Before the race that would determine whether or not she qualified to swim for Team Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson took a moment for herself.

“I was so nervous for 10 minutes right before, that I was almost hyperventilating,” she told CTV News about the lead-up to the race.

“I just ended up having this little heart-to-heart with myself and coming to terms with, I think, everything that I’ve been through in my entire swimming career and the battle that I had last year,” Seltenreich-Hodgson said. “Regardless of what the results were going to be for that race, I came to full acceptance of everything that I was going to do, and I was really proud of myself in that moment.”

It may sound like a small thing, but it represented an important achievement for the 21-year-old swimmer, even before she sealed her qualification with a second-place finish in the 200-metre individual medley.

The “battle” Seltenreich-Hodgson had last year was with her worsening depression. For months, she had been dreading the trip to the pool each day, and feeling overwhelmed to the point of tears while she was in it.

“I’d be OK at the beginning of workout, be swimming, and then all of a sudden, it would start to trigger - that escalated breathing - to a point where I just was sobbing and I didn’t know why. It made me feel so guilty because I was like, ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ There was no rhyme or reason for why it was happening.”

Seltenreich-Hodgson said she “got used” to having this response when she got in the pool. And she chalked up the other feelings she was having to the stresses of being a university student.

But when things didn’t get better, she began to suspect something was wrong.

“I’ve always been aware of the fact that I don’t love training quite as much as I love the racing part of it,” she said. “But I got to a couple of meets last year where I was on the blocks and I didn’t want to be there, and it took me a little while to realize that that was the problem, but that was, again, one of the things that really got into my mind.”

Seltenreich-Hodgson spoke to the team psychologist, who diagnosed her with depression.

Just having a name for what was wrong made her start to feel better, and over time, she has developed strategies for coping with it.

“Self-love is super important,” she said. “I stopped feeling guilty and beating myself up for the feelings I was having.”

Now, Seltenreich-Hodgson hopes to use her platform as a member of Canada’s Olympic team to raise awareness of depression - particularly in sports.

“It’s something that’s not talked about enough,” she said. “I just really want to get out there and get the word out and have more people recognize their symptoms.”

The goal for Rio, Seltenreich-Hodgson said, is to make the semifinals and the finals. Right now, she’s ranked 28th in the world. Making the semis would put her in the top 16, and making the finals would mean she’s in the top 8.

But even if she doesn’t manage either of those goals, she’ll still be fulfilling a lifelong dream. And - perhaps more importantly - she’ll be showing herself and everyone watching that depression is something that can be managed if you just ask for help.

“I think I waited too many months, and some people wait years,” Seltenreich-Hodgson said. “It’s not always fixable, but you can always get help.”