When most students are just beginning to wake up, Rebecca McGrath, U1 Science, has already been in the pool for hours—counting strokes, chasing splits, and sharpening the details that make her one of McGill Swimming’s most promising rookies. At only 19, the Psychology major made her presence known once again at the University of Toronto Varsity Blues dual meet on Sunday, Nov. 16, winning gold in both the 50 metre and 200 metre backstroke and qualifying for the U SPORTS Swimming Championships in both, as well as the 4×50 metre relay.
Despite her outstanding results, McGrath insisted the meet felt more like a training test than a peak.
“I kind of knew my race plans,” she shared in an interview with The Tribune. “The whole meet was more like training [….] We were all pretty fatigued, taking the train there and back, and it was our fifth weekend racing in suits.”
In Toronto, team points overshadowed the clock for McGill Swimming. McGrath’s 200 metre backstroke performance was where everything clicked.
“The first 100 metres, I set up my race pretty well, so I was already quite ahead [….] In the end, I knew I would win the race,” she explained. “That was the ultimate goal, not the time as much [….] It was really about whoever wins the most golds, whoever places better.”
Like most varsity athletes, McGrath has had to learn to manage more than just race strategy in competition. She detailed the setbacks that impact her time in the pool, and which adversity tends to be the hardest to overcome.
“I think it’s always injuries, as well as motivation, but with schoolwork and swimming load, that’s the hardest,” she said. “I dislocated my knee in the summer [….] [I had] to pull back for a bit, and [the impact] never really goes away.”
What steadies her is McGill Swimming’s culture, which blends high performance with genuine enjoyment. McGrath’s path to McGill was shaped in part by her longtime coach Peter Carpenter, now the head coach at McGill.
“I never really thought of pursuing swimming in Canada, it was always the [United] States,” McGrath explained. “But after my recruitment trip [to McGill] and [getting to have] Peter as a coach, […] I love his energy. That’s when I decided I wanted to continue varsity in Canada.”
She credits Carpenter as a major reason she thrives in the program.
“He makes people enjoy the sport. Not only do well in it, [but] he lets us have a good work-life balance, which is so hard to do,” McGrath emphasized.
This fall, McGrath also competed at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Toronto after qualifying at summer nationals. Racing in heats alongside world record holders was a surreal milestone.
“Everything they do is so insane, [yet] they’re so smiley and relaxed in the ready room. I admire them so much,” McGrath shared.
Balancing elite swimming with McGill’s academics is demanding, but Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel gave McGrath a strong foundation. Not only intense with her academic goals, McGrath has an ever-determined attitude when it comes to the competitive nature of varsity swimming. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, McGrath stays humble but ambitious as an athlete competing at the highest level.
“There’s always something to improve, even if it’s just milliseconds. That’s what keeps it exciting,” she affirmed. “I feel like there’s still so much room to grow.”
McGrath did not hesitate to share what she loves most about McGill’s swimming program.
“The team atmosphere,” she exclaimed. “Yesterday we had music on deck, Peter was singing and turning up the volume, and everyone was enjoying themselves as friends while still working hard.”
In a perfect segue, her advice to future McGill varsity athletes is simple: “Don’t take it too seriously. Have fun. It’s such a fun experience, really.”
With national and international race experience already behind her, McGrath is proving that joy, balance, and belief might be her most powerful tools in the pool.
