It is with mixed emotions that we announce that, after 13 incredible years with Ontario Artistic Swimming, Mary Dwyer is retiring and will be leaving her role as Executive Director following the SYNC event this summer. Mary has been a pillar in our sport since taking on her role in 2010, leading our province and our sport through an incredible journey of growth and change that has occurred both within and around artistic swimming. From the early years, together with Canada Artistic Swimming and the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario, OAS became a successful OHPSI-approved sport, paving the way for the delivery of high-performance programming and implementation of a full athlete development pathway with programs such as FutureGen, Learn to Train, Train to Train and HP Academy. Under Mary’s leadership, OAS was the first sport to trial the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre for competition; successfully launched the Artistic Swimming Hilton Invitational; partnered with Alberta and Quebec in creating the SYNC competition and invested in marketing and promotion of funding opportunities for growth in all areas of our sport. Mary’s strong passion and belief in our athletes and our sport, and her ability to be a leader in our sport has shone through in all that she does.
Behind the scenes Mary has been instrumental in building strong relationships with our government and granting partners, growing the funding available to us. This has ensured that artistic swimming in Ontario has the capacity to run incredible programs and create the awe-inspiring events that have developed during her tenure. We ask that you please do take the time to celebrate Mary and her remarkable contributions with us.
As we look to the future, we are fortunate that during her tenure, Mary has built a strong and passionate team that is ready to step in and support our membership in the coming months as we work through the transition. Additionally, the Board of Directors has engaged the help of a search/recruitment firm to help ensure we run a fair and equitable process that looks broadly and thinks creatively in our search for a new Executive Director.
Again, we can’t say thank you enough to Mary for her passion and commitment over the last 13 years and encourage you to celebrate with us all that she has done for our sport. Thank you Mary!
Sincerely,
Pat McCann