Canada's backstroke big-gamer Kylie Masse focused on aquatics worlds, not 2028 Olympics

CBC

4 days ago

The best women's backstroker Canada has ever produced refuses to look deep into the future.
Five-time Olympic medallist Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., has her mind on the world swimming championship starting Saturday in Singapore, and not on Los Angeles in 2028.
The 50-metre backstroke added to the Olympic swim program in 2028 seems a boon for one of the best in the world at it, but the 29-year-old has yet to decide if she'll compete in her fourth Olympic Games.
"I am still in a position where I'm just kind of taking it moment by moment and figuring it out, and I'm not really putting any pressure on myself to commit to that at this point," Masse said.
"I am excited to see what I can do in it this year, but as far as 2028, I'm just kind of taking it day by day."
The 50 backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly have long been staples of world championships, but those sprints will make their Olympic debuts in L.A.
Masse won a world championship in the 50 backstroke in 2022. She was first at the turn of the 100 in Tokyo in 2021 en route to an Olympic silver medal.
The Canadian and American Regan Smith were tied for first at the half of last year's 100 in Paris, where Masse settled for fourth.
She won bronze in the 200 backstroke, however, and became the first Canadian swimmer to earn a medal in three consecutive Olympic Games.
The athlete able to combine the most power and the best technique wins the 50 metres, Masse said.
"Because it happens so fast, there's no room for error," she explained.
WATCH | Masse earns 50m backstroke bronze at short-course championships:
Kylie Masse earns 20th career world championship medal with bronze in 50-metre backstroke
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5th long-course worlds appearance
After the longest post-Olympic break of her career, during which she took time to reflect, Masse eased back into the water in October. Now, she heads to her fifth long-course world championship, where she's already collected nine medals, including three gold."
"I spent many days contemplating what I wanted to do and if I wanted to keep swimming or how much I wanted to keep swimming," Masse said.
'I kind of realized I still love swimming and I wanted to keep swimming, not to the same capacity as I was swimming before, but I still wanted to be in the water and be competitive. I had a good [Canadian] trials and I was pleasantly surprised and happy with that, and I'm really looking forward to getting to Singapore and just being able to represent Canada again."
Masse is the veteran of Canada's 28-swimmer squad that boasts 18-year-old phenom Summer McIntosh, who is poised to make more history.
The Toronto teen followed up her triple-gold, four-medal performance in Paris by setting three world records at June's trials in Victoria, in the 200 and 400 individual medleys, and the 400 freestyle.
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"It's been incredible to watch her grow and to have trained with her when she was 14, just kind of coming onto the scene," Masse said.
"It's super-exciting for our whole team and for the country, and for the swimming world in general, to just have someone of that calibre continuing to push the boundaries of history."
McIntosh will also race the 200 butterfly and 800 freestyle in Singapore, with a highly anticipated showdown with American star Katie Ledecky in the 800 free Aug. 2.
McIntosh's potential participation in relays could add to another medal haul. Her ambitious program gets underway with Saturday's 400 freestyle heats followed by Sunday's final.
Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., is the reigning men's 200 individual medley world champion after claiming the title in 2024 in Doha, Qatar.
WATCH | A look at McIntosh's long course championships medal history:
Every medal won by Summer McIntosh at a world aquatics (long course) championship
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Prize money purse of $3.1M US
Toronto's Joshua Liendo and Montreal's Ilya Kharun, who took Olympic silver and bronze, respectively, in the 100 butterfly, are contenders in that distance, plus the 50 fly, which is also now part of L.A.'s Games.
Singapore offers a prize money purse of $3.1 million US for pool and open-water swimmers, plus a $30,000 bonus to swimmers who break world records.
"Part of our strategic plan is that Swimming Canada aspires to be a top-six swimming nation," Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson said.
"I think the program has developed to the point where you have to say that we would target being the top four nations on the medal table."
WATCH | Kharun outdoes own Canadian record in men's 50m butterfly:
Ilya Kharun demolishes own 50m butterfly national record, clocks world's fastest time of year
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Oleksiak serving suspension
Canada's team will be minus Penny Oleksiak, who won the women's 100 and 50 freestyle at trials. She withdrew from the world championship because of a "whereabouts" issue under anti-doping rules.
The World Anti-Doping Code (WADA) defines a whereabouts failure as any combination of three missed tests or filing failures in a 12-month period, which the International Testing Agency stated Oleksiak did between October 2024 and June 2025.
She's accepted a provisional suspension for what Swimming Canada called an "administrative mistake" in not keeping her whereabouts information up to date.
Even with closer McIntosh and veteran Marie-Sophie Harvey, Oleksiak's absence makes Canada less deep in freestyle relay experience.
"It's a loss. I feel for the athlete as a person having made the decision to withdraw before going over there, a hard decision for any athlete to take, but [she] did it in the interests of the team," Atkinson said. "Her voluntary withdrawal, putting the team first, is all very admirable.
"Now the team also has to look ahead and say 'we're the athletes that are here' and it gives opportunities to other athletes on the team to say 'what can you all do, how can you step up and get us through the prelims and race in the finals?"'