Although not considered medal hopefuls at the Paris Olympics, Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica (ASAJ) vice-president for swimming Hilary Brown Nixon says she expects Josh Kirlew and Sabrina Lyn to inspire the next generation of Jamaican swimmers.

The island’s streak of competing in swimming at the summer games will continue for a seventh edition in a row, as British-based Kirlew will compete in the men’s 100m butterfly, while 20-year-old Lyn will line up in the women’s 50m freestyle.

Former Campion College standout Lyn, who won numerous titles at the youth level for Jamaica, will also make history by becoming the first Jamaican woman to compete in swimming, aside from the legendary Alia Atkinson, since Natasha Moodie in 2008.

Brown Nixon says the pair are continuing the country’s legacy in the sport and believes it creates a pathway for the nation’s rising stars.

“We have swimmers competing at every level so it’s very important that we have representation at the level of the Olympics. These swimmers who are eight and under or 9, 10, have something to aspire to because they can see themselves in Sabrina or Josh, so absolutely we’re very excited and hopefully we can get better and more qualifiers going forward,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“The great thing about Sabrina is we’ve known her from she was in age group swimming. The kids know her, this year at Carifta she was our team captain so it’s exciting for them to see Sabrina, who literally trains alongside them to make it to the pinnacle of any athlete’s career. The kids are very excited and the ASAJ as well, to have someone else continue the traditions of what Alia started for us.”

While Jamaica is expected to add to its Olympic medal tally through track and field, Brown Nixon isn’t expecting the same for Kirlew and Lyn in the pool due to the sheer competitiveness of the sport.

“The swimming powerhouses are places like the United States, Australia, some of the European nations, South Africa; those are teams that will have hundreds of athletes qualifying for swimming, whereas we just have two,” said Brown Nixon.

“In addition to that, to qualify for the Olympics, you can either go under an ‘A cut’, which is like an Olympic qualifying time, an Olympic consideration time, which is like a ‘B cut’, and then universality, which is where they take the highest ranked swimmers from your country and allow them to compete. So Josh and Sabrina are competing under universality, which means there will be other individuals who have A cut or qualifying times, who may have qualified for the Olympics,” she added.

However, Brown Nixon says she’s placing no pressure on them as she is expecting them to challenge their personal records with Kirlew boasting a personal best (PB) time of 54.24 seconds in the men’s 100m butterfly and Lyn having a 25.83 seconds PB in the women’s 50m freestyle.

“We expect them to do well, we expect personal bests but it’s certainly not the same as these swimming powerhouses. We’re not there yet, it’s going to take some time to get there but we have a plan in place where we can hopefully bring our swimmers from the age-group swimming level to having more Olympic qualifiers in the future,” she said.

Although the ASAJ’s involvement in preparation to the Olympics may be minimal, Brown Nixon says they’re doing whatever it takes to get them ready to compete.

“Both Josh and Sabrina have been with their coaches since childhood. Sabrina, for example, has been with Wendy Lee, who is also the coach going to the Olympics, so she knows her very well and continues to prepare her. In addition to that, Josh is also with the only team he’s been with since childhood, having gotten him to this level, so they will prepare with their respective coaches,” she said.

“As far as having anything like a training camp, no we don’t have that because we just have two swimmers. But they are continuing their work with their local coaches and we are supporting their efforts and communication with JOA to get them all the preparations to be in place.”

Kirlew is set to begin competition on August 2, while Lyn will start on August 3, both at the Paris La Défense Arena.