Best of the West Fest

With the cancellation of Western Canadian Championships, the western provinces are excited to introduce the Best of the West Fest—a new joint competition presented by Swim Alberta, Swim BC, Swim Manitoba, and Swim Saskatchewan. This meet will provide athletes across the West with a high-quality racing opportunity each season.

The inaugural Best of the West Fest will be hosted by Swim Manitoba at the Pan Am Pool in Winnipeg, running April 23–26, 2026.

**This meet is the primary focus event for all qualified swimmers and should be chosen as a priority over the Kelowna meet in May should families not be able to attend both. Swimmers who compete at Canadian Trials will also be eligible to receive a portion of Keyano/ Swim Alberta's High Performance subsidy to support their participation at Westerns. To be eligible for this swimmers must attend BOTH Westerns and Trials.

For those not currently qualified for the meet we will not be able to reserve flights for you at this stage. We will however block additional team rooms. Please email office@eksc.com to let us know if this is your situation but do not declare for this meet until qualified.

Event: Best of the West Fest
Date: April 23-26, 2026
Pool: Pan Am Pool, 25 Poseidon Bay, Winnipeg MB

Swimmers eligible: Junior Nat*, Senior Prov*, Senior Nat*

Requirement: *Swimmers must have a Best of the West qualifying time to attend the meet. See standards in meet package

Meet Format & Times:
PRELIMS:
Thurs April 23rd - Warm-up/Start: 1:00pm / 2:30pm
Fri April 24th, Sat 25th, Sun 26th - Warm-up/Start: 7:30am/9:00am 

FINALS:
Fri April 24th, Sat 25th, Sun 26th - Warm-up/Start: 3:30pm/5:00pm 

**Please be on deck 20 minutes prior to the start of warm-up

Meet Entry Fees: $125 per swimmer & $15 per relay team

*Coaches will enter athletes who have signed up and all entry fees will be charged monthly through Keyano's billing system. 

Entry Limit: Olympic program swimmers who meet the eligibility requirements have up to 3 bonus swims up to the maximum number of 7 individual events. 

Confirmation Deadline:  Saturday Dec 20th, 2025
To Sign Up - click HERE 

General disclaimer about fees & sign-up deadlines: Signing up for any event constitutes a financial commitment to that event. Note that sign-up deadlines are set such that fees are no longer refundable beyond that date. Keyano pays for event costs and for entry fees to other club's hosted meets up front on behalf of members, and then passes those costs on to those signed up for a competition through monthly invoices. As a non-profit organization, it is our mandate to ensure each member is responsible for their own fees as of the sign-up deadline. 

General disclaimer about the Meet information package (attached): Please note that meet information packages are designed for swim clubs and so please use this only for the Date, Event order, and for your own curiosity beyond that. All fees and payments will be calculated on an individual basis and invoiced through the club payment system. We ask that you always contact your home coach and/or Keyano staff and never to contact host swim clubs / contacts outside of Keyano directly. 

This will be a mandatory team travel meet, and we must secure our travel arrangements by December 20th to ensure the best pricing.

If your swimmer plans to attend, please declare as soon as possible.

Please note:

• We will only make team travel bookings for swimmers who are currently qualified.

• Swimmers who qualify late will be added to team travel accommodations at that time.

Costs:
A reminder that by declaring for Team Travel that you are accepting the full cost of the trip, including any cancellation fees if the trip is canceled. Keyano works hard to recover everything we can from cancellations, usually including the hotel, vehicles and some flight credits - and any costs recovered are always returned to the members attending. To protect from unexpected situations, Keyano books flights that have cancellation options when possible but these options can cost over $1,000 more. If a no cancellation option is the only reasonable option then that is what we will book. We heavily scrutinize flights for cost and itinerary and choose the best option. Also note that the price of one flight online is always cheaper than a group booking, which uses up the few sale seats quickly. 

Cost for the trip will be invoiced as soon as possible after the sign up deadline. This may take some time if a hotel or flight is being negotiated or we have changing numbers of swimmers attending. The bulk of a trip is invoiced on or before the date of travel for known costs (flight, hotel, estimate for car and food), with a small final invoice after the trip to cover the actual cost of those estimated items. 

Chaperones
We are also looking for chaperones to support our athletes during the Best of the West Fest team travel. Chaperones play an important role in ensuring smooth logistics, swimmer safety, and overall team experience.

If you are interested in chaperoning this event, please let us know as soon as possible, contact Lindsey (office@eksc.com)