Athlete performance — not money — deciding factor in Canadian swim trials move to Toronto

Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson says athlete performance was the deciding factor in moving the Olympic and Paralympic trials from Montreal to Toronto — and that no price tag was going to be too high considering the magnitude of the event and the stakes attached to it.

"When hundredths of a second are important, and one hundredth can make the difference to somebody's lifelong ambition of being at the Paralympics or Olympics, being back here was the right decision to get to," Atkinson told CBC Sports, standing on the pool deck of the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC).

"Within minutes people responded and stood together to help a sport that was in an emergency situation."

A fire last month at the Olympic pool in Montreal, where the trials were originally scheduled to take place, has shut down the complex for months and sent Swimming Canada officials into scramble mode with just six weeks to go until the trials. 

There was some anxiety and stress, and officials considered their options about where to move the event. Keeping it in Montreal was the first priority knowing that moving it to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre would come with a hefty price tag.

But after exhausting all avenues, Atkinson says there was no price too high when it came to moving it to Toronto. It was always going to come down to athlete performance and Atkinson says the TPASC facility was the only place that was going to allow athletes to compete to the best of their ability.

Consideration was given to Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard as well as the Pavillon de l'éducation physique et des sports de l'Université Laval – that's roughly 250 kilometres away in Quebec City.

"We looked at every possible option of remaining in