Ryan Andrew Cochrane (born October 29, 1988) is a retired Canadian competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who specialised in freestyle distance events. Cochrane is an Olympic silver and bronze medallist as well as a triple gold medallist from the

Pan Pacific Swimming Championships The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships is a long course swimming event first held in 1985.2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

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. He holds six world championship medals from the 800-metre and 1500-metre, this also makes Cochrane Canada's all-time leading medallist for a swimmer at the

World Aquatics Championships The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events ar ...

. Cochrane also won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500 m freestyle at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

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, as well as a bronze in the 4 x 200 m freestyle at the 2015 Games. From the year 2008 - 2015, Cochrane was named the Canadian male swimmer of the year - winning the award 8 times in a row.

Life and career

As a sixteen-year-old Cochrane competed at the 2005 Canada Games for British Columbia. In those games he won five medals including two gold in the 800- and 1,500-metre freestyle events. He rose to prominence in the Canadian sporting and aquatic world when he competed in the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

starting in the

400 m freestyle 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

. There he finished ninth in the heats with a Canadian record time of 3:44.85 and failed to qualify for the final. Cochrane also competed in the

1500 m freestyle Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...

where he briefly held the

Olympic record Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including: * Archery (list) * Alpine skiing (records recognized only by FIS) * Athletics (list) ...

after swimming a time of 14:40.84 in the heats. This record was soon broken by previous record holder

Grant Hackett Grant George Hackett OAM (born 9 May 1980) is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him t ...

, who swam a time of 14:38.92. He qualified in second position for the final, and won the bronze medal on August 17. It was the first Olympic medal for a Canadian swimmer since the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. It was the first medal for Canada in the 1500m freestyle in 88 years.

Building on Olympic success

Cochrane was able to back up his performance from the Olympics at the

2009 World Aquatics Championships The 2009 World Aquatics Championships ( it, Campionati mondiali di nuoto 2009) or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines ...

. There he swam to a bronze in the 800-metre freestyle and a silver in his best event the 1500-metre freestyle. At the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

in Delhi, India, Cochrane won Canada's first gold medal of those games in the 400-metre freestyle during the first day of competition. Cochrane also became the first Canadian man in 72 years to win gold in the 400-metre freestyle at the Commonwealth Games. He then went on to win another gold medal at those games, this time in the 1500-metre freestyle. Cochrane next competed at the

2011 World Aquatics Championships The 14th FINA World Championships () were held on 16–31 July 2011 in Shanghai, China at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The 2011 World Championships featured five aquatics disciplines: swimming, water polo, diving, open water, and synchro ...

where he opened up with a fifth-place finish in the 400-metre freestyle. Next up was one of his medal hopeful events in the 800-metre freestyle where he lowered his Canadian record to 7:41.86. However this was only good enough for second, as despite staying close to the hometown favourite of Shanghai Sun Yang ultimately took the gold for China. Of the silver medal Cochrane said that "The goal was to win but I'm happy to progress from the last two years. It shows that I'm in it. I have a little more work to do to catch Sun Yang but I'm not out of it by any means." He next competed in the 1500-metre freestyle in Shanghai where he again finished second behind Sun who swam to a

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

time. Of a second finish behind Sun, Cochrane could only say that "He shows that he's had that much more base-work training and he can get to that world record, which is fantastic. I think it's great, especially for the distance events because everyone's been talking about this world record year after year and there's more pressure that's built up...He's showed amazing stroke and amazing ability." The

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

began with Cochrane competing on the first day of competition in the 400-metre freestyle. There Cochrane won his heat and qualified in the last spot for the final. However, after

Park Tae-hwan Park Tae-hwan (, ; born September 27, 1989) is a South Korean competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. He has four Olympic medals, five world titles, and 20 Asian Games medals. He won a gold me ...

