Motivated For More: Canada’s Kylie Masse Hungry To Enhance Already Glowing Portfolio

kylie-masse-

Motivated For More: Canada’s Kylie Masse Hungry To Enhance Already Glowing Portfolio

Canada’s Kylie Masse remains on her run of nearly unprecedented, sustained success in the 100 back after having also developed into an elite 200 backstroker. Her track record lends credence to the idea that Masse will remain a strong international medal contender for the years to come.

By David Rieder

At her first Olympics in 2016, Kylie Masse was an international neophyte, having won her only previous medal in foreign waters when she captured gold in the 100 back at the 2015 World University Games. One year later, the 20-year-old from Windsor found herself in Lane 2 for the 100 back Olympic final, a tightly-bunched field that saw all eight swimmers record times within a half-second of each other in the semifinals.

The same day that Masse swam in her 100 back semifinal, she had watched as 16-year-old Penny Oleksiak stunned a field full of veterans to take silver in the women’s 100 butterfly, securing the first Olympic medal in swimming for Canada’s women in two decades. “When she did it, it was just a snowball: ‘Well if she can do it, then I can do it,’” Masse said.

In the 100 back final, Masse turned in fourth place at the halfway point, but she surged over the second half of the race. While Katinka Hosszu pulled away to win Olympic gold, the next four swimmers came crashing into the wall at basically the same time. Masse ended up with a bronze, sharing the honor with China’s Fu Yuanhui while the pair was just 1-hundredth behind Kathleen Baker and 4-hundredths ahead of Mie Nielsen.

Masse was an Olympic medalist by that narrow margin, and so began a run that would quickly establish her as one of the elite women’s backstrokers in the world.

“I don’t think I really realized what it meant for my career until probably a little while after,” Masse said. “Yes, I wanted to do well, but I didn’t have any expectations for myself and getting on the podium or anything like that. Coming away from that meet with a bronze medal really just opened my eyes and showed me that I belong on the international stage and gave me so much confidence in myself and confidence as a person and also as a swimmer.”

Of course, hard work and determination are key for any elite athlete, but Masse identified other attributes about herself that had allowed her to succeed on such a grand stage: “Being able to compartmentalize, being adaptable, having balance and having perspective,” she said. Specifically, Masse identified being in school at the University of Toronto, where she was pursuing a degree in kinesiology, as critical for maximizing her potential in the pool.

“I realized that having school and swimming really helped me,” Masse said. “I found I liked having that balance. I like being able to spend the day and go to school and be with classmates and kind of not be a swimmer, and then I got to practice, and it was only swimming. I was just focusing on that. Once I left practice, that was it. Those are strengths that I saw in myself, and I saw that working.”

MASSE Kylie CAN Women's 100m Backstroke Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates 16/12/21 Etihad Arena FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) Photo Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

The formula worked in Rio, and it continued working for Masse over the next several years. Maintaining a consistent level of success in swimming can be difficult as swimmers improve, plateau or struggle at different points. From the 2016 Olympics until the Tokyo Games in 2021, Masse almost completely avoided the pitfalls that set back swimmers’ careers.

Only six total swimmers won a medal in the same individual event at the Rio Olympics, the 2017 World Championships, the 2019 World Championships and the Tokyo Olympics. On the women’s side, there were just three: Katie Ledecky (in multiple events), Lilly King (100 breaststroke) and Masse (100 back). Over those four major meets, eight other women joined Masse on the 100 back podium, and only one other swimmer (Baker) made multiple podiums during that span.

With that consistency, Masse joined an exclusive club. In the 21st century, the only other swimmer to win a medal in the women’s 100 back in four straight major competitions (Olympics plus World Championships) was Natalie Coughlin, from 2004 through 2008.

The Role of Favorite

The Olympic medal in 2016 launched Masse toward her first world-record scare eight months later, at Canada’s Trials for the World Championships in Budapest. “I think I was on such a high,” Masse said. “I honestly didn’t even know the world-record time going into those April Trials. I was just swimming, and I was just loving what I was doing.”

She ended up swimming a 58.21 at that meet, the quickest time recorded since full-body polyurethane suits were banned in 2009 and just 9-hundredths off the world record. For the first time, Masse assumed a role as “favorite” entering an international meet, and that was a new sort of pressure for her to grapple with.

kylie-masse-titans

Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu / ISL

“It forced me to learn how to deal with that, to learn how to separate that from my swimming and use it as fuel and motivation but not let it overwhelm me,” Masse said. “I think once it actually came down to Budapest and doing it, it was a little bit of a relief because it had been kind of anticipated for a little bit, but at the same time, I was obviously so happy, and I was just so overwhelmed that I didn’t know what to say or do.”

Indeed, Masse did break the world record, clipping Gemma Spofforth’s eight-year-old mark of 58.12 with a 58.10, as she became the first Canadian woman ever to win a world title in swimming. She also made her international debut in the 200 back at that meet, where she finished fifth despite recording the meet’s third-fastest time in the semifinals.

In the ensuing years, Masse could seemingly do no wrong. She was golden in the 100 back at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2018 Pan Pacific Championships and 2019 World Championships, and she began winning international medals in the 200 as well. She lost her 100 back world record to Baker in July 2018, but two weeks later, she beat out Baker and Emily Seebohm in an anticipated showdown at Pan Pacs.

