Seemann has a summer vacation to talk about

Youngest member of Canadian team just 15

August 14, 2008

Brad Kelly

BEIJING -- Lindsay Seemann is the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic team, but she grew up a whole lot today.

Just 15 years old, the Newmarket teenager was in the pool at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing tonight trying to match the fastest swimmers in the world in the 200m backstroke of the Olympic Games.

Most girls her age probably caught the race on a television in the mall while shopping.

Seemann garnered her share of the headlines after qualifying for the Canadian team following the Olympic Swim Trials in Montreal earlier this year, but on this night, on the world's largest stage, that media throng following her experience was reduced to two.

But it mattered not to her.

"I was trying to stay relaxed and not freak out with the whole Olympic thing," she said after finishing eighth in her heat, clocked in a time of 2:15.07. "But I think I went out a little too slow, being too relaxed so that kind of hurt me, but the back end was pretty good.

"I usually don't get nervous before a race, so when I felt myself getting nervous I was like 'No, no, no, don't get nervous.'"

She strolled on to the deck in front of a crowd of 11,000 people, listening to Drop Dead Gorgeous on her iPod. And, for those in the older set who don't know, that's the name of the band, not the song, as was pointed out when asked.

But those kind of things happen all the time for the youngster, who takes it all in stride with a giggle and laugh that is the trademark of maturing kids.

"I don't find it that difficult," says the Newmarket Stingrays member of always being the 'kid' on every team. "My team is all older than me and back home whenever I go on team travel trips everyone is older than me, so I'm used to being the youngest."

Her Olympics over, at least this one, with presumably many more ahead, she plans to watch some of the other events over the course of the next week and a half, as well as take some time to tour Beijing.

The kinds of things that kids her age don't normally do on summer vacation.

-- Sports Editor Brad Kelly is in Beijing covering the Olympics for Metroland Media Group