Hard Work and Focus

“Swimming taught me about caring, having a work ethic and a direct focus to others, especially for kids, to love swimming the way I did,” - Lori Melien    

By David Grossman

This is a story that many can relate too.

It’s not difficult to divulge or reminisce about those toddler days of playing in bathtub water and, years later, thinking about what it might be like to swim at the Olympics.

Mention the word swimming, and to many, it’s all about enjoyment and recreation, though others see it from the perspective of the competitive world. For them, it’s about finding ways to get to the medal podium.

Lori Melien will tell you it’s all of the above and much more. She knows.

“As a youngster, I just loved swimming,” she recalled. “Always cherished times in the water, from the bath as a kid to then watching, through our fence, the neighbours pool and hoping I got an invite to swim.”

It was at age six, maybe closer to seven, when Melien, in a story later shared by her parents, was taking swim lessons in Brampton. At the time, a Red Cross instructor remarked about her strong flutter-kick. As the story goes, a year, or so later, Melien was so entrenched in swimming, that she was talking about going to the Olympics.

If there was any apprehension, it was gone and replaced by Melien’s desire to enter competitive swimming with Brampton’s popular COBRA Swim Club. At age 12, she was on Canada’s Youth National team. A year later, really focussed and driven on the sport, Melien made the Senior National squad.

Things were taking off, and in her high school years, Melien was with the Ajax Aquatic Club. Her specialty being the backstroke, Melien still holds several club records.

It’s not just about being in water. For Melien, it’s about a responsibility, a promise and a vow to preserve the relationship with others - friends to coaches to family.

“Swimming taught me about caring, having a work ethic and a direct focus to others, especially for kids, to love swimming the way I did,” said Melien, now living in Canada’s National capital and general manager of Swim Ottawa as well as head coach of the club’s Junior programs.

That may have been the early signs of a segue from athlete to coach.

Melien wore the red and white of Canada at international competitions and even has phenomenal recollections of the medals won with 4 x 100-metre relay teammates. She was the lead-off swimmer at the 1988 Olympics in South Korea and two years later, the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.

Her 16-year swim career also included other international stops, ranging from the Pan Pacific Games to the World championships and the World (FISU) University Games.

“They were great times, stressful and lots of hard work, but times I will always remember,” said Melien, whose name shines in both the Ontario Aquatic Hall of Fame and the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame.

An academic all-Canadian, Melien studied at the University of Calgary. Her interest was in community rehabilitation and disability studies. She also swam for the Dinos, was university swim team captain twice and four times took top honors as a Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) champ.

Several years of focussing on education and knowledge, Melien had earned a degree and was destined for a career in improving the well-being of people with diverse abilities and often facing obstacles in social change.

Melien had a connection.

When she was 12 years old, and on her first swim tour in Scotland, her younger brother had almost drowned. He was revived by their father. Melien didn’t know about the incident until she had returned home. With her brother having endured brain damage because of a lack of oxygen, that personal family experience would lead her to studies about the brain.

Swimming and coaching aside, Melien has always looked back to the work she did as a student at Calgary, learning from assisting in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Centre or offering personal assistance for children with autism in a day care centre.

“I could relate to kids, the educational psychology at school tied in with coaching – it all gelled together,” said Melien. “I had a better understanding of the brain.”

Those who have known Melien all these years, understand that passion, affection and devotion was her world. Her courage, bravery and a love of learning were all symbolic steps rolled into a positive attitude.

There has been plenty of joyful days, a comfort zone, first in swimming and then in the world of coaching – that comprises two decades and is still growing. Be it from the grassroots to universities in Calgary and Lethbridge to Victoria to Ottawa and places along the way.

Now, she’s part of a talented coaching staff at Swim Ottawa that continues to prosper in Canadian swim rankings.

David Grossman is a veteran award-winning Journalist, Broadcaster with some of   Canada’s major media, including the Toronto Star and SPORTSNET 590 THE FAN, and a Public Relations professional for 45+ years in Canadian sports and Government relations.