be,” said Wall. “Lots of credit goes to her for what I have accomplished.”
The Junior Pan Pacific medals that Wall played a part in were two of Canada’s 12 medal haul at the event.
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