At the time of his induction into the Sports Hall of Fame for 1998, Blair Hicken stood tallest as the best male swimmer to emerge from Mississauga. In Canadian championships, Olympic competition, world championships, Commonwealth Games, Pan Pacific Swim championships Hicken swam against the best and earned his water wings. Reflecting upon his competitive career, he says he has no regrets about sacrificing much his youth on the altar of his chosen sport. Getting out of bed at the break of the dawn day in and day out for many years to spend “many lonely mornings” in a relentless pursuit of excellence while his teenage friends enjoyed carefree lifestyles was the price he choose to pay. As far as Blair is concerned, it was all worth it and he wouldn’t hesitate doing the same thing all over. “Definitely,” he says. “I wouldn’t change anything I had done. You would find me at the pool again.”

Hicken is a true native sport son of Mississauga, born, raised and educated here. He became interested in swimming, first as an eager youngster trailing his older sister to the City’s Red Cross swim programs. When he progressed as far as he could, it was time for him to leave the Red Cross program.

Masters class swimming world record holder Sylvia Eisler, had much to do with getting Blair hooked on competitive swimming. The pupil’s respect for his first coach was so great that even when Blair was setting Canadian records, he had turned Eisler for tips to improve his craft. He says he used to swim in Eisler’s backyard pool in Streetsville “working on my breaststroke.”

     Advance notice of Hicken’s future greatness first surfaced before he turned 10 when the early boomer powered a TOMAC (Town of Mississauga Aquatic Club) relay team to a Canadian 4x50 meters age-group record at Cawthra Pool.

     The rest was sports history.

     It didn’t take long before he was as good as his intention. A year later he became Canadian 100-metre freestyle champion, made the national swim team and, in his first big international test helped Canada to a fourth place finish in the 4x100-meter medley relay in the world championships in Ecuador. “That really opened my eyes to how big the swimming world really was,” he recalls.

     All in all, Hicken was   a Canadian team member for eight years between 1982 and 1990; won three national individual titles; and lists eight 50- and 100-meter freestyle Canadian records among his accomplishments. Internationally, he won silver and bronze medals in the Commonwealth Games placing second with the 1986 Canadian 4x100-meter freestyle relay team in Edinburgh, Scotland, and finishing third in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay in Brisbane, Australia in 1982.

     In a pair of Pan Pacific competitions, he made the finals and came sixth in both the 50- and 100-meter freestyle in Tokyo, Japan, in 1985; and helped Canada to a silver medal in the 1987 event in Brisbane with a new 4x100 freestyle national record (3:21.7 minutes). He also finished top Canadian swimmer in the 50-meter freestyle. In the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Blair was 20^th in the 100-meter freestyle; and in the 1986 World Championships in Madrid 16^th in 50 meters.