If you've followed swimming in recent years, you'll know Aodhan Mooney is one of the city's best and now does her thing at the University of New Brunswick (UNB).
But did you know Mooney is also a certified lifeguard? And she showed just how good she is at it late last month.
Mooney and her team from UNB took top spot at the New Brunswick Pool Lifesaving Provincial Championship in Saint John, scoring a team total of 600 points, double what the next best team had.
“The swim team just put together everyone who had their up-to-date certification and went,” said Mooney.
Mooney was part of a team of six and competed in the junior division, where she had to complete several tasks in the water similar to situations they could face while working at a pool. The team events included a line toss, where one person stood on land and another was in the water. The person on land throws a line to the person in distress in the water and has to recoil the line in one minute or less.
Among the events in the solo portion was the 100-metre mannequin carry, where a lifeguard has to pull a 70-lb mannequin as fast as they can for 100 metres; and an obstacle swim, where a lifeguard swims under and around various objects in the water.
“That's if a lifeguard has to go underwater to try and find someone,” said Mooney about the obstacle swim.
All of the events were timed and the faster the time, the more points a team received.
“We kind of dominated it,” said Mooney. “It was interesting to do it because I've never done something like this before and I really liked it.”
Perhaps the sliver lining in this is Mooney received her full training at the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool, something she said she's never forgotten.
“They taught me everything I know about lifeguarding,” she said. “Maybe this will give people some motivation to go and get their training because it's good to have and you never know when it can help someone.”
Was there any fear about whether Mooney would remember her training? Never.
“The competition was about the basics you need for certification,” she said. “I wasn't worried about forgetting anything because it always comes back to you, like riding a bike.”
There are already plans for the team to defend their title in 2019 because winning is always fun, she added.
“We definitely want to keep our title,” she said. “No matter what the game is, it's all about the joy of winning.”