Toronto's Loewen places fourth overall at FISU

University of Toronto Varsity Blues swimming standout Ben Loewen placed fourth overall in the men's 200 butterfly at the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games on Sunday in Germany.

Loewen, a fourth-year commerce major from Toronto, came up just 26 milliseconds from a podium position.  Loewen was fourth at the halfway mark of the race with a split of 1:56.76, but couldn't make up ground on the two Americans in front of him. Teammate Patrick Hussey (Montreal, Que. / UNC) finished seventh in the same event with a time of 1:57.19.  

"That was race was a lot of fun. I knew it was going to be tough to beat my time from yesterday. But I felt like I left everything in the pool, so I'm happy with that," said Loewen, who was five thousands of a second faster in the semifinal. "It was a lot of fun being able to race that event with Patrick. We were neck and neck in all three races, and he's an extremely supportive teammate." 

Loewen, who was a member of the Canadian junior team at the 2022 Pan Pacific championships, is making his first senior national team appearance.

"This is a huge step forward for Ben, to vie for a medal on the senior international stage with all the adjustments like time change and mid-summer prep and taper, " said Varsity Blues head coach Byron MacDonald. "To start the quadrennial off in this fashion is a real good sign."

Loewen wrapped up the Games with a sixth-place finish in the men's 200 backstroke in a time of 1:59.00 on Wednesday. He also placed 23rd overall in men's 100 butterfly on Monday.

Loewen's teammate, Liam Weaver, placed 29th in the men's 50 freestyle in 23.09 and 44th in the 50 butterfly in 25.17 seconds. He also helped Canada to a 12th place finish in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay.