Samantha Nealon

Biography

It was while watching the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games that Samantha Nealon decided she wanted to pursue swimming for Canada. She got that chance in 2011 when she joined the junior national team and competed at the Pan American Championships, helping Canada win gold in the team event. It was also in 2011 that she gained exposure to multi-sport competition at the Canada Games. In 2012 she was part of the team that finished fourth at the FINA World Junior Championships. She earned a couple more near-podium results at the 2013 Summer Universiade. In 2014 she was a reserve for the team that competed at the FINA World Cup in Quebec City.

PERSONAL

Family: Parents Joseph and Caroline… Younger brother Kyle… Grandfather Richard Mattiussi played in the NHL in the late 1960s… Getting into the Sport: Started synchro at age 8… One of her friends did the sport recreationally and asked if she’d be interested in coming to a practice to try it… Outside Interests: Enjoys doing yoga… Pursuing Child Studies at Concordia University… Odds and Ends: Nickname: Sammy… Role model is Sylvie Fréchette because of her courage and tenacity which characterized her synchro career… Collects keychains from the places she travels to… Favourite motto: “No pain, no gain”…

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

FINA WCh (junior): 2012 – 4^th (team)

FISU: 2013 – 4^th (team technical), 4^th (team free)

PAC: 2011 – GOLD (team)