Toronto's Masse wins Olympic bronze with Canadian record swim
University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's swimmer Kylie Masse betters her own Canadian record to claim the bronze medal in the women's 100 backstroke on Monday night at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
(Photo: Jason Ransom / Canadian Olympic Committee)
University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's swimmer Kylie Masse betters her own Canadian record to claim the bronze medal in the women's 100 backstroke on Monday night at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The 20-year-old from LaSalle, Ont., bettered her own Canadian record with a time of 58.76 seconds to finish in a tie for third place.
Masse becomes the first Varsity Blues swimmer to claim an Olympic medal while enrolled as a student at U of T. Swimmers affiliated with U of T have claimed four Olympic medals in the past, but none were current students at the time.
Masse was named the 2015-16 BLG Award winner as Canadian Interuniversity Sport female athlete of the year.
In only her second campaign with the Varsity Blues, Masse put together one of the best seasons in Canadian university swimming history. A memorable year that got that much better on April 6, when the 20-year-old qualified for her first Olympic Games thanks to a then Canadian record time of 59.06 seconds in the 100-metre backstroke at the national trials.
Of course, close observers of the Canadian swimming scene are not surprised by her success. After all, the kinesiology student had already made plenty of waves a year ago when she was named the OUA female swimmer of the year as a freshman, before claiming seven medals in as many events in her first CIS championship appearance.
A few months later in South Korea, Masse served notice that she was ready for the world stage by winning Summer Universiade gold in her specialty event.
This university season, the new Olympian proved virtually unstoppable, posting 18 individual victories in six conference competitions before setting six OUA records and a pair of Canadian short-course marks at the OUA championships. And then she kept the best for last.
In late February, Masse reached the CIS podium in each of her seven events for the second straight year en route to female-MVP honours. She finished the national meet with four gold and three silver medals, including a sweep of the three backstroke finals, all in championship-record times. In the 50 back, she lowered her own Canadian short-course standard in the preliminaries (26.72) before shattering the long-course record in the final (27.84). Her performance helped the U of T women capture their first CIS team banner since 1997.
