Swimmer Alexandre Landry has had more than enough experience at overcoming adversity.

A product of the Valley East Waves throughout his youth, Landry was all set to join the Laurentian Voyageurs program in the fall of 2021 – as it turned out about six months after the program was cut completely as part of the financial restructuring at L.U.

Committed to pursuing his degree in Accounting in French, the 19 year old graduate of Ecole Secondaire Hanmer looked into the very small handful of other U Sports options that might fit the bill – only to determine that remaining home in Sudbury was definitely his best option.

Somehow, despite all of the above - and a global pandemic - Landry found a way to persevere.

With class times at university not fitting well at all into the Waves schedule, he made the tough decision to transition over to SLSC (Sudbury Laurentian Swim Club) and coaches Dean Henze and Phil Parker. Far be it for that process to come without a hurdle or two along the way.

“It was mostly ups, but a couple of downs as well,” said Landry. “I was trying to modify my stroke, to improve it a bit, especially with my upper body getting stronger, wanting to get a better pull.”

The breaststroke had become his signature event, a stroke in which he and Valley East coach Sharon Leger had seen plenty of improvement over the course of his teenage years at the Howard Armstrong Sports Complex, the pool just a hop, skip and a jump from his home.

“We were at a meet in North Bay in May (2022), and we had to override the entire thing,” said Landry. “My times went up in everything, massive times. I knew that they (Henze and Parker) have a lot of experience; they’ve been doing this for 20+ years – and I trust them. But it was still super hard for me.”

“That meet in North Bay was my first meet against the Waves.”

Committed to the process, Landry trained hard on his new technique. “It was really hard for me to go back a step, but every Friday night, practice was pretty much a personal practice (very small group). I would work a lot on my breaststroke and the technique for that.”

“That was really nice for me.”

Finally, the breakthrough came.

Over the course of the summer, Landry would chop an astounding nine seconds off his personal best time in the 200m breaststroke. Even as he competed at the recent FINA World Cup in Toronto, quite the honour for the super respectful young man, his PB would drop by another five seconds – and that in a race that he left feeling that more was on the table.

“I went out way too hard and died at the end,” said Landry.

Yep – that can happen when five-time world champion and 2020 Summer Olympian (5th place) Nic Fink is a couple of lanes over. “Trying to keep up with him was kind of rough,” said Landry with a smile.

That said, the entire experience was wonderful, a very deserving payoff for the local swimmer whose resiliency is more than just a tad impressive. Regardless of when the time comes for Landry to step away from competitive swimming, a pool deck view of the classic Katie Ledecky – Summer McIntosh battle last month is a memory that is sure not to fade anytime soon.

“There was music while the races were going on; the fans were so engaged,” Landry recalled.

“The experience was insane.”

Yes – insane and humbling and fun – and a whole lot different than he had imagined it.

“I thought it was going to be all serious, every swimmer focused on themselves and everything,” said Landry. “But even in the ready room, people were having fun with each other, they were talking. It was just like a normal swim meet.”

“I think it was us younger kids who were most nervous and stressed out and not talking to anybody. It should be the opposite.”

An athlete who has battled against lack of confidence at many times, Alexandre Landry is becoming increasingly comfortable with both the swimmer and the person he has become. The truth is, the beneficiaries are many.

“I want to be more of a leader for our team this year,” he said. “I am one of the oldest guys and I’ve had some success. I want to be there for the others and help them in different ways.”

Given the road that he has travelled, there is plenty to be learned from this very pleasant local talent.