Dylan Morawski is a 16-year-old athlete from Gander NL, whose dream from the first time he swam at 9 years old was to represent his province and compete at Canada Games. As a competitive swimmer with his local swim club the Gander Lakers, he showed great promise and won numerous awards locally provincially and at the national level.
In addition to swimming, he also loved to bike and run, which made the sport of Triathlon the perfect choice for him. His parents bought him all the equipment he needed and looked for opportunities around the province to compete and train. His first race went well enough that he was noticed by the provincial team coach where he was asked to train with them. In addition to this, he also trained with a local Cross Country Running club and Cycling club. Two years away from Canada games selection he was now training two to three hours a day running, cycling and swimming in addition to all the competitions. This also meant a whole lot of extra training, competitions and coaching. In addition to his regular swimming workouts, he now had to meet specific training benchmarks from his Tri, Running and Cycling coaches. The average teen would have been overwhelmed but not Dylan. He not only met all the training benchmarks but was asked to join the Tri Team and represent the province at Canada Games.
His journey to compete at Canada Games was not an easy one and Dylan faced several challenges along the way. During a 10 km running race in Grand Falls, he sustained a hip injury and could not finish the race. This also involved lots of physio which prevented him from training or competing for several months. The last huge setback for Dylan, leading into Canada Games selection year, was the closure of his team pool in Gander due to maintenance issues. Because of this he had to drive to an alternate pool 1 hour away, 3 times a week. In addition, his family would drive him to St Johns (4 hours) so he could train with other swimmers and clubs to maintain his swimming fitness.
Through it all Dylan continued to problem solve around his many challenges and was able to remain positive and focused on his goals. All of this while maintaining a high academic standard at Gander Collegiate and often studying in the car while driving with his parents to the next running biking or swimming training session in the province in all kinds of weather. This summer he will now fulfil his Canada Games dream of representing his province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Winnipeg.
