In Re-Retirement, Brent Hayden Calls Time on His Phrases
Brent Hayden was as stunned as anybody that he’d come again to swimming in 2019. However as he fell again in love with the game, he sought one thing that eluded him within the first go-around: An opportunity to, on the very least, name it a profession on his phrases.
Friday, Hayden bought that probability. After a profitable return to be a part of the Tokyo Olympics, the 38-year-old Canadian sprinter announced his re-retirement.
The distinction of a decade is stark. In 2012, regardless of the achievement of a bronze medal within the 100 freestyle on the London Olympics, Hayden was performed with the game. Mentally, as his despair worsened, and bodily, as his again deteriorated, he was able to be wherever however the pool.
However he got back in the pool in 2019, whereas filming movies for his international swim teaching enterprise in his spouse’s household’s dwelling in Lebanon, and bought to itch to compete. He was then, as he shared Friday, only a man in “a small apartment outside Beirut, writing an email, not sure what the response was going to be” from Swimming Canada.
Brent Hayden; Picture Courtesy: Picture Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Almost three years later, with the federation’s help, he weathered the one-year COVID-19 delay of the Video games, returned to the nationwide document board and now leaves the Canadian program in a greater spot than he discovered it.
“I feel like I’m just in a place now where in 2012, I left because I was struggling with depression, I was struggling with my back too, but ultimately it was the depression that made me decide to leave,” Hayden mentioned in a Zoom name. “And I always regretted that that had to happen. I feel like this time around, I fell back in love with the sport again, and I think that was the goal, let alone all the times and placements and all those other goals. For me personally, this was about falling in love with the sport again and that healing journey.”
Hayden’s again hampered him by the autumn, and he mentioned he thought of retiring instantly after Tokyo. However in contrast to the rash resolution in 2012, he took his time to make sure stepping away is what he needed.
In Section 1 of his profession, Hayden gained bronze in London plus gold on the 2007 World Championships. He added silver at Worlds in 2011 to go along with a pair of relay silvers from the 2005 occasion in Montreal. He earned golds in each the Pan Pacific Championships and Commonwealth Video games amongst numerous worldwide accolades.
Hayden sought a extra full measure of success for his second chapter. He discovered it in his pleasure coaching in Western Canada and in being a part of the inaugural Toronto Titans squad within the Worldwide Swimming League for 2 seasons. In each long-course and short-course, he set occasions similar to a decade in the past, even when the earlier occasions have been super-suited pre-2009 outcomes.
Hayden beamed Friday when discussing the spotlight of his comeback: The 400 free relay in Tokyo. In a squad with Markus Thormeyer, Yuri Kisil and Josh Liendo (plus Ruslan Gaziev for prelims), the crew re-set the Canadian document and got here out of nowhere to complete fourth, simply six-tenths off the rostrum.
The Canadians entered their Trials, the most recent of any main swimming nation as a consequence of COVID-19 stipulations, seeded fifteenth. They wanted a time trial to make sure they’d even get to Tokyo, then got here out of nowhere to push for a medal.
Hayden additionally tied for ninth within the 50 free in Tokyo. Alongside the best way, he’s served as a mentor to younger swimmers. Liendo, a budding star, was born after Hayden had made his first nationwide crew. Romanian freestyler David Popovici thought of Hayden a task mannequin rising up. He was named Swimming World’s Comeback Swimmer of the Year in 2021.
Hayden isn’t simply retiring in a greater psychological area than earlier than, however he’s leaving Swimming Canada in a much better place.
“I’m excited for that,” he mentioned. “It would be really great for more of my records to get broken because that would mean that Swimming Canada is progressing. If you look at who we’ve got and what they’re doing at such a young age, you can’t help but feel that the future is bright for Canada.”
Brent Hayden wouldn’t say by no means on a comeback, however he mentioned he’s “99.9 percent sure” that that is it, with the pressure of coaching simply an excessive amount of on his physique. He’s not going removed from the water because of his Swimming Secrets business, hoping to deliver high-level instruction and clinics to younger swimmers all over the world.
Past the pool, he’s bought an curiosity in visible artwork, each images – he constructed a darkroom at his guardian’s home throughout quarantine – and filmmaking. Retiring permits him to pursue these avenues.
“I think I’m at that age where it’s a good time for me to go, and there’s just so many more things I want to do in life,” he mentioned. “I don’t need my total life to be swimming. This clearly a really large a part of it, however I’ve bought so many extra issues I wish to accomplish. …
“Mentally and emotionally,” he continued, “I’m ready to move on and start the next chapter with my amazing wife at my side.”