's disqualification was overturned, Cochrane was pushed out of the final and missed swimming in it by 1/100th of a second. He next entered his signature event the 1500-metre where he qualified through the heats in third place. In the final Cochrane managed to outswim

Oussama Mellouli Oussama "Ous" Mellouli ( ar, أسامة الملولي; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Tr ...

for the silver medal and achieved it in a personal best time. With his second medal at his second consecutive Olympics, according to media such as the CBC this cemented Cochrane as Canada's pillar athlete to build its swimming team around for the future as he declared that he would try and swim for Canada at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

in Rio de Janeiro.

Surpassing Hayden's World's medal tally

The post-London Olympics period saw Cochrane's first real test arrive at the

2013 World Aquatics Championships The 15th FINA World Championships ( ca, Campionat Mundial de Natació de 2013, es, Campeonato Mundial de Natación de 2013) were held from 20 July to 4 August in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.400-metre and posted the second fastest time in qualifying, earning him one of the centre lane spots beside Sun. However, he finished fourth in the finals, unable to beat the American and Japanese swimmers. In the 800-metre freestyle, with Sun again far ahead, there was a four-way race for second through fifth. This time, Cochrane achieved a bronze medal (his fifth medal), tying the Canadian record held at the time by

Brent Hayden Brent Matthew Hayden (born October 21, 1983) is a Canadian competitive swimmer. Representing Canada for a decade, Hayden is regarded as the fastest swimmer in Canadian history. Hayden won a bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle at the 2012 Summ ...

. Cochrane would later break Hayden's medal record in the 1500-metre race. In this event, he avoided the three and four-way races that he had found himself in the shorter events, taking a different approach that pitted him against Sun. Cochrane and Sun repeatedly took the lead from each other, culminating in Sun pulling ahead in the final 100 metres and took the gold. Although he established a new Canadian record, Cochrane still said that hoped to progress further, saying "This week was filled with ups and downs. I had expectations of myself that weren't met earlier on but I was pretty proud of my races later in the week so I'm going to take that going forward. Just to get on the podium twice is fantastic but I think I have that many more dreams of being that much better next time."

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, was the location for the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

where Cochrane looked to defend both of his titles in the 400-metre and 1500-metre events. Cochrane won the 400-metre freestyle by half a second and after tying up after 1200 metre in the 1500-metre freestyle Cochrane wound up successfully defending this title by a safe margin as well. He stated that he believed these were one of his last major competitions and knowing that he could count his big races on one hand, pushed through the pain to the repeat double. Swimming in the 400 m freestyle event at the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (russian: Чемпионат мира по водным видам спорта 2015), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia host ...

Cochrane surprised with a bronze medal in his shortest event, not normally his strongest event. Next in the 800 m freestyle event he surprised again, though this time negatively when he failed to qualify for the final in the event when seven swimmers went under 7:50. After he said "The distance events are getting faster and faster. The heats felt more like a semifinal. I thought I did enough to get into the final and I'm obviously disappointed." Despite this poor result Cochrane did follow up with another bronze in his preferred 1,500 m event, the last major event till the

. He competed Canada's Olympic team at the

and was made co-captain of the team. These were to be Cochrane's last Olympic Games, though they would end in disappointment when he missed the final of the 400 m and finished sixth in the 1,500 m freestyle event.

Retirement from competitive swimming

On March 21, 2017, Ryan announced his retirement from competitive swimming during his "Player's Own Voice" segment on

CBC Sports CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-languag ...

Personal bests and records held

;Long course (50 m) ;Short course (25 m)

References

External links

Biography
at Swimming.ca * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cochrane, Ryan Living people 1988 births Canadian male freestyle swimmers Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) Olympic bronze medalists in swimming Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Olympic silver medalists for Canada Olympic swimmers of Canada Swimmers from Victoria, British Columbia Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2015 Pan American Games World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Pan American Games gold medalists for Canada Pan American Games bronze medalists for Canada Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in swimming Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming Pan American Games medalists in swimming Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games