Kayla Sanchez Announces She’ll Attend University of British Columbia

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Kayla Sanchez Photo Courtesy: Kevin Light/Swimming Canada

Canadian sprint star Kayla Sanchez announced via Instagram that she’ll be attending the University of British Columbia in the fall.

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Sanchez, 19, is a native of Scarborough, Ontario. She’s been based at the Canadian High Performance Center in Ontario through her rise to the elite ranks. At the HPC Ontario, she’s able to train alongside Canadian national teamers like Sydney Pickrem, Taylor Ruck and Penny Oleksiak under the tutelage of coach Ben Titley.

Sanchez holds Canadian short-course records in the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle and 100 individual medley. She was part of squads that set the long-course 400 free and 800 free relays at the 2019 World Championships. Sanchez’s emergence onto the world scene was five medals (three gold) at the 2017 World Junior Championships.

Sanchez is coming off a shoulder injury that precluded her participation in the International Swimming League season last fall. Sanchez fell outside the cut in January when Swimming Canada, concerned over COVID-19-related delays to the country’s Olympic Trials, named five women provisionally to their squad for Tokyo. Sanchez is a contender in the sprint events along with Oleksiak (provisionally named in the 200 free) and Ruck (named in the 100 free).

UBC is the four-time reigning U Sports champion, the Canadian equivalent of the NCAA, in both men’s and women’s swimming. The women’s program has won 24 national championships. The Thunderbirds have produced recent national teamers like Emily Overholt and Markus Thormeyer.

A move west means shifting to the High Performance Center Vancouver, which is based at the UBC Aquatic Center.

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