Fourth-year Bisons swimmer Kelsey Wog has come a long way mentally since the 2016 FINA World Championships, her first international swim meet.

Wog was a late addition to Team Canada after one of the 200-metre competitors retired, however she still wound up with a second-place finish.

The Manitoba product placed high expectations on herself after the meet.

Head coach Vlastimil Cerny, who's known Wog since she was ten, noted that her maturity wasn't quite where it needed to be at the time, resulting in in a few difficult break-downs when she didn't race to her own standards.

Finally, around May of 2018, Cerny convinced her to see a sports psychologist in order to help handle her emotions and expectations.

The results were evident, as the following February at nationals, Wog became the first swimmer in program history to capture four gold medals. She was also named UM's Female Athlete of the Year.

"It helped me so much," Wog says of seeing a sports psychologist.

"I was struggling a lot with racing, because I put so much pressure and expectation upon myself because my training was so great and I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to race to how I trained."

Now a year later, Wog's mind is clear, and her results are dominant as she preps for Olympic trials at the end of March.

For a second consecutive season she took home four medals at nationals, one each in the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke, as well as the 200m individual medley.

Wog's time of 1:06.44 in the 100m breast also broke the U SPORTS record, as did her time of 2:22.42 in the 200 and 2:10.87 in the IM.

She also shone for the Cali Condors in the inaugural season of the International Swim League, earning a second-place finish in the 200m breast with a time of 2:18.06.

"This year going into U SPORTS I was super excited to race, because I hadn't raced for 8-10 weeks. I knew I had done a lot of really awesome work in the pool, and I was just excited to see what happened with it. I used it as a really solid practice and prep for Olympic trials. I didn't really have goal times, I was just going off of process and I wanted to race what I trained."

The soft-spoken Wog was beaming as she discussed her mental state leading up to trials.

A top priority has been to focus on other things that make her happy.

"I've been super diligent about taking a lot of me time and self-care time. It's definitely made a huge difference. I feel so much more mentally recovered going back to practice each day. I've been making time in my days to do things that I really like, just to be happy.

I've been spending a lot of time with some of my close friends, and I've been sewing, baking and working on my online class, and of course hanging out with my chameleons. I've always really liked those things. This has been the best year by far. No other year has compared to it."

Cerny, the 2019-20 U SPORTS Coach of the Year in women's swimming and a former Olympian himself, is understandably excited for Wog as she prepares for the big event.

"It's not just because she's gifted that the success has come, it's because she has really worked hard at it and pushes herself in training. I am a better coach as a result, to work with someone like her.

And it's not all through success. It's about self-reflection and how do I need to be better so that she can be a better athlete. When you push for that international, high-performance level, that has to be part of your makeup. That's the fun part."

Added Wog: "Vlast and I, I thought our relationship was good in previous years, but this year it has gotten so much better. We've really talked about sticking with the process and taking each day as it comes, and still giving my best every day. Yes, I'm getting nervous [for Olympic trials], but who wouldn't be? I'm really excited for it too."