Local swimming star making waves for U.S. college team

Swimming is a huge part of Logan Belanger’s life.

The 20-year-old has successfully taken her love for the water to competitive heights.

As a Georgia Southern University student, Belanger and her teammates won bronze for their school in the 200-yard freestyle relay competing against other U.S. colleges at the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Swimming and Diving Championships held Feb. 14 - 17 in Orlando, Florida.

The Sun Belt Championships are a major part of the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) swimming scene.

“Being on the podium was a feeling that is hard to put into words. We worked all season for that and it was an amazing accomplishment for the team and myself,” the Sault native told SooToday in a recent interview.

“It was an amazing feeling watching my teammate swim to the wall in the last leg of our relay. It was a close race but we knew what we wanted and we put our heads down and raced. Personally, I just trusted my training and executed my race strategy going into that 50 yards I swam as my part of the relay.”

Success in U.S. college athletics isn’t easy.

“Winning medals is very difficult at this level because everyone’s good," Belanger said. "We’re all NCAA Division I athletes."

Her days as a student in Georgia Southern’s Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Health program and as a swimmer for the Georgia Southern Eagles are demanding.

“There are strenuous hours of training. Three days a week I have two swims and then every other day I have one swim. Some days I’m training for five hours and I have three classes on the go.”

Belanger rises at 5 a.m. three times a week and begins weight training at 5:45 a.m.

That’s followed by a one hour swim beginning at 7 a.m., followed by a quick breakfast and three hours of class time from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Lunch comes next, then a second swim practice from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“Coffee. I depend on coffee. I always take my coffee cup to class every morning,” she laughed.

Her dedication to intense competitive swimming training began in the Sault. 

While swimming at the John Rhodes Community Centre Pool at the age of nine, Belanger joined what became known as the Sault Surge Aquatic Team (SSAT). 

“I had a couple of really good breakout swimming meets in my Grade 10 year and that’s where the colleges started noticing me and my times,” she recalled.

“We went to a lot of swim meets monthly. When I was in high school we started going to meets in Toronto and Thunder Bay. I think the one that stood out for me was when I was in Grade 10 at the provincials in Etobicoke. That’s where I had my breakout swim. I won first place in the 100m and 200m breaststroke. I medalled there and that put me first in the province for those events, so then I headed on to Winnipeg for junior national championships that summer. I also qualified for the Olympic trials. The higher I went, competing at those meets got me exposed to college coaches in the States.”

The recruiting process for U.S. colleges is long, Belanger said.

“It started when I was in Grade 10, in high school. That’s when you’re allowed to contact coaches in the States. I looked at a couple of colleges. I put my profile online listing my personal bests from swimming meets, my stats. Then the coaches reached out to me.”

Crediting Rod Thomas, Sault Surge Aquatic Team head coach for training her to be a competitive swimmer during her time with the local swim club, Belanger graduated from Korah Collegiate in 2021 and earned a scholarship for Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

“The recruiting process was very lengthy and a little bit stressful but it was very rewarding. When I sealed the deal with Oakland I had a couple of other schools lined up but Oakland stood out for me the most. I was super thrilled. It doesn’t happen a lot. I was very humbled but very proud of all the work that I put in. It was probably one of the best days in my life.”

She spent her freshman year at Oakland before transferring to Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Georgia in the fall of 2022.

“I had a really good year at Oakland. I made the Conference team. We won our Conference championship. It was a very strong, dominating swim school but I was looking for something a little bit different and to expand my horizons. I talked to a couple of other coaches and found my place here in Statesboro.”

That would certainly seem to be the case.

Belanger was nominated last year for Newcomer of the Year for all athletics at Georgia Southern. 

“For swimming I’d say my biggest accomplishment was transferring to Georgia Southern. It was very emotional for me, very difficult, very challenging, a lot of ‘what ifs?’ but I said to myself ‘you can do it Logan, you can go to another Division I program.’ I had a great freshman year so I knew I’d get recruited to a different college. I came here and did what I do best. I put my head down and trained hard.”

Belanger said she enjoys good communication with her coaches at Georgia Southern.

“We have competitions quite frequently. We get on campus in the first week of August and start training right away. We have swim meets almost every weekend which is super cool, going to Jacksonville, Florida, the University of South Carolina, Atlanta, Tennessee, swimming around the southern States.”

When not in the pool or in the classroom, Belanger said she enjoys the climate in the southern States and the U.S. College culture.

“I really love the weather. March weather is in the high 20s. I’ve seen pictures of my friends in snowsuits when I’m beside the pool tanning,” she laughed.

“We have a football team here. All the sports here are NCAA Division I. It’s fun in the fall when football season is on and baseball’s really popular. It’s super fun being a student athlete here because we’re all connected, we’re all friends and we support each other in our games and meets. When I was getting recruited here a friend of mine from Calgary who’s now one of my teammates said it's like what you see in the movies. It’s the typical American experience with the sororities. It’s a lot of fun. It’s very important to manage your social life when you’re a student athlete but it’s lots of fun.”

Belanger and other former Sault Surge swimmers have videotaped messages of encouragement and uploaded them to social media for current Surge athletes to view as they prepare to compete at various meets.

“I think that really is an important thing, to give back. I remember at that age seeing all the college athletes coming back around Christmas or summer and getting back into the pool. It was a form of motivation for me.” 

Belanger said she is enjoying her studies in the Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Health program at Georgia Southern.

Students in that program learn to plan and implement disease prevention programs while promoting health and fitness.

“It’s awesome. I love the field of study that I’m in right now. I feel like there’s a lot of need for public health especially with the healthcare system in Canada and it’s very interesting learning about the differences that we have compared to the healthcare system in the States.”

She plans on graduating in the spring of 2025.

“I would love to continue and get my Master’s Degree in public health. That's a two year program in the States and they have a really good program here at Georgia Southern,” Belanger said.

“I feel very confident that I have a good public health career ahead of me. Being a student athlete has really set me up for life after college. I’ve really mastered the whole dedication part of it, time management, working with a team.”

Belanger said she is open to returning to the Sault to work in public health.

“We have a camp out at Havilland Bay so I learned to swim out there when I was super young. My family's there. I’m very close with my family. I would love to come back up to the Sault and work there. I’m open for any opportunities down here but I think the ideal situation would be to come back home to the Sault. I’d love to come back home for sure.”