Josh Liendo reacts after competing in the Men’s 100m Freestyle Heats on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena.Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Ask Josh Liendo’s teammates and they will invariably tell you that he doesn’t appear to be afraid of anything.
Liendo debuted three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics at the age of 18, shrugged off any nerves and comported himself like a seasoned veteran, nearly pushing Canada to an upset relay medal. Since then, he’s been chasing down the world’s best swimmers with that same no-fear mentality.
But Liendo wants to correct the record. He is afraid of something.
He may be one of the best sprint swimmers in the world and is a critical piece of Canada’s medal hopes in Paris, but he doesn’t much like the ocean. Get him out of a pool and into the open water and – like a lot of people – he hates the deep.
Born in Montreal, Liendo moved to Trinidad as a boy when his father’s career with Xerox took the family there. Though he lived on the Caribbean island for 10 years until they moved back to Canada, Liendo admits he never cared for the sea.
“I was super afraid of the ocean. Maybe I still am,” he says. “I just didn’t like deep water. I didn’t like being in water where I couldn’t see.”
In Paris, he’s about to plunge into the deep end of Olympic competition. And these Summer Games will be his reintroduction to the world: Having shed his rookie status from Tokyo, say hello to Liendo the contender.
“He’s an exciting athlete to watch,” said Brent Hayden, Liendo’s teammate on the 4x100-metre freestyle relay in Tokyo that almost pulled off a miracle upset, just narrowly missing a bronze medal. “He’s got the talent, he’s got a good head on his shoulders, and he’s a fierce competitor.”
Hayden, a bronze medalist in 2012, remembers beating Liendo in the 50-metre freestyle at the Canadian Olympic trials in 2021, then watching Liendo obliterate his national record a year later.
“He crushed my Canadian record. So I was like, all right, I’m glad I got that in there before it was no longer possible. Because this guy is the real deal.”
Joshua Liendo celebrates winning the men's 100m butterfly at the Canadian Olympic Swim Trials in Toronto on May 19.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
For those unfamiliar with Liendo’s swift rise up the international rankings, the 21-year-old heads into Paris as the top-ranked swimmer in the 100-metre butterfly. He sits fifth in the world in the 50-metre freestyle and 10th in the 100-metre freestyle, based on pre-Olympic qualifying times.
It’s been a while – since Hayden in 2012 – that Canada has had a men’s sprinter of this calibre.
But in a men’s team that so desperately wants to have a strong performance in Paris after watching the Canadian women bring home a combined 12 medals over the past two Summer Games, Liendo has brought the men’s program tantalizingly close to the brink of success.
The 2022 world championships were his breakout; he won bronze in the 100-metre freestyle and the 100-metre butterfly, then led the men’s program to a silver in the 4x100 freestyle relay. A few weeks later, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in the 100-metre butterfly.
He followed that up with a silver medal in the 100-metre butterfly at last year’s world championships.
He is the first Black Canadian swimmer to win an individual medal at a major international swim competition, and the first to win a gold. Liendo has been called the future of Canadian men’s swimming, by his teammates, by analysts, and by coaches. At the Paris Olympics, he knows there’s only one way to prove it.
“Josh was the first one to really make that breakthrough and show that it is possible,” said Finlay Knox, a teammate on the men’s relay squad looking to avenge the narrow podium miss in Tokyo.
Part of what could make Liendo a star in Paris is a shift in training he undertook in the fall of 2022 when he began swimming for head coach and former Olympic gold medalist Anthony Nesty at the University of Florida, working out alongside Caeleb Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist for the U.S.
Since then, Liendo has been on a steady upward trajectory, winning the NCAA championship this season in the 50-metre freestyle.
Brett Hawke, who represented Australia at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, later went on to coach, and now runs a popular swimming podcast, said that move was crucial for Liendo.
“I was talking to Brent Hayden a couple of years ago and he was like, ‘Brett, this guy is the future.’ I was like, he’s good, I don’t know if he’s the future,” Hawke recalls. “And then all of a sudden, he goes down to Florida and starts training with Caeleb Dressel, and you’re like, okay, yes, this kid is the future. Wow, what a talent.
“But he made the right choices, that’s what winners do. They put themselves in situations to get better, and Josh did that. He’s definitely gotten better. Josh has gone to that next level of swimming, where he’s absolutely capable of winning events at the Olympics in Paris.”
Liendo believes he’s a more mature athlete than he was three years ago.
“I’m more comfortable in a racing environment,” Liendo said. “When it gets to the Olympics, it’s all execution. But in terms of during the season, I’m not afraid to learn, to try things, maybe have a bad swim and then learn from it as much as I can.”
Liendo and Dressel are both bold personalities, known for exuding confidence, But Liendo says there is only minimal trash talk between them when they train.
“Not as much as the other guys because it would probably get too, like, real,” he said. “Because we’re both competitive.”
From the left: Canada teammates Josh Liendo, Yuri Kisil, Finlay Knox and Javier Acevedo react after competing in the men's 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, on July 27, in Nanterre, France.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Liendo’s father, Ramon, remembers when Josh began taking swimming lessons in Trinidad. It began as a fun activity for the family, and his parents wanted him to be comfortable around the water. They never considered where it would lead.
By the time Liendo began competing in organized meets, a few years before the family moved to Toronto in 2013, coaches were already talking about a future in the sport.
“It’s the first time I had heard this term called ‘Feel for the water.’ He just has a good feel for the water,” Ramon said. “He flows with it. There is no resistance. He just knows how to use it and how to pull.”
“It’s crazy, you raise your child and you put him into music or skating or whatever. And then all of a sudden you have an Olympian. Did you know? No, you didn’t. It’s incredible.”
Ramon is Liendo’s most-vocal fan at competitions, even though he admits he’s no expert in high-level swimming. It’s become standard for Ramon to lose his voice at meets, which usually last a week or more.
“I’ve told him you’re going to need to pace yourself,” Liendo said of his dad. “Because he cheers for everyone. By night two, his voice is gone.”
Ramon makes no promises.
“It’s a big one,” he says of Paris. “Obviously I will go crazy. I’m wild, I lose my voice.”
Having watched his son get so close to a medal in 2021 and now return for another shot, he’s just happy to be along for the ride.
“It’s a beautiful thing to think of the moment you were holding him in the water when he was a child, and the moment now where he is just going like a bullet.”