Maggie Mac Neil

Hannah Margaret McNair "Maggie" Mac Neil (born 26 February 2000) is a Canadian competitive swimmer.

Mac Neil was born in Jiujiang, China, in February 2000 and was adopted by her Canadian family a year later.

Growing up in London, Ontario, Mac Neil's first competitive experience as a swimmer came with the team of the school she first took lessons from.

She called it a "great experience" to compete at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, the site of swimming competitions at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Her best result in Singapore was twentieth in the heats of the 100 m butterfly.

She would later cite the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as the point where she "started to take swimming seriously and knew that I wanted to pursue it further."

She competed for Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School and the London Aquatic Club prior to her acceptance at the University of Michigan.

Competing for the University of Michigan, Mac Neil first tied the NCAA record for the 100 yard butterfly, and then broke it at the 2021 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in March 2021.

She was the first in the NCAA to post a time under 49 seconds (48.89), and the first Michigan swimmer to win an NCAA title since 2008.

She went on to win a second gold medal at the same championship, taking the 100 yard freestyle title.

Mac Neil concluded her time at the University of Michigan with two bronze medals at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships.

A slip and fall on the pool deck while attending the championships resulted in a "slight" elbow fracture that required rehabilitation.

On 25 March, she announced that she would be transferring to finish her final year of NCAA eligibility at the University of California, Berkeley, where she would be beginning graduate studies in sports management.

However, in June she announced that she had changed her plans, and would instead be transferring to Louisiana State University to compete with the LSU Lady Tigers.

The move reunited her with former Michigan coach Rick Bishop, and was speculated by Swimming World to have been connected to a burgeoning scandal surrounding Berkeley swim coach Teri McKeever.

In her final appearance at the SEC championships, helping the Lady Tigers win a record fifth gold medal.

Winning three individual gold medals, she was named the female swimmer of the meet.

She concluded her college career at the 2023 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, setting a record time in the 50 yard freestyle event and winning the gold medal.

She also won a silver medal in the 100 yard butterfly and the bronze in the 100 yard freestyle.

Mac Neil subsequently indicated that she would continue training under Bishop at LSU even though no longer competing collegiately, through to the 2024 Summer Olympics.

After various age group successes domestically, MacNeil appeared in her first international competition in 2015, winning two butterfly finals at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Orlando.

Performing well at the 2015 Canadian trials, she was selected to make her major international debut at the 2015 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Singapore.

In preparation for that event, she was part of a Canadian team sent to the Australian age group national competition in Sydney.

The following year, Mac Neil placed sixth in the 100 m butterfly event trials for Canada's 2016 Olympic team.

Based on her trial results, she was assigned to compete at the 2016 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Maui, where her best individual placement was fifth in the 100 m butterfly.

In 2017, Mac Neil missed qualification for the 2017 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, a significant disappointment for her.

She improved the following year, doing sufficiently well at the 2018 Canadian national trials to qualify for the 2018 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, earning the FINA "A" standard in both the 100 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly, finishing the runner-up in the latter event behind reigning Olympic silver medallist Penny Oleksiak.

However, she opted to decline the assignment in order to focus on the 2018 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, explaining that while she was "over the moon to have qualified," she wanted to focus on her more competitive event.

Competing in Fiji, Mac Neil won her first major international medals, most notably her first championship title in the 100 m butterfly, where she set an event record of 58.38.

She also won three relay medals as part of the Canadian women's teams.

Mac Neil was part of the Canadian women's team at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju.

She first won a bronze medal as part of the 4×100 m freestyle relay team, alongside Penny Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck, Kayla Sanchez, and Rebecca Smith.

Mac Neil then competed in and won gold in the women's 100 metre butterfly, beating four-time World and reigning Olympic champion Sarah Sjöström, in what was considered a major upset.

She closed out the championships as part of the Canadian 4×100 m medley team, swimming the final with Kylie Masse, Sydney Pickrem and Oleksiak.

The team finished third, winning Mac Neil's second bronze medal of the event, and setting a record of eight medals for Canada at a single world championship.

A 100 metre butterfly event specialist, she is the 2020 Olympic champion, 2019 World (LC) champion, two-time World (SC) champion (2021, 2022), 2022 Commonwealth champion, and 2023 Pan American champion.

She holds the current Americas record (55.59s), the short course world record, the Commonwealth record, and Pan American record in the event.

One of Canada's most accomplished swimmers, she is a three-time Olympic medallist, eight-time World (LC) medallist, eleven-time World (SC) medallist, and five-time Commonwealth medallist.

She also holds the world record in the short course 50 metre backstroke.

Her plans for the 2020 international season were significantly disrupted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ultimately delayed the Summer Olympics by a full year.