Guelph gained another Olympian about four months ago when Panama's Maria Fernanda Far relocated to the Royal City to put more emphasis on her swimming and further her education.
The 18-year-old Far, who hopes to study landscape architecture at the University of Guelph, is to compete in the women's 200-metre butterfly in next month's Rio Olympics.
She has proven to be a good student as not only is she learning in the pool, but also in the classroom as she's had to learn English, almost from scratch.
"In Panama, we have English classes, but not as intensive as here because (no one is) speaking English all the time," she said before a practice session at the Gryphon Aquatics Centre.
"When I just came here, it was so hard. I was trying to say something but it was so hard to say it. I worked really hard the first month. Spanish is my first language and there are not much Latinos in Guelph."
The early language barrier was also something she and Gryphons/Guelph Marlin Aquatic Club coach Don Burton had to work around.
"It's difficult, but she's amazing," Burton said. "It was very hard because my Spanish doesn't exist and she was really just starting to learn speaking English. Luckily, writing numbers on a piece of paper on the board trying to figure what the (practice routines) were like was pretty simple and that's how we started.
"She just kept asking me to speak slower and use less words and just be very specific because sometimes I'll explain a set two or three times so everybody gets it, but I was confusing her because it was way too much information for her to grasp."
That, though, is not a problem anymore.
"Within six months she understands English as well as anybody else," Burton said.
Far swam in the B finals in both her events at last year's Pan Am Games in Toronto. She was sixth in the B final of the 200m fly at 2:18.75 and fourth in the B final of the 400m individual medley at 5:06.36. Both were just shy of her national record personal bests, 2:18.27 in 200m fly and 5:04.28 in 400m IM.
"When I was in the Pan Am Games, it was not my best performance," she said. "When I'm here, I can expect more in the future."
At the beginning, the move to Guelph was a tough one for the teenager.
"It was so hard," she said. "Sometimes I just woke up very sad. Everything was fine, but I just woke up empty. I came here (to the pool) and Don every single morning asked 'How are you? How is Mafe (pronounced Mawfay)?' Sometimes I started crying because I miss my home."
Burton made sure her alone time was minimal and had other swimmers include Far in their activities.
"What kind of hosts are we as a club or a city if we can't put our hands out to somebody who wants to be here, but is by themselves?," he said. "We needed to make sure that we could prove to her that we're a good group of people because then she's going to be able to trust us and she's going to want to be here and she's going to be more emotionally engaged in what she's doing. If we don't embrace her, she's going to bolt."
Now she's trying to get her English to the level where she can be accepted into university, something she's had to speed up a little because of next month's Olympics.
"For me, I think that all the hard times to get in here are behind me," she said. "This is like the moment to enjoy all the effort that I have done so I'm just training hard all these days. Whatever happens there, I'm sure I'm going to do all I have. I just don't want to be stressed because I'm going to my dream. I just want to enjoy it and give all I have and if I can improve my time, that would be perfect."
