St-Jérôme, Que. - When you’re an indoor sport in an outdoor paradise, you’ve got to do what you can to be seen and heard.

And that’s where Masters Swimming Canada’s Million Metre Challenge has been helping les Maîtres de St-Jérôme.

Maîtres de St-Jérôme hail from the the Laurentian Mountains. The stunningly beautiful region runs from western Quebec south to the shores of the mighty St. Lawrence River. The highest peak is Mount Tremblant, a postcard perfect ski resort.

For Sylvie Potvin, president of Maîtres de St-Jérôme, geography affects one’s selection of sport. Most of her Masters swim to stay fit for sports other than swimming: cross country skiing, alpine skiing or triathlon. Children – even Potvin’s own – chose between hockey and skiing.

“Swimming is not number one,” she says. “Triathletes are some of the athletes who are helping our membership. St-Jérôme is not a swimming town.”

The Masters are taking on the job of raising the profile of swimming. “It’s like a common objective. The Challenge is helping people stay motivated. It’s nice to have it as an objective. It’s helping keep people in the water.”

Most of the Maîtres de St-Jérôme are not interested in the competitive side of their sport. “The million metre challenge and Quebec’s 1 km challenge are the two main focuses of the club.

In October the club was second overall in Quebec.

Most people in the club are not competitive. They enjoy seeing where they rank in the MMC but use their swimming mostly for fitness. They like to track and beat their own mileage, say Potvin.

But when you’re trying to grow a Masters swim club, visibility is a must. Potvin, already busy with her own swimming, her work, her three children and her partner, is also president of the Maîtres de St Jerome. For Potvin, the MMC “can attract new members. It’s mostly reaching objectives as a team, instead of competition.”

The key to their success in the MMC has been Daniel Piche, says Potvin. Piche is a former president of the club who has been with the team since its beginnings. He is a former coach, swimmer and swim parent.

“He really loves swimming. He’s motivated by that. He wants to participate (in the MMC) to build the Masters team.”

Piche made it his responsibility to remind his teammates to log their mileage. He sends out regular messages, motivating the Masters in a unique and interesting manner. He tells stories and “if there aren’t any, I invent them,” he says.

With over 30 swimmers in the club, there often isn’t a lot of exchange between athletes. There is a need to bring people together, and he uses the Internet to do that. The MMC is one tool he uses to keep the club together, he says.

Piche praises the MMC as a means of creating a common objective that was lacking in swimming, especially for those swimmers who don’t chose to compete. He has had previous experience in cycling with athletes monitoring their total mileage, speed and other milestones. He thought the odometre was a tool to stimulate anyone who wanted to improve.

With the MMC, he tries to remind his teammates that no metre is too small to be added. “All metres are important,” he says. He congratulates swimmers who have reached a higher milestone than the previous month: “That is a real victory.”