Byron MacDonald


Arthur Byron MacDonald is an American Canadian swimming coach who helms the Toronto Varsity Blues swim teams at the University of Toronto. He is a former swimmer who competed for Canada in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. MacDonald placed sixth in the final of the men's 100-metre butterfly, and also competed in the preliminary heats of the 200-metre butterfly, but did not advance. He had suffered an acute hernia at the Opening Ceremonies, two days before competition, but doctors pushed the hernia "back into place".
He has coached Varsity Blues swim teams to 24 Canadian Interuniversity Sport USports National Championships — Fifteen women's, and nine men's —including most recently, a women's and men's team competition sweep of the 2015-2016 national titles.
He has also coached the Varsity Blues teams to 60 Conference titles — 32men and 28 women. Two of MacDonald's swimmers have won Olympic Medals — most recently Kylie Masse at the 2016 Olympic Games in the 100metre backstroke.
He also works as a television commentator analyzing major competitions in swimming. He is a two-time recipient of the Gemini Award for sports play-by-play broadcasting in recognition of his swimming analysis on CBC at the Summer Olympic Games in 2004 and 2008.
MacDonald was born in the Chicago suburb of Evanston and raised in Chicago and the suburb of Glenview..

Early Life

MacDonald was born to Kenzie Angus MacDonald of Thunder Bay, Canada, whose family had immigrated from the Isle of Skye in Scotland, and Mary Betts Pebbles of Ancaster Ontario, Canada, who’s family had immigrated from England and were successful millers in Ancaster. Byron was the oldest of five children.
He attended New Trier High School. In his second year, New Trier West opened up to solve the overcrowding at the original school where there were in excess of 5,000 students. MacDonald was a member of the first graduating class in 1968. He was the first All-American athlete in the school's history.
MacDonald accepted a scholarship to attend the University of Michigan and was an All American in his three years of Varsity competition. He graduated with a Bachelors in Business Administration in 1972 and returned in the Fall of 1973 to do his Masters in Education, graduating in 1975.
Before returning for his Masters at Michigan, MacDonald began a Masters Diploma at the University of Toronto in the Winter of 1973 but did not finish it. He did swim for the University of Toronto team and was named All Canadian and helped Toronto to the national title.

International Swim Career

MacDonald won six international Games medals for Canada. In his first international, the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh Scotland in 1970, he won the gold medal in the 100metre butterfly and the 4x100Medley Relay. The 100metre butterfly win was a historic first for Canada as he led the first ever international Games sweep of the medals in any sport—with countrymen Tom Arusoo and Ron Jacks winning the Silver and Bronze medals.
In 1971 he won bronze and silver in the same two events at the PanAm Games in Columbia. In 1973 he won a Silver medal in the 100metre butterfly at the FISU Games in Moscow; and in 1974 a silver in the same event in the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. At the Olympic Games in 1972 in Munich Germany he finished 6th in the 100metre butterfly. And 7th at the 1975 World Championships in Columbia.

Coaching Career

MacDonald began his coaching career in the Fall of 1976 at York University, located in the suburbs of Toronto. He took the team from 28th in the country to 3rd in his second year at the helm of the team and was named Coach of the Year. He moved to the University of Toronto in the Fall of 1978 to be the head coach of the Men's team. He would assume the head coaching duties of the Women's team as well in the Fall of 1983. His lifetime dual meet record is 495-47.
MacDonald’s teams have won 24 national titles and 60 Conference titles—arguably the most decorated coach in Canadian university history in any sport.
MacDonald has won dozens of “Coach-of-the-year” awards -- from organizations like the OUA Conference, the National University body, Swim Ontario and Swim Canada.
Two of MacDonald's swimmers have won Olympic Bronze Medals – Marcel Gery in 1992 Barcelona, 4x100 Medley Relay; And Kylie Masse, 2016 in Rio in 100m backstroke. Nearly 100 swimmers have swum internationally. Three of MacDonald's swimmers have set world records, although one was referred to as a “Worlds Best” at the time because FINA did not officially recognize short course records until a few years later. The most recent world record being Kylie Masse in the 100m backstroke in 2017 at the World Championships in Budapest.
MacDonald was an assistant coach on the 1992 Olympic Games Canadian coaching staff. He was the Canadian Head Coach for the 1989 Pan Pacifc Competition and the 1993 FISU Games. Both were, at the time, the most successful Games results ever at those Games for Canada.
In 2020, MacDonald was named the head coach of the Toronto Titans, the first and only Canadian based team of the https://swimswam.com/isl-announces-toronto-titans-as-first-expansion-team-name/. The Toronto Titans are an expansion team and will have their first season in 2020-2021.

Commentating and Controversy

MacDonald has been the swim analyst for 8 Olympic Games coverages. He has covered almost every other major Games/World event for TV for the past 40 years.
Commentating as a swimming analyst on CBC's live telecast of 2016 Summer Olympics women's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay August 10, 2016, he mistakenly uttered on the air an off-the-cuff opinion to his co-commentator Elliotte Friedman. He criticized China's relay second-leg swimmer Ai Yanhan for swimming her first 50-metre split too fast, then consequently due to fatigue, her last 50 metre split too slowly.
MacDonald has mentioned that the phrase in no way refers to the athlete; it is a common phrase used by swim coaches to describe what happens when any swimmer does swim too fast too early in the race and then fades at the end of the race.

Family Life

MacDonald was married to Paula Thomson. He married Lisha van Leeuiwen in 1990 and is still married. Van Leeuwen’s parents had Dutch heritage—mother being from the Netherlands and father being from the Dutch island of Curacao in the Caribbean.
They have three children, Troy Brendan ; Shane Llewellyn; and Kenzie Kayla.