Sports Oakville Beaver SIX FOR SIX: Oakville Aquatic Club swimmer Tera Van Beilen won gold in all six events she competed in at last month's Canada Summer Games in Prince Edward Island, tying a record for the most gold medals ever won by an athlete in Canada Games history. SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 25 Swimmer shines at Summer Games By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Tera Van Beilen concluded her breakthrough swimming season with one of the best-ever performances in Canada Summer Games history. The 16-year-old won gold in all six events she competed in at the Games, which concluded last weekend in Prince Edward Island. The six gold ties her for the most ever won by an athlete at the Canada Games, a competition held every two years and alternates between winter and summer. Van Beilen swept the individual breaststroke events (50-metre, 100m and 200m), breaking the age group record in the 200m by nearly two seconds (finishing in 2:24.00). She added relay golds in the 4x50m and 4x100m medleys and 4x200m freestyle, teaming with Danielle Carty (Caledonia), Paige Miller (Caledon) and Michelle Williams (Toronto) to set a new senior national record in the 4x50m medley. Several of Van Beilen's Oakville Aquatic Club teammates also won medals. Curtis Samuel earned three relay medals (gold in 4x100m medley and 4x200m freestyle, silver in 4x100m freestyle) and a bronze in the 200m butterfly). Julie Calvert (silver, 200m IM), Annie Harrision (silver, 400m IM) and Mack Darragh (bronze, 200m IM) also took home hardware. But Van Beilen was the star of the show. "I just felt so good in my warmups and during my races," Van Beilen said. "I felt better than I ever did before." The dominant performance concludes a season in which Van Beilen made finals at senior nationals for the first time, won two gold medals at age group nationals and earned a spot on the senior national B team. "My stroke has improved, and I think I've gotten a lot stronger from strength training and dryland," said Van Beilen, who will start her Grade 11 year at King's Christian Collegiate next week. "I've worked really hard in the past year in training, harder than I've ever worked. All those things just built up." Van Beilen's future goal is to compete in the Olympics, but it will likely be difficult to make the Canadian team as a breaststroke specialist. Two other Canadians, Annamay Pierse and Amanda Reason, set world records in breaststroke events this year. "If not (the Olympics), then I just want to make other international events," Van Beilen said. Van Beilen plans to take a couple weeks off from the pool before resuming training. She will compete in the Australian Youth Olympics in December.