Making waves
Another medal for Canada in the pool
RIO DE JANEIRO— Canada’s swimmers continue to pile up the Olympic medals.
Kylie Masse, a Windsor-born University of Toronto student, added to the country’s medal haul by winning a bronze in the women’s 100-metre backstroke on Monday night.
The 20-year-old will share the medal with China’s Yuanhui Fu after they posted identical 58.76 times in front of another raucous crowd at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Barra.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu won the gold in 58.45 and Kathleen Baker of the United States took the silver in 58.75.
It is the third swimming medal for Canada as the country tries to reestablish itself as a player on the international stage.
Canada has now won three swimming medals in as many nights, surpassing its total from 2012 when Ryan Cochrane and Brent Hayden won the country’s only medals.
The women’s 4x100 metre freestyle relay team won a bronze and Toronto’s Penny Oleksiak won a silver in the 100 metre butterfly on Sunday night.
The 20-year-old Masse, who has been swimming competitively for half her life, made up one spot in the final half of the sprint after making the turn in fourth place.
But rallying was nothing new to Masse, who qualified third in her heat in 59.07 and fourth in her semifi- nal in 59.06.
Masse told the CBC that the medalwinning performances of other Canadian swimmers were motivating the whole team.
“Honestly, I think just after the relay and then Penny yesterday, it inspires our whole team,” Masse told the broadcaster. “We kind of get energy from each other, so it’s super exciting.”
Masse, five-foot-eight, is the current Canadian record holder in the 100-metre backstroke — her 59.06 semifinal time tied the standard she set last April at the Olympic trials at the Pan Am pool in Scarborough.
She also earned a bronze medal in the 200-metre individual medley and had a fourth-place finish in the 200 metre backstroke at the Olympic trials.
The Rio Games are Masse’s Olympic debut and the first major international event of her senior career.
She has long been a dominant name in CIS circles, breaking the national short course 50-metre backstroke record at the OUA championships in February. She was the CIS female swimmer of the year in both 2015 and 2016.
Canada’s other finalist in the evening portion of the day’s Rio event, Rachel Nicol, was fifth in the 100metre breastroke.
Canada has not won an Olympic medal in a backstroke event since 1992, when Mark Tewksbury took gold in the 100-metre event in Barcelona.