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Swimmer Apollo Hess is back in the pool and doing what he loves best. Hess, a member of Kainai Nation in Alberta, represented Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He was on the 4x100-metre mixed medley relay squad that placed fifth in its event. In part because of his Olympic participation, Hess was selected as this year’s national male winner of the Tom Longboat Award, named after the legendary runner from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario. Longboat won the 1907 Boston Marathon and took part in the 1908 Summer Olympics. Hess received his award at the Aboriginal Sport Circle gala ceremony in Ottawa on Oct. 25. Shalaya Valenzuela, a member of Tseshaht First Nation in British Columbia, was selected as the national female winner of the award. The Aboriginal Sport Circle, the national governing body for Indigenous athletics in the country, also announced its regional (provincial and territorial) Tom Longboat Award winners at the ceremony. “The Tom Longwood Award for me means a lot because my Indigenous background is something that I hold really close to my heart and I take with me everywhere I go,” Hess said. “So, that award just means the world to me. And I'm super grateful and super honoured to have received it.” Hess, 23, is glad to be swimming again. He had been training at Swimming Canada’s High Performance Centre—Ontario since September 2023. Hess started making a name for himself swimming for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. After a couple of years of being a student athlete, he decided to put his university education on hold to move to Toronto where he could better focus on qualifying for the Paris Olympics. Earlier this year though, he decided he needed a break from swimming and returned to his home province. Hess rediscovered his passion for the sport and began his comeback this past week, competing at the World Aquatics World Cup Swimming meet held at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Following his 50-metre breaststroke heat on Oct. 24, Hess told Windspeaker.com he is once again taking university classes remotely through the University of Lethbridge’s business management program. “The last two years I actually didn’t take any courses at all,” he said. “I always thought when I was in school that I'd be a lot better at swimming if I didn't have so much stress from midterms and assignments. But then I kind of found myself with too much time on my hands, just sitting around, playing video games and watching TV all the time.” Without school, Hess said he then put too much pressure on himself to perform in the pool. “Normally swimming is like my escape from everything,” he said. “And when I jump in the pool, everything else goes away, like all my problems. But it kind of got to the point where I was trying to escape from swimming.” Hess realized that was not a good place for him to be. “It was just draining. The whole reason I moved to Toronto in the first place was to train and to get better at swimming. So I found that if I wasn't enjoying the reason that I'm here in the first place, then maybe I need to take a step back and just re-centre myself and just get my goals in line and kind of just check where I'm at. “That's the reason I spent a couple of months back home, trying to find that passion and love for swimming again. I found it and I'm excited to go this year.” One of Hess’ long-term goals is to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Though he’s already been an Olympian, he’d love the chance to swim in individual events at the next Games. “It was kind of bittersweet because that was something I always kind of dreamed of, swimming in the Olympics,” he said of his participation in Paris. “And I finally got to do it. But I felt like I didn't really get to make my mark and make my presence felt. So, definitely, the goal is to try to do that at the next one, individually and on the relays as well.” Hess specializes in breaststroke events. His current favourite distance is the 100-metre. The Los Angeles Olympics are still three years away. “I’m just going to take it one day at a time and try to just keep getting better,” he said. Hess’ next meet will be in Tokyo at the Japan Open in late November. “I'm excited for that,” he said. “I'm going to just put my head down and grind for a month and see where I get from there.” As for the Longboat award, “I kind of didn't really understand the magnitude of it,” Hess said. “My aunts and uncles were reaching out to me and congratulating me on it and telling me how big of a deal it was.”
