Reid Maxwell and Danielle Dorris named Swimming Canada’s Para swimmers of the year

OTTAWA – Reid Maxwell and Danielle Dorris, were the top Canadians at the 2025 world championships in Singapore and those performances earned them Swimming Canada’s Male and Female Swimmer of the Year honors in the Paralympic program.

Maxwell, 18, from St. Albert, Alta., showed his silver at the 2024 Paralympic Games was no fluke as he took a silver medal in the men’s S8  200-meter individual medley at the Singapore worlds. He also reached three more finals, set five Canadian records and helped Canada place fifth in the mixed 4×50 freestyle relay.

“It feels pretty good. I don’t really have words for it,” said Maxwell about his award. “It’s an honour, of course, to be named swimmer of the year. Even just to represent Canada. So yeah, I’m pretty proud.”

Despite the results, Maxwell said he left Singapore motivated to improve. That mindset helped drive his decision to move from Alberta to Montreal to train at the High Performance Centre–Quebec under coach Haley Osborne.

“Reid is determined to make the Paralympic program stronger,” Osborne said. “He doesn’t want any of us to settle for ‘good enough.’”

While Maxwell represents the program’s next wave, Dorris continues to set the standard.

The Moncton, N.B., native captured a medal of every color in Singapore, winning gold in the S7 50 butterfly in championship-record time, silver in the 100 backstroke and bronze in the 50 freestyle. It marked her third straight world title in the 50 fly, making her only the third Canadian to win the same event at three consecutive world championships.

“It definitely doesn’t get old,” said Dorris, 23, a three-time Paralympian and two-time Paralympic champion. “Being able to win it on my own this year is pretty special.”

Dorris, with nine career world championship medals, also embraced a larger leadership role with several veteran teammates absent following Paris. She was named one of the team captains in Singapore, a responsibility her longtime coach Ryan Allen said she “knocked out of the park.”

Allen, now Swimming Canada’s national coach lead for the Paralympic program, was named Coach of the Year after serving as head coach in Singapore.

With young talents such as Maxwell emerging and established stars like Dorris still in their prime, Allen believes the timing is right.

“The period of time ahead of us, if we do everything really well, it’s an opportunity,” he said. “It’s about adding, evolving and growing together.”

Seventeen-year-old Ali Diehl of Prince Albert, Sask., was named Swimming Canada’s Breakout Swimmer of the Year. She was fourth in the SB9 100 breaststroke in her world championships debut, missing the podium by less than a second.