Whitehorse native Thomas Gishler recently competed in a FINA World Cup swim meet.

The world class event, featuring international competition, took place in Toronto Oct. 28-30.

Gishler’s best result came in the 800 metre freestyle, in which he finished fourth in his heat and 12th overall.

Whitehorse Glacier Bears’ coach Bronwyn Pasloski was ecstatic with Gishler’s results.

“It was so incredible. It was an awesome opportunity,” she said.

Pasloski explained how Gishler ended up racing in such a high profile swimming event.

“Thomas was invited to his first Swimming Canada training camp, which was very cool.”

Gishler had the opportunity to go to Ontario to participate in the camp and was one of nine men that were invited. The focus of the camp was on distance training and longer distance events.

“So he was selected to participate in that, which was already incredible on its own,” related Pasloski.

“I got this email and it had invited us to go to FINA World Cup and I was so confused, I was like, ‘What is this?’ And he’s looking as I’m looking at my phone, I’m like, ‘Did you know anything about going to Worlds?’ He’s like ‘What are you talking about?’ (I’m) like, ‘you just got invited to go to Worlds. That’s so cool.’ So he was so ecstatic and I mean, what a wonderful opportunity,” recalled Pasloski.

“Athletes from across the world are selected from their countries to come and represent them and it is a more professional international level of competition … there’s prize money and it’s … very cool,” added Pasloski.

Pasloski said the World Cup experience was “really great. We went down and his main focus was 800 freestyle, which I thought he did quite incredible. He dropped a personal best time of six seconds, which was fantastic and overall he placed 12th in the whole competition, which in the grand scheme of things is amazing. Considering like, world records were being broken over the weekend, and it was such a high calibre level of sport.

“So if anything, it was really cool … just (for) him to see that it’s his first international swim meet experience and I think that’s probably the first of many for him.”

Pasloski said Gishler was really happy with his results.

“Of course, there’s always learning opportunities that come from races and it was I think, very exciting for both of us to assess his race and to know exactly where we need to be focusing on and his areas that he wants to improve in. But overall, he was very excited. He felt very strong and I think he knows that he’s just getting started in his swimming career right now and he’s, he’s very excited to have other opportunities.”

Gishler said “It went pretty good. I liked it. It was a really good experience. There was a lot of fast swimmers there, so it was kind of nice to see what my potential is and what other strategies that the swimmers are using.

“I did the 100 IM (Individual Medley) and the 800 free (style). It was pretty good. I took off, I think, about a second off (his personal best) in the 100 IM and then I took six seconds off for the 800 free. It was nice.”

As mentioned, Gishler excelled in the 800 metre free.

“I came 12th out of about 20 swimmers, so not too bad I’d say.

“It was good to see how I compared to other swimmers from Canada and around the world.”

Gishler, 17, was competing against older swimmers.

“It was an open age group,” recalled Paloski. “But the majority … I think there was only maybe one individual that was the same age as Thomas. But otherwise it was upwards to, I think, 30 or 30 plus years of age.”

“It wasn’t too intimidating for me … I saw it as a learning experience,” related Gishler.

“We watched all the races, too, so it was nice to see what other people were doing and what I could learn from it, what kind of strategies the fast people in the world were doing.”

There were a few factors in Gishler’s success at the World Cup.

“I had a training camp in Toronto for about a week, like right before it, actually,” he recalled. “I had a couple of days off, then I went straight to training camp. So that definitely helped. And I’ve also been doing a lot of distance training with my coach Bronwyn at home at our club. I just like training hard, I like seeing strategies.”

Former head coach Carmen Escobar also played a part in his success.

“She was my coach for about three years … I think she definitely pushed me hard and she got me to where I am today for sure. She brought me to my first national, my first trials. All last year that she was coaching me, really pushed me to my full potential and got me to where I could be.”

Gishler was at the advanced team B.C. camp last week.

“So he got selected to the advanced team, which is quite exceptional,” said Pasloski. “And that means that there’s a lot of potential opportunity there.”

According to Pasloski, Gishler will be very busy in the coming months.

“There’s a lot of good things happening this summer. The Canadian Nationals, that are in April, are a qualifying event for World Championships, which will be later that summer and also the Pan American Games. So Thomas is getting focused and wants to contend for nomination for the Pan American Games, but we’ll see how that goes … it could be very positive.”

“He also is talking to post secondary schools for varsity options. And I think he’s excited to stay in Canada and compete for a Canadian university team come next fall.”

Gishler is taking home schooling, which is a major advantage for him with his busy schedule.

“I think next up we have Christmas Cracker, which is a fun little meet and then after that I might go to Ontario pre-internationals which is right after, like, Dec. 15, something like that,” he said.

Meanwhile, a reunion was in store for Gishler at the Odlum Brown Colleges Cup at the University of B.C. (UBC) this past weekend.

“He’s actually going down this weekend and and he’s going to see Mia, Thomas and Alex,” Pasloski said last week.

“They’re all going to be at the same swim meet, so they’re all very excited to see each other.”