Team Canada's artistic swimming team performsAntoine Saito
Antoine Saito

Claire Scheffel

Biography

Claire Scheffel first joined the senior national program in 2021 and made her debut at the World Aquatics Championships in 2022, She had initially been listed as an alternate, but ended up competing after a teammate was injured just a few hours before the competition began. She went on to compete at the 2023 and 2024 World Aquatics Championships. At the latter, she competed in all three team routines as Canada qualified a full team for Paris 2024.

Scheffel helped Canada win team bronze at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. At the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup held in Markham, Ontario in June 2024, Priddell helped Canada win medals in all three team events (team technical silver, team free silver, team acrobatic bronze). That followed a silver medal in the team free at the World Cup in Paris in early May that served as the Olympic test event of the Aquatics Centre for Paris 2024.  Scheffel previously helped Canada win team acrobatic silver and team free bronze at the 2023 World Cup Super Final.

Scheffel competed internationally for the first time at age 14 at the UANA Pan American Championships where she won the figures, duet, and team events.

A Little More About Claire

Getting into the Sport: Started artistic swimming at age 8, began competing at age 10… She had tried both swimming and dancing and her parents thought artistic swimming was a good combination of both… Outside Interests: Enjoys crocheting, drawing, and painting (especially pictures of her pets), as well as thrifting and repurposing her finds… Taking courses part-time through the University of Waterloo and Athabasca University… Odds and ends: Her father, Trevor, was a high-performance swimmer who competed at the 1993 Universiade… Her first duet partner had the same first and middle name as her, Claire Elizabeth… Collects magnets when she travels, continuing her parents’ tradition… Favourite motto: “Just keep swimming”…

Notable International Results

Pan American Games: 2023 – BRONZE (team)

World Aquatics Championships: 2024 – 4th (team acrobatic), 6th (team technical), 7th (team free); 2023 – 6th (team acrobatic); 2022 – 7th (team highlight), 8th (team technical)

World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup: 2024 – CAN: SILVER (team free), BRONZE (team acrobatic); SILVER (team technical); FRA: SILVER (team free), 5th (team technical), 5th (team acrobatic); 2023 – Super Final: SILVER (team acrobatic), BRONZE (team free), 4th (team technical); CAN: 4th (team technical), 4th (team acrobatic); FRA: 4th (team acrobatic), 5th (team free), 9th (team technical)