Team Canada
I had the amazing opportunity to represent Canada at the 2016 World Lifesaving Championships in the Netherlands. This is my story….
Team Canada Athlete, Emma Tonellato. Shot captured by Kostadin Kolev for sponsor, Maltacourt Global Logistics.
How it all Began..
It all started at the tender age of 5. That is when my competitive swimming career began. This involved a few training sessions a week in Guelph by the time I was 8 my favourite events were the 800 free and 400 IM. I had club records in both along with 200 Fly. This is when my Olympic dream sparked and I was, from that moment, known as “The Swimmer”. By age 14, I trained 9-10 times before and after school. Waking up at 4 am and driving to the pool, diving into the freezing cold water, swimming past the level of discomfort and coming back to repeat it all over again the same day at 4pm. I was swimming. After training at high intensity for another two years, I realized that my 6 foot 2 dream of being an olympian had a 5 foot 2 reality attached to it. That is when I began branching out to other sports and found a passion in lifesaving…
That’s Emma in the red cap!
New Sport New Goals…
Life Saving 2016, I had 2 years to master the sport. I officially decided to focus all my energy into Lifesaving. I still swam but now I had lifesaving practice on top of this. This involved carrying mannequins filled with water and almost as heavy as on my back while swimming up and down that black line. Each time it got a little bit easier, I would push myself to go harder. All I could think of was Worlds.
It took me 2 two years to master lifesaving both pool and ocean events. The events that started out as the hardest became my favourites like the 200 Medley and Ocean Woman. As soon as it was announced that I was on team Canada I got a tattoo of a maple leafs surrounded by all the wildflowers of the Netherlands. I had it placed on my left shoulder so it would come out of the water when I carried that mannequin across the pool in the 200 Medley. I had finally accomplished my goal to be a part of Team Canada and represent my country on the world stage. This was my proudest moment.
Team Canada, Emma is in the front row with the short blonde hair.
Worlds 2016..
From the time I was announced on the team until I was in the air on my way to Worlds I was training 30 hours a week. I had track, swim, weights, ocean, and pool practices. I had never worked so hard in all my life, it was the time of my life.
I was lucky enough to start the competition on the beaches of Noordwijk. I spent my time training and drinking coffee on the beach with Stroopwafel on top. I made lifelong friends with my teammates and competed in three ocean events and two pool events. I placed 18th in the SurfSki my 6 foot 2 dreams finally were accomplished. After the 2 week long competition I got to explore Amsterdam.
When I started at University of Waterloo I missed the first week of orientation. My first class will always be my most memorable, UX Design with the incredible Karin Schmidlin.
These are all images from training for Worlds and also my experience at Worlds.
