Before she was old enough to take a driver’s test, Amanda Reason set a world record in the swimming pool.

Reason was just 15 when she blistered the field in the 50-metre long-course breaststroke on July 8, 2009 at the World Championship trials in Montreal with her time of 30.23 seconds.

Just like that she was a household name, having become the first Canadian female swimmer in more than 20 years to break a world long-course record.

A few years later, the LaSalle native was competing on the Olympic stage at the 2012 Summer Games in London. Together with Barbara Jardin, Samantha Cheverton and Brittany MacLean, Reason just missed the podium in the 4x200-metre freestyle relay with a fourth-place finish.

Reason competed in two FINA World Championships, cracking the top 10 with a seventh-place showing in the 50-metre breaststroke at the ’09 meet in Rome.

Her love of the pool was first nurtured by the Windsor Essex Swim Team and later the Etobicoke Swim Club. While breaststroke was her best discipline, she was also a strong freestyler and quickly rose to international competition at junior worlds and junior Pan Pacific meets.

In order to train with the Canadian national team, Reason attended the University of Calgary and was no stranger to the medal podium at the CIS championships with the powerhouse Dinos.

She now joins the 2026 athlete’s class of the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.