Ready, set…

The Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club and Swim Yukon are set to host its first competition of the season with the Ryan Downing Memorial Swim Meet from Oct. 22-23 at the Canada Games Centre pool.

Racing begins Friday at 5:45 p.m. and runs until 9 p.m., with races resuming Saturday from 8:45 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Some 43 swimmers from Juneau and 10 from Haines, Alaska, will swim over the weekend, along with roughly 100 swimmers from the Glacier Bears.

Glacier Bears head coach Marek Poplawski said this year's meet may be one of the larger events the club has hosted.

"It'll be nice for the kids to experience racing different swimmers,” Poplawski said.

"We didn't have that many from other clubs (in past years), so this will be one of the biggest meets we've had for many years, because Juneau is sending a big team.”

The club's membership has been growing in recent years, Poplawski added.

"So it's important for those kids to see what swimming is all about. Some of them, this will be their first time at a swim meet, some of the younger kids, so I think it's great to be exposed to a competition like this,” he said.

The name of the game for the first meet of the season is to gauge enthusiasm and garner more involvement in the club and sport, particularly from the young swimmers.

And experience.

The club has been in the pool for the past month, and is poised to start competition, Poplawski said.

"For the club it's very important to have this meet,” he explained.

"It's a part of training, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they do in their different events.

"I think it'll be a good experience for the younger kids to get some racing, because we don't go to many swim meets. So I think it's important for all levels of swimmers,

it'll be a good indication of where we are at the beginning of the season.”

The meet is in memory of Ryan Downing, who passed away on Dec. 5, 1996.

From the age of four, Downing was a fiercely proud member of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club.

His love of swimming competition was complete, working hard every length and never missing a practice; win or lose, he loved to race for the sheer joy of it. One week after his 13th birthday, Downing collapsed in gym class due to a heart problem.

His love of competition has been shared and enjoyed by generations of aspiring Yukon swimmers.

The Glacier Bears will follow up its first meet with the November Rain Invitational in Juneau from Nov. 12-14 and the PCS Christmas Cracker in Victoria, B.C., from Dec. 10-12.

Poplawski said he's interested in gauging the level of his swimmers over the weekend.

"I think that everybody is looking forward to see where we are; there'll be some incentive to keep working hard for the swimmers.”