With sights set on the Olympics, Peyton Leigh is taking her talents to the University of Miami.
The 17-year-old swimmer from Holy Cross Secondary School has been offered a full scholarship to the university after years of hard work.
When she was 15, she qualified for the Olympic trials and although she didn’t make the Olympics, she kept working hard and set new personal bests at other competitions like the Speedo Canadian Junior Championships.
Swimming over 20 hours a week, adding weight training on top of that, Peyton’s excited to represent her efforts in a big city.
“It means a lot, coming from a small town and being able to make it that far,” she said.
Peyton said her goals from here are clear: score points for her team and “being an all-around good teammate,” qualify for the Canada junior team and, ultimately, earn a spot at the Olympics — hopefully by 2028.
For Peyton, “home” has meant Garrison Village in Niagara-on-the-Lake — the chilly tight-knit community where she built her foundation as a competitive swimmer, she said.
But in a year and a half she’ll be swapping cold winters for sunny days at the university’s campus in a city near Miami called Coral Gables, where she’ll swim at NCAA Division I.
She’ll miss spending time on the lake, but the proximity to both the beach and the city — each just 20 minutes away — isn’t a bad trade-off, she said.
Peyton committed to Miami over other schools she visited like Penn State and Alabama because of its smaller team’s welcoming atmosphere and the opportunity for more one-on-one coaching.
“A lot of people, when they think of the University of Miami, you think it’s big. But it’s not that big. It’s quite small,” she said.
Unlike larger programs with co-ed teams, Miami’s women’s-only roster of 22 swimmers allows for personalized attention — something she said will help her become a better swimmer.
“I’ve heard some coaches say, ‘it’s kind of hard to get to know everybody.’ This way, I feel like you know everybody really well,” she said, adding that it’s important for coaches to understand you as a person so they can better help you succeed, both in and outside the pool.
“They really care about her as a person — not just as Peyton Leigh, the swimmer,” Peyton’s mom, Christi Leigh said.
Christi said her daughter has been swimming since she was five months old and Georgia, Peyton’s 14-year-old sister, started swimming at the same age.
“We both work really hard,” Peyton said.
Georgia is not focused on pursuing university swimming right now, though she’s doing well and enjoying her progress, Christi said.
The Leighs have spent countless hours driving to and from the girls’ practices, Christi said.
“As a family, it’s a lot of juggling — driving to practice and picking up from practice,” she said. But Peyton’s new driver’s license has helped ease the load.
“I hope one day this helps with their dedication to life, work and people,” Christi said. “It’s worth it.”
She said it’s been bittersweet to watch her daughter plan to move so far for school.
“Right now I’m pretending that it’s years and years away,” she said. “I have another year and a half to digest all of this.”
“I know that she’ll thrive and it’s the best decision for her,” Christi said.
