Swimming phenom from northern Alberta is 'rewriting the record books'

Oliver Dawson was grinning from ear to ear on Canada Day as he waved at crowds from his perch atop a Buick convertible that led a parade down one of Grande Prairie's main drags.

With two national swimming records and his sights set on an Olympic career, the 18-year-old from northwestern Alberta has a lot of reasons to smile.

“He's not simply winning races, he's rewriting record books right now,” said Swim Alberta executive director Shawn Holman. “But the big thing is he's still improving at a pretty good rate here. So his trajectory is phenomenal.”

In May, Dawson set two new Canadian records in the men’s breaststroke category at an international competition in London. He finished the 50-metre sprint in 27.29 seconds and 100-metre event in 59.33, eclipsing Canadian records set in 2009 and 2012 respectively.

“I still don't think it's hit me,” Dawson told CBC News in an interview one day before he took on the role of parade marshal for the city’s Canada Day festivities.

Dawson fell 0.09 seconds short of beating the Canadian men’s 200-metre breaststroke record at that competition, but said he expects there will be plenty of opportunities to try again. 

That record sits at 2:08.84 and was set by Mike Brown at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“For me to take the 50 [and] 100 shows that, hopefully, I can get the 200,” Dawson said.

He will be competing at the 2026 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Montreal from July 5-9 and will represent Canada at the Commonwealth Games, which get underway in Scotland on July 23.

Dawson currently has a bronze medal at the world swimming championships in Singapore and has competed in Australia, Hungary and the United States. 

Holman said Dawson’s young age makes his achievement even more impressive and