Canadian Olympian Mike Meldrum Retires From Coaching After Winning Lottery In The Summer

Longtime Killarney Swim Club head coach and Canadian Olympian Mike Meldrum retired from coaching on October 31 after a life-changing lottery win this summer.

Meldrum, who resides in Calgary and has been involved in competitive swimming in the city for 49 years, won $5 million (CAD) in the Lotto 6-49 draw on June 18. The news was announced by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC), which led to Meldrum realizing he had the winning ticket.

“I saw someone had won in Calgary, but I hadn’t checked my ticket yet,” Meldrum said, according to CTV News. “When I first told my wife, she didn’t believe me. She told me to send her the numbers so she could check online herself.”

Meldrum, 57, said he had been buying Lotto 6-49 tickets weekly for 35 years.

“I always knew I was going to win,” Meldrum jokingly said to SwimSwam. “I often spoke to my athletes about that, ‘this is probably our last workout together because I’m going to win the $20 million tonight,’ and one day I did. Coaches always asked me when I was retiring to New Zealand because that’s where my lovely wife is from, and that’s where I would end up. My response was always, I’m ‘just’ a swim coach and I haven’t won the lottery yet, so you’re still stuck with me.

“The day that I found out that I had won in June, I used the App to check my lotto ticket, realized that I’d won, and the first thing I wrote my wife was, ‘WE’RE OUTTA HERE!’,” he said.

In reality, Meldrum has two daughters and two granddaughters in Calgary, and he and his wife love their home and their neighborhood, so they’re unlikely to leave.

“I retired from coaching on October 31, and I’m looking forward to traveling with my wife and giving back to my family,” he said. “My daughter’s always said, ‘your athletes never knew how great they had it because they always got the best of you and we got the rest’. Now I’m focused on my family and giving them the best of me.”

Meldrum has been a swim coach for 34 years, starting out in the small town of Cochrane, Alberta, where he coached summer club for three years while finishing his degree. He then worked for three years with the Cascade Swim Club (1993-96) before joining Killarney Swim Club, where he’s been since 1996.

On November 11, the Killarney Swim Club sent out a Facebook post honoring Meldrum after his 29-year tenure with the team.

The club said Meldrum grew the team from 50 to 240 swimmers during his time there, and was recently recognized as a Junior National Team Coach in 2024, and received Swim Alberta’s Female Junior Swimmer Coach of the Year award in 2025.

As an athlete, Meldrum swam on the Canadian National Team for seven years. He represented Canada at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, placing 23rd in the men’s 400 IM. He also competed internationally at the 1986 and 1990 Commonwealth Games, the 1987 Pan Am Games, and the 1989 Pan Pacific Games before retiring following the 1991 World University Games.

At the 1987 Pan Ams, he won a silver medal on the Canadian men’s 4×200 free relay and added a bronze in the 400 IM.

Prior to making the National Team, he swam for the Calgary Patriots and the University of Calgary Swim Club before attending the University of Calgary, where he played a prominent role in the Dinos’ dynasty throughout the 1980s.