BEIJING - When Ryan Cochrane was just 14, he was goofing around at practice so much one day that his coach finally lost his temper.
"He was being a little bugger," Randy Bennett, director of Island Swimming in Victoria, said with a chuckle.
For punishment, Bennett made the head-strong Cochrane swim eight kilometres in one hour 45 minutes.
"It was ridiculously hard," Bennett said. "He finished the set, got out of the pool, flipped me the bird and walked out."
It was at that moment Bennett knew the exact qualities that sometimes made Cochrane difficult to deal with could turn him into an Olympic medallist.
Cochrane rewarded Bennett's foresight and patience Sunday by winning Canada's first Olympic swim medal in eight years. He claimed bronze in the gruelling 1,500 metres with a time of 14 minutes 42.69 seconds, allowing the swim team to meet its goal of earning at least one medal at the Beijing Games.
"It was a hard race," said the 19-year-old from Victoria. "It was such a fast final I couldn't be happier to be part of it."
Coming on the last day of swimming at the National Aquatics Centre, the medal underlined how a swim program revitalized in the wake of the disaster in Athens four years ago is making progress.
The 27-member team broke 26 national records, reached 10 finals and swam 30 personal bests in Beijing, with Cochrane's bronze providing a defining moment.
"It is a validation that the system we are putting into place, and still have a lot of growth to do, is moving in the right direction," said Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada's chief executive officer. "His medal is a credit to a lot of people that have done the work.
"I think the process is working."
Cochrane went into his race knowing the swim team was in danger of missing its goal of winning at least one medal. The men's 4x200-metre relay had finished fifth in their race while Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C., the reigning world champion in the 100-metres, failed to qualify for the finals.
Mike Brown of Perth, Ont., just missed a medal by finishing fourth in the 200-metre breaststroke.
"There was lots of questions about medals after the preliminaries," said the University of Victoria student, who missed qualifying for the 2004 Olympics. "It was just not what I was focusing on.
"I knew it would be hard racing in the final. I'm really happy I got a medal on the last day. I think I made the team proud."
The 1,500 metres is a race that combines tactics and strength. To be good at it you need the back up your brains with brawn.
The tall, whip-thin Cochrane led the race after a 1,000 metres. He slipped to third after 1,050, climbed to second after 1,150, then fell back to third.
Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli won the race in 14:40.84 while Australia's Grant Hackett, the world record holder, was second in 14:41.53 in his final Olympic race.
Over the last 25 metres Cochrane had to battle back a challenge from Russia's Yuriy Prilukov, who finished about half a second off the podium.
"I could see Prilukov coming and I knew he was going to have a good back end," said Cochrane, water still dripping from his ears. "I just did what ever I could to hold him off.
"I took it out just as hard as I could. I paid for it a bit in the second half but that was what I needed to do to get on the podium."
Cochrane qualified for the final by swimming an Olympic record time of 14:40.84 Friday, a time that would have earned him a gold medal Sunday. Hackett later broke that mark with a time of 14:38.92 in the preliminaries.
Cochrane was reserved, almost shy, when speaking to the media after his race.
Bennett laughed and said that's not the swimmer he has coached for the last six years. He called the teenager "a pretty gregarious guy" who can be stubborn and opinionated.
"Not many people are as head strong as Ryan, which makes him special," said Bennett. "He's a challenge.
"What makes him great also makes it difficult to work with him. The greatest thing with Ryan is he actually set the tone. He's the guy that talked about winning medals. He's the guy that talked about what he needs to do to be the best in the world. He's ensuring that we think about those things every day."
Cochrane credited Bennett for leashing his raw talent and funnelling his energy.
"He knows me and I know him," he said. "It's been a climb and a great experience. We just did what we could to get here."
The last Canadian swimmer to win an Olympic medal was Curtis Myden who finished third in the 400-metre individual medley at the Sydney Games.
Canada had a terrible meet in Athens, failing to win a medal in the pool for the first time since 1964. Canadians reached just three finals, only three national records were set and many swimmers swam under their potential.
That resulted in head coach Dave Johnson being fired and Lafontaine being hired to turn the program around.
Cochrane and Julia Wilkinson, a 21-year-old who reached three finals at her first Olympics, are part of the new wave of young swimmers.
"We're at a good point in our preparation," said Lafontaine. "We all know we still have a long ways to go. We've seen our progress. We are knocking on the door. We are right there."
Wilkinson, from Stratford, Ont., teamed with Annamay Pierse of Edmonton, Audrey Lacroix of Montreal and Erica Morningstar of Regina to finish seventh in the women's 4x100-metre relay Sunday.
The youth on the Canadian team prompted Bennett to use a hockey analogy to describe it.
"It's like the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings," he said. "We're young and talented but we're not the Detroit Red Wings.
"But we're coming. We're going to be good."