As a young boy, Liam Clawson-Honeyman moved around a lot. From Nepal to Thailand, Quebec and now British Columbia, he has experienced a staggering number of cultures, cities and lifestyles in a short period of time. What has remained consistent across these moves, though, is swimming.
Starting in his backyard pool and developing his competitive swimming skills in Bangkok, Thailand, Clawson-Honeyman was enamoured with the sport.
“It’s obviously a very individual sport,” he said. “You’re in your own lane, your performance is your performance, and it’s really cool because when you work hard and you work on improving yourself, you see the results.”
As a competitive person, Clawson-Honeyman said the high-stakes, race-based sport has motivated him to better himself and invest copious amounts of time into his training and meet preparation.
Not only does swimming require physical strength and skill, but also mental toughness, a good team environment and enough nutritional fuel.
As a distance swimmer, Clawson-Honeyman said the mental aspect can be tough.
“In a 1,500[m] race, you have a long time to contemplate a lot of things. If it starts to go poorly, it’s really just a game of … trying to stay calm and focusing on executing your race strategy.”
But, even as a fourth-year, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get nervous from time to time.
“My nerves are based on the pressure I put on myself.”
Leading up to crucial season-defining meets, Clawson-Honeyman focuses on staying calm and dialing in his race strategies.
Training environment also plays a pivotal role in race preparation and execution. He said UBC’s program, led by head coach Derrick Schoof, is great.
“There’s no other program like it in the country. Derrick is awesome — he’s the core of the program,” Clawson-Honeyman said. “He really sees the potential in everyone, far beyond what they see in themselves.”
“Derrick’s a wizard,” Clawson-Honeyman joked. “When I came to UBC, I wasn’t all that fast. But if you do what he says, you’re going to swim pretty quick.”
At his most recent U Sports Championships, Clawson-Honeyman proved Schoof’s coaching wizardry by securing silver in 1,500m freestyle, gold in 400m freestyle and helping his 4x200m freestyle relay team grasp the bronze medal.
The team-oriented aspect of swimming is also very important to him.
“It’s a family environment,” he said. “We all have this common passion — swimming — that can bring us together even if you’re very different people. You have this common goal and when we come together as a team and win the [championship] banner, it’s really awesome.”
These team-based accomplishments are the moments he discussed when reflecting on his proudest moments as a swimmer. During his first regular competitive season with UBC, after a year of COVID-19-modified training, he and his team won the U Sports national championship banner by accomplishing impressively high-scores and fast race times.
“We’re also the only team on campus [where] we train with the women’s team as well ... It’s a great environment — we train together, we race together, we hang out outside of the pool together as well,” he said. “We’re not the men’s team and the women’s team, we’re just the swim team.”
This integration, support and fun is what makes Clawson-Honeyman’s swimming career exciting.
“You never know what’s going to happen and things change a lot,” he said. “You just got to roll with the punches, celebrate the wins and focus on the process and … see where that takes you.”
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