2025 Canada Games Profile

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

Strong, talented and focussed.

You may have heard of a young Ontario swimmer by the name of Paige Stepanoff. If not, remember this name.

It’s a matter of time until the very talented Toronto-born athlete becomes the centre of chatter, and the recipient of the confidence and effectiveness that comes with lots of attention extending beyond pools in Canada.

To be transparent, Stepanoff is already coming off recent months of elite performances, and personal best times in the freestyle. Take your choice – the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500-metres races – and at major events in Luxembourg and Scotland. Last year, also, at the Speedo Canadian Nationals in Toronto, it just may have triggered the chitchat.

For now, let’s just focus on Stepanoff being steadfast, persistent in her own way, keen on accomplishments and counting down until she takes the next big plunge to success – and that could be a few weeks away.

Swim lessons at age four, just may have been the sign of a future involving one masterpiece after another in performance.

While she may not be in the category of two other Canadians, Olympic and international acclaimed Summer McIntosh and Penny Oleksiak, keep in mind, not many people heard of them until stardom took effect.

Stepanoff may have a way to go, but the 16-year-old freestyle swimmer has a progression rate in the pool that continues to climb and should not be overlooked. She has also been selected by Swim Ontario – Canada’s largest provincial swim organization - as one of the elite 34 swimmers chosen to represent the province at the Canada Games set for August 8 to 25 in St. John’s, Nfld.

Worth noting is that Ontario’s contingent is made up of 24 Olympic (that’s where Stepanoff fits in), six Paralympic and four Special Olympics athletes. The largest amateur sports event in the country is a showcase of able-bodied athletes and athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities.

They will challenge for medals, personal best times and provincial bragging rights at the Aquarena Fitness Centre located on the campus of Memorial University. Friendships are generated from these events, but so is the appetite to triumph over others.

After performances at the Canada Games, remarkable things do happen.

Just look at former phenomenal Canadian Olympic medalists Ryan Cochrane and Kylie Masse, Paralympic medalists Stephanie Dixon, Anne Polinario and Katarina Roxon, and Special Olympics World Games medalists Genny Verge and Michael Qing.

Several of them grew up - and trained in Ontario.

Swimming has been one of Canada’s most successful sports on the international circuit. As for Ontario, that’s where swimmers have dominated the Canada Games since 1990 – with eight consecutive national titles.

Let’s get back to Stepanoff, an academic honors student who just finished grade 10 at Monarch Park Collegiate. Not much time for extracurricular activities at secondary school, she has devoted her training as a member of the Toronto Swim Club. She admits that time in the pool amounts to as much as 16 hours a week while taking one day off for rest and relaxation.

With the Canada Games on the horizon, and it will be a first for her, Stepanoff was asked about her expectations.

“I’m super excited to be going and representing Ontario,” said Stepanoff, whose exuberance can be heard in a telephone conversation. “This means a lot to me – to be picked. I have worked hard to get to where I am at now. The focus is always on going out and doing my best. Swimming has been a favorite for me - and, like others, I have a goal of one day competing at the World championships.”

While personal best times were accomplished in several events earlier this year in Europe, Stepanoff, despite the nerves and jitters, could very well be saving her best for the Canada Games.

“One doesn’t always get an opportunity to be selected for such an important Canadian event,” said the 5-foot-11 Stepanoff, whose future educational plans are to study how the human body responds to physical activity and exercise.

Also hoping to secure an athletic scholarship for university studies in the United States, Stepanoff hasn’t ruled out combining education and swimming by attending a post-secondary institution in Canada. She has also had her share of excitement outside of competitive swimming in Ontario championships, grand prix races and invitationals.

In June, at the Bell Trials in Victoria, B.C., she sustained a concussion during a warm-up in the pool when another athlete, unaware of her in the water, jumped in and collided.

“It was one of those accidental things,” she recalled. “I couldn’t race for a bit while recovering, but I’m okay now and really thrilled about swimming against the best from across Canada.”

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.