A Olympian’s tale: Myers students learn about the power of perseverance

Times Photo by Cal Braid. MOTIVATION: Apollo Hess gives a speech at W.R. Myers High School gymnasium on Sept. 23.

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On Sept. 23, southern Alberta Olympic swimmer Apollo Hess delivered a motivational talk to students at W.R. Myers High School. He talked about dreaming big and sticking with it through the tough times. Hess, 22, grew up in Lethbridge with two brothers and a mother who helped him realize his dream of swimming on an international stage. Last summer, at the world’s most prestigious sporting event, the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Hess placed fifth in the men’s 4×100 metre swim relay and was the first-ever Indigenous swimmer to compete in an Olympic pool. But getting there wasn’t always smooth sailing.

 “I kind of always loved being active and being in sports. I started out in a swimming club when I was six, and I kind of played a little bit of everything. So I did hockey, soccer, football, cross- country, track and field, a little bit of everything,” he told the large crowd gathered in the Myers gymnasium. He said his mom gave him every opportunity possible, and “literally put me in everything she could, along with my brothers, too.”

 “Honestly, when I was younger, I hated swimming. I hated swimming so much I would fake being sick and tell my coaches I was sick, and then skip out. So, I feel like one message I can hopefully give to you guys is that you’ve got to try different things to find your path. It took me quite some time to find mine. I didn’t fully commit to mine until I was about 14. So how many of you are here at 14?” he asked, to a show of hands.

 “I didn’t know what I was going to do at that age. I still honestly don’t really know what I want to be when I’m older. When I was 14, I suffered a pretty bad concussion from football. I got knocked out, and I had to move away from contact sports. So that brought me to swimming. And like I said, I hated swimming practice, but I loved racing and I loved competing, and I found that so fun.”

 He said that from a very young age, he knew that being a pro athlete or being an athlete at the highest level was something that he wanted to do and was capable of doing. He made it happen by following his heart and putting in the work.

 “If I could give you guys a little bit of advice, it would be to find something that you love doing. It doesn’t really matter what it is. Like arts, dance, music, choir, or any sport; it really doesn’t matter. You don’t have to be gifted. You’ve just gotta work, gotta just follow your heart,” he advised the students.

 He recalled February of 2023, when he was getting ready for World Championship trials in Toronto. In a competition where the winners can go on to the national team and the World Championships, Hess came down with food poisoning about two weeks before the event and lost 10 pounds in two days.

 “I ended up doing super poorly,” he recounted. “This was the competition where I expected to make my breakout and make my first international team go to the World Championships, to show everybody that I was ready to make that step onto the international stage. And it really crushed me inside that I wasn’t able to do it, and I had to watch other people where I saw myself going.”

 “That was really, really hard for me. I failed. After that, in April, I didn’t even want to look at the pool. I just hated thinking about swimming. It just made me upset, and I just didn’t want to do it. I kind of fell out of love with my sport a little bit. And that was, that was just over a year ago in like, April or May of 2023.”

 He took time off from training and got a job as an arborist in Lethbridge. “That’s what I was doing a year ago,” he said. However, “I knew I wanted more for myself. I wasn’t done with swimming. I had an invitation to swim at the National High Performance Center in Toronto, and so I got this job to save my money to afford to move away. I knew that if I made this switch in my life, and if I chased my dream, it doesn’t really matter how it ends up. Obviously, my dream was always making the Olympics, and I just wanted to give myself the best shot. And at the end of the day, I did everything I could, and if I didn’t make it, then alright, there’s nothing else I could have done.”

So he saved and then packed his life up in his car, and drove 35 hours in two days to the other side of the country. He started from scratch, building up his fitness and power. He didn’t know anybody and was lonely without any friends, but he made new ones and continued to train rigorously.

 “My main thing this year was I didn’t want to have any regrets after I was done competing,” he said. He didn’t want to look back and wish he would have gone to sleep an hour earlier the night before or eaten at Dairy Queen weekly. In spite of his commitment, success didn’t come easily. He struggled mightily to get the results he hoped for and experienced setbacks.

 Ultimately, his tenacity and ability to visualize his success paid off. In 2023, Hess finished third in both the 50 and 100 metre breaststroke events at the U Sports Championships. In 2024, he placed second in the men’s 100 metre breaststroke at the Olympic trials and went on to the Paris Games to place fifth in the men’s 4×100 metre swim relay.

 After enduring some tough times after failures and setbacks, his belief prevailed. He thought, “Maybe I’m not done. Maybe my story isn’t done yet.” And he was right–it wasn’t.