Team Nova Scotia Athlete Profile – Cape Breton
Never before has a member of the Cape Breton Dorados Swim Team represented Nova Scotia at Canada Games — until Sophie Hunter.
“It means a lot to represent Cape Breton,” says Sophie. “And it means a lot to be able to swim for Nova Scotia at such a big event. To be able to have this opportunity to go to the Canada Games and learn all these new things and new techniques that swimmers in different provinces are using and to bring it back to my team.”
The 16-year-old from Howie Centre will be competing in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke and the 50m and 100m freestyle events. To make the Canada Games team Sophie had to put in a lot of hours at the pool, including two extra practices a week on top of her Cape Breton Dorados Swim Team schedule.
“It’s taken a lot of hard work and just really focusing on every single aspect of what I can improve on every time I was in the pool, making sure I was giving it everything I had every practice,” says Sophie.
With her dad and older brother being swimmers, Sophie was put into the sport at five–years-old, but her true drive didn’t start until 2022 when she was trying to make the main tour team for Swim Nova Scotia.
“I made the team that year. And then the next year I wanted to do so much better because I didn’t do very well in my first year. So, I started getting way more competitive in swimming and trying a lot harder. And then swimming kind of just became my favorite part of the day,” says Sophie.
While she loves competing and making friends at meets, Sophie also simply enjoys being in the water.
“I find when you’re swimming, it’s just you and your thoughts. You can push yourself and it’s kind of up to you if you want to get faster,” she says.
One of her proudest accomplishments to date is when she got a silver medal at the 2025 Nova Scotia AAA Winter Championships. Going into the meet she was seated second for the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:29, and while she knew she might not beat the person seated in first, her goal was to keep her spot and make the podium.
“I was like, I’m going to pick up my stroke rate and kick as hard as I can and just make sure I don’t let the girl in first get out of my eyesight and I ended up getting a time of 2:23. Plus, I made the girl in first take two seconds off her personal best.”
At that same meet Sophie also won bronze in the 50m freestyle event. Then at the 2025 Nova Scotia AAA Spring Championships a few months later, she placed first in the 200m backstroke event, second in both the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle events and third in the 50m freestyle event.
Her dad, Matt Hunter, has been a swimming coach for a little over a decade and has really watched Sophie come into her own.
“Suddenly it just sort of clicked, she was like ‘swimming is it; this is what I am doing’,” says Matt. “She just locked in and it was like an almost overnight drastic improvement. She put so much focus into it and when she does that, whether it’s school or something like swimming she does really well.”
