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A return to the pool led to a special memory for Swift Current's Ang Moffit.
At 40 years old, she returned to competitive swimming to win two bronze medals and a silver at the Canadian Masters Swimming Championships in Saskatoon.
"It was a pretty exciting meet to be at," Moffit said. "I've never actually swum at the national level and knowing that there were close to 500 swimmers there was I think the most inspiring thing. I was a very young person at the swimming being 40, there are lots of people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and even some 90-year-olds who are swimming. Seeing that is truly inspirational."
Moffit won a Silver in the 100m fly, a bronze in the 100m IM, and a bronze in the 50m fly.
"It makes a person kind of emotional having all three of my kids and my husband there," she added. "I have some video of me swimming and my kids cheering for me. That was pretty cool.
"You don't go for those medals, right? You go for your personal best times and improving yourself, and you hope that there will be some type of reward like that. But when you get it, it's pretty cool. Like I always say to my kids, that's the icing on the cake. It's the hard work and the improvement that really matters."
Moffit hadn't swum competitively since she was a teenager. As a coach with the Swift Current Barracudas Swim Club, she had quite a motivation for getting back into the pool.
"I got back into it because my oldest son wouldn't listen to me," Moffit joked. "I'd be giving him lessons or trying to coach him, and he literally wouldn't listen to me. I kind of got back into it because I was inspired by him and also frustrated. He swims winter club and does these really long races, and so part of it getting back into it was because of my kids and to become a better coach."
A year and a half of training and competing on a large stage has helped her relate to the athletes she is coaching better.
"I've been yelling at my kids about the same thing over and over and over, and then you go into swimming and you're like, it's really not that easy," Moffit said. "So having the compassion that it's really hard and you can set your mind to something, but your body sometimes doesn't always do it in the moment. It's not just a physical sport, but it's a mental sport where you really have to be thinking a lot of those things. So it has 1000%made me a way better coach getting back into the competing for sure."
Moffit isn't done competing either. She plans to train again next year and go for some gold medals this time.
"My coach (Cassandra Crozier) will laugh about this," Moffit said. "But the day after the meet was over, I was kind of hungry with a fire of like, next year, I want to go and win gold. I was really happy to just get a medal because I didn't really know. I've only been back into swimming for about a year and a half. I had no idea at a national level how it would translate. Some of my strokes are better than others, so I did place like 6th and 7th in a couple of my races. My fly seems to be one of my better strokes. I was really happy to win a couple a couple of medals there."
In addition to her three medals, Moffit finished 6th in the 50m breaststroke, 6th in the 100m free, 7th in the 50m free, and 7th in the 100m breaststroke.