Sharing Experience and Influencing the Next Generation

“It’s important to learn from each other and we’re trying to help young people understand how a good support network can help them,” - Martha McCabe

By David Grossman

There are some who might wonder what Martha McCabe has to offer that can mentor the next generation of swimmers.

The short answer: a profusion of prosperity.

For those who know McCabe, or followed her amazing career in the pool, they know that it’s quite accurate to say the former three-time Olympian and world class athlete has a distinguished past and a darn good resume of achievements.

She knows about performance, has a plethora of personal experience, as well as an affluence of knowledge. Many have applauded her efforts to promote, advise and guide in a very positive manner.

McCabe started her own company, Head to Head, aimed at Olympians helping school and club athletes learn and improve performance. It’s having a huge impact on young athletes and their parents, staff and coaches.

“It’s important to learn from each other and we’re trying to help young people understand how a good support network can help them,” said McCabe, a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a degree in health sciences and kinesiology.

Since those early days of school in Toronto, McCabe has come a long way in the sport of swimming. It may have very well started at age 11, with the Granite Gators Swim Team. At Leaside High School, her gift of talent and excellence was recognized with the prestigious Athlete of the Year award.

Ask McCabe, and she believes the seriousness in the sport, the demands, the commitment and the need to train, came in her first year of university.

Back in 2004, McCabe garnered attention at her first National swim meet – the Olympic Trials at the Etobicoke Olympium. A few years later, in Hawaii, McCabe did well at a Junior National competition. But in 2009, at the World Championships in Rome, McCabe had what would be a great sign of what was to come; her first major senior international event, and she reached the final of the 200-metre breaststroke.

McCabe has gone the entire route: Ontario championships, Canadian Nationals, Pan Am Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympics. While all had their own thrills, one of the biggest came in 2011 in Shanghai with a bronze medal at the World Championships in the 200 breast.

She went on to earn Canada’s Female Swimmer of the Year in 2012 after she made the Olympic final in London. With a fifth-place finish, she proved to the class of elite swimmers in the world, how close she came to the medal podium.

In 2014 at the Commonwealth Games, she competed in the 100 and 200 metre events, and again went to the Olympics in 2016 in Brazil.

“Olympians don’t have a special secret to success,” added McCabe, who now resides in Canmore, Alberta. “There is no secret. The idea is to benefit from and use the knowledge of people around you. My message in life has always been to stay focussed and be positive.”

With her competitive days behind her, McCabe is now driven by passion and devotion.

“Everyone is different, some swim for, and with, friends and perform well – some focus on winning medals,” she said. “I have some favorite memories and so do others.

“I tell young people, find something you love, then it’s all about persistence and resilience. It’s never a smooth road to the top – and that can be said about anything.”

McCabe doesn’t see herself in the role of an educator.

“I just share my experiences and maybe young people will relate to something,” she added. “In the work that I do, I can see how positives have an impact. I am influencing kids. It’s an amazing feeling and quite fulfilling.”

McCabe is appreciative of the many people, from family to coaches, friends to other athletes, who contributed to her swim career. In her journey, she shares stories - including those when many times she figured she just wasn’t good enough. McCabe quickly learned that one bad race doesn’t mean she made a wrong choice.

“In 2008 in Montreal, I remember being devastated at missing Canada’s Olympic team,” McCabe recalled. “People talked with me - and I kept going. I stayed focussed, worked hard and was tenacious. Four years later, I made the Olympic team.”

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.