2025 Canada Games Profile

Leading up to the Canada Games, Swim Ontario is highlighting some of the members of our fantastic team!

Fame and success.

That routinely describes the traditional goal of many coaches as it relates to the achievements of young athletes and their realization that success in life can be more than just a trophy or plaque.

Olivier Renaud is one of those special coaches who views his job as focusing on teaching, improving and celebrating accomplishments. In simplistic terms, it’s about having a decisive plan that helps athletes become better than they were a day earlier.

Call it what you want, Renaud has been superb in getting his athletes to set goals, make progress and have a stringent and dedicated outlook on self-improvement. There is also a great deal of respect from those who feed off his wisdom.

For him, especially as it relates to things like progress, prosperity, and let’s even include happiness, Renaud’s influence has been a bonus to hundreds of swimmers. Check his history, and the now 35-year-old has received glowing levels of intelligence and proficiency for his work.

Known as a superb swim coach, and a person who believes there is less tension and pressure in his preference of open water competitions, he is the opposite to being pompous and presumptuous.

Giving huge credits to his former coaches, Renaud is a builder – and in more ways than you might imagine. Yes, there is swimming – but he’s also an AFOL.

That’s the short form of a term used to describe the Adult Fan of LEGO – the interlocking plastic and rubber bricks used to build things. The copyright name comes from the Danish words "leg godt," which translates to play well.

Renaud is a LEGO collector and has more than 500 sets scattered throughout the basement of his townhouse. In his spare time, his hobbies focus on his collection, listening to contemporary music and graphic design.

When the news was formally announced that Renaud was appointed Head Coach for Ontario’s contingent competing at the 2025 Canada Summer Games, there was quite a bit of elation, and congratulatory comments. The decision, conveyed by Dean Boles, Chief Executive Officer of Swim Ontario, was no big shock – especially to those who have worked with Renaud.

“I’m excited and enjoy coaching at all levels,” said Renaud. “But this is special – a proud accomplishment, a great opportunity, and getting the confidence from others means a great deal to me.”

Renaud would get a chance to build again. This time, the intention was to put together a championship swim team from Ontario. With the credentials to get the job done, Renaud is also the perfect individual to lead a team of 32 swimmers into a major national event.

Success can also pave the way to more than just life skills, but a future journey of swim meets around the world. There are many Ontario swimmers who have gone from competing at the Canada Games to wearing the colours of Canada at Commonwealth Games, World championships and the Olympic Games.

As a confident person, Renaud doesn’t need a reminder that Ontario swimmers have dominated the Canada Games since 1990. Check it out. There are eight consecutive titles. He’s also not one to panic or feel the pressure as Renaud is aware of the talent waiting to dominate in the pool.

Originally from Shawinigan, Que., Renaud was the conventional little kid always fond of playing in the dirt. Somehow, he would find ways to construct things. More on that later in this story. His parents would eventually sign him up for swim lessons.

What followed would be Renaud’s drive to become not just a competitive swimmer with Club de Natation Centre-Mauricie, but a coach who was respected for his knowledge, intelligence and ability to make swimmers feel good about their skills and capabilities – and continues to develop them.

Renaud has possessed a superb personality, showed a lot of exuberance, and has been that inspirational kind of individual.

For 12 years, as an athlete and coach, Renaud was affiliated with a club in his hometown located about a two-hour drive northeast of Montreal. Yet, in his own words, a change was needed. Renaud made it clear that his adjustment was triggered by having had enough of blistering cold temperatures.

“I felt that I was ready for a change - and it does get very cold (in Shawinigan),” said Renaud, a former assistant coach for Ontario at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara Falls and a two-time appointee to Swimming Canada's Select Coaches Group.

Renaud read about a job posting and, after interviews and discussions, would eventually get the nod becoming head coach of Whitby Swimming. He’s now in his ninth year with Whitby, whose team trains at both the Iroquois Park Sports Centre and the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

A fully certified Level 3 Senior coach, Renaud’s initiation to coaching came at the age of 17. His club coach had shuffled off to Alberta. That created a dilemma for athletes - fill the vacancy fast or see the club fold. Needing a coach, Renaud offered to help.

Little did Renaud know, that 18 years later, he would be chosen to guide Ontario swimmers against the rest of Canada at the showdown set for August 8 to 25 in St. John’s, Nfld. The Canada Games are held every two years alternating between a Summer and a Winter edition.

“As a coach, the dream is to have everyone come back with hardware,” said Renaud, who spends a minimum of 25 hours a week coaching. “But that’s not always realistic. For me, the results are hard work and seeing personal accomplishments achieved. As a coach, the job brings challenges - but the objective is to have swimmers surprise themselves and do well.”

A graduate of Laval University in Quebec City, Renaud knows his combined team of 36 female and male swimmers – competing in Olympic, Para and Special Olympics events – will be challenged in every event.

Joining Renaud on the Team Ontario coaching staff will be Burlington’s Cody Brandt, selected as the Lead Coach for the Para stream athletes. Ottawa’s Michele Brenning will be responsible for coaching the Special Olympics swimmers.

David Grossman is a veteran multi award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster with some of Canada’s major media, including the Toronto Star and SPORTSNET 590 THE FAN, and a Public Relations professional for 50+ years in Canadian sports and Government relations.