Below is an outline of the CUASL History.
Competitions at the University Level in Artistic Swimming have existed since 1948. This pre-dates the development of the current club system in Canada. The first four universities to participate in University level Artistic Swimming Competitions were McGill University, Western University, University of Toronto, and Queen’s University.
Artistic Swimming was a part of the OUA until 2001. In May 2001, McMaster University cancelled their varsity synchro program. There were therefore only 5 universities left to compete in the OUA league. Due to the small participation, OUA voted to cancel OUA sanctioned varsity artistic swimming events. The final OUA sanctioned competition was held at Queen’s University on February 11th 2001.
Despite this, universities with active participation wanted to continue competing. These universities (McGill University, Queen’s University, Guelph University, and University of Toronto), held meetings throughout the summer and fall of 2001 to discuss how to continue swimming and how to open the league to participation from those with no varsity status.
In the fall, Kristina Buchmann from McGill University suggested creating our own league. These universities, along with representatives from Brock University and Western University, then founded the Canadian University Synchro Swim League. The league was officially incorporated as a Not for Profit organization on January 2nd 2002.
Teams were still able to compete throughout the 2001-2002 season, participating in two meets, one at Keuka College in New York State and another held at Queen’s University.
In the first full season as an official organization, the 2003 Championship Meet was held at Brock University on February 8th, 2003. This meet was attended by 120 people, including swimmers, coaches, parents, and supporters.
At the Annual General Meeting in 2018, held in Belleville, Ontario, the league voted to change the name from Canadian University Synchro Swim League to Canadian University Artistic Swimming League. The change will take effect as of September 2018.
As of 2018, our league has now grown to 22 universities on all coasts with active participation, and over 250 swimmers and 45 coaches. Throughout the last year of OUA Participation, there were 54 swimmers from 6 universities.
The league is governed by volunteer students who are swimmers and coaches in the league.
Canadian University Artistic Swimming League Website 