A young Coquitlam swimmer is making waves and displacing age group records long held by some of Canada’s best.
Shima Taghavi, 12, recently set a new Canadian mark in the 200m breaststroke for girls 11-12 while competing for the Hyack Swim Club at the BC Winter Provincials in Victoria. Her time of 2:32.99 was .66 seconds better than the record-breaking time she’d set in January.
That effort bested an age group record that had been held by two-time Canadian Olympian Allison Higson.
Taghavi’s record-breaking swim is also more than a second faster than any American swimmer has accomplished at her age. That record, of 2:34:28, has been held by Annie Zhu since 2007.
Taghavi also set a new provincial record in the 100m breast at the same meet. Her time of 1:12.65 was the second-best ever by a Canadian at her age, behind only Higson’s 1:10.94.
In total, Taghavi won nine individual gold medals at Winter Provincials. She also achieved nine personal best performances.
Since December 2023, Taghavi has set three Canadian age group records, and eight provincial records in both long and short course events.
Meanwhile, former Hyack standout Laon Kim hasn’t let a recent move to Alberta slow him down.
Now competing for the University of Calgary Swim Club in the 15-17 age group, Kim was recently part of the club’s 400m medley relay team that set a new Canadian age group record at Alberta’s provincial championships. The quartet’s combined time of 3:45.99 was more than two seconds faster than the previous mark.
The same team also set a new Canadian age group record in the 400m freestyle relay at a meet in Toronto last December.
Kim, 15, was British Columbia’s male high school athlete of the year in 2023, He now attends the National Sport School in Calgary that was created to support young high-performance athletes with Olympic potential.