The only setbacks she faced during that period were some minor injuries, including a knee injury that restricted her from any kicking for three months. “Basically, I was in a lot of pain, and it all came from doing breaststroke,” Masse said. So she swore off breaststroke and eventually resumed flutter and dolphin kicking, although the pain would flare up from time to time.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the Olympics to be postponed one year. Every single swimmer, every athlete and every person in the world dealt with setbacks and adversity at this point, but Masse and her Canadian teammates faced a degree of difficulty unique among their rivals around the world.

Working Through COVID

In mid-March 2020, Masse got out of practice at the University of Toronto to find an email announcing the postponement of Canada’s Olympic Trials. So her coaches, Byron MacDonald and Linda Kiefer, told the group to take the weekend off and plan to come back on Monday. That return date was quickly pushed back. So Masse packed a weekend bag and headed to her parents’ house in Windsor, expecting a short stay.

The date when pools would reopen kept getting pushed back. Masse managed well during the first weeks of the shutdown, thinking of the time as a break before a renewed push for the now-delayed Olympics, but as the months dragged on and top non-Canadian swimmers around the world began returning to training, the frustration set in.

“At least back within our swimming community, it felt like that was who I was comparing it to because that was my competition. That was everyone that we were going to be racing at the Olympics,” Masse said. “I think once I started to see people posting on Instagram and posting on social about being back, I think then I started to get more anxious: ‘I need to be doing this. They’re back in. When are we getting back in?’ It was just a constant battle.”

Kylie-Masse

Photo Courtesy: Martin Bazyl

Finally, at the end of June, Canadian Olympic hopefuls received clearance to return to the pool, but only in certain settings. Masse was able to join the group led by Coach Ben Titley at the Toronto High Performance Center, but that meant leaving a University of Toronto program that had guided her to so much success. She joined an HPC group that became an unofficial hub for the Canadian national team in the leadup to Tokyo, with Oleksiak, Kayla Sanchez, Sydney Pickrem, Taylor Ruck, Maggie Mac Neil, Summer McIntosh, Yuri Kisil, Finlay Knox and Joshua Liendo all spending at least some time there.

Masse had previously swum one practice per week with Titley’s group, which helped the transition, but it was still an adjustment as she adapted to slightly more volume and an increase in intense sprinting in training.

“We were all just so focused on the Olympics and just doing exactly what we could and what we needed to do to make it to the Olympics, to make it to the possible Trials,” Masse said. “I compare it to just tunnel vision. I wasn’t really allowing myself to think about what I was doing before or think about the change and how I was feeling.”

But while her training was going well, Masse and other Canadians were unable to race. She had swum in the ISL bubble in Budapest in October and November of 2020, but her next official race came in mid-June 2021 at the Olympic Trials meet that had been rescheduled over and over. Canada remained in lockdown, and that meant no domestic prep meets. The replacement? Time trials.

“We would do suited Saturdays,” Masse said. “It was like a time trials kind of thing, which definitely got old toward the end. Leading into the Olympics, it was like, ‘Another time trial?’ but it was just what we had to do. Yes, it was frustrating, but I didn’t really allow myself to think about it that way because I couldn’t. I needed to be positive, and I needed to be optimistic about the situation because I knew that’s what was going to be helpful for me in getting to my goals and getting to the Olympics.”

Renewed Life

Heading into those Trials, Masse felt confident in her fitness but still a little unsure of what to expect given the additional obstacles she and her Canadian teammates had faced during the pandemic. But then she shattered her best time in the 100 back, swimming a 57.70 to become just the third woman under 58 seconds.

“It gave me a life going into the Olympics, and it made me feel so good. And for the 200, I had worked a lot more on 200 pace and doing longer backstroke sets than I was used to before, and I think I felt more confident than I had in my 200,” Masse said. “Sometimes, I feel like the 200 can be really daunting for me, but I felt like I had finally gotten to a point where I knew how I wanted to swim it. I knew I felt strong, and I knew I could do it.”

In Tokyo, Masse scored silver medals in both backstroke events. She actually led at the halfway point of the 100 back final and at all three intermediate splits in the 200 back, but there was no shame in finishing behind Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, who had broken the world record in the 100 back the month before and had come close to the top mark in the 200 back. Masse’s 100 back time was 57.72, and she crushed her best time with a 2:05.42 in the 200-meter event, making her the sixth-fastest performer in history.

On the meet’s final day, Masse led off a Canadian 400 medley relay team that also included Pickrem, Mac Neil and Oleksiak, and the group secured a bronze medal. It was the first time Canada had won a medal in the event since 1988.

“Obviously extremely happy and proud to have come out with two silvers and a bronze,” Masse said. “I think the 100 back hit me a little bit harder. It definitely stung a bit because I wanted to be on top of the podium, but I knew it was going to be hard.

“Finishing the relay with a bronze—with three of my training mates throughout the last couple of years—I feel like we just had such a strong bond because we were all the only people we saw the whole year. That was extremely special.”

A Culture of Success

The six-year stretch since 2016 has seen Canada emerge as an elite squad in women’s swimming, by most measures as the third-best nation in the world behind the United States and Australia. It’s no coincidence that Masse has been one of the world’s best backstrokers for that entire stretch—even as swimmers such as Oleksiak and Ruck have had ups and downs, while others such as Mac Neil have emerged more recently. Over that span, Masse has witnessed a culture of success that has rubbed off on emerging young swimmers.

“It’s incredibly powerful and inspiring to see. When you’re in it and at practice or at the meet with the national team, it’s just normal because it’s just a representation of the culture that is on the team and the group of girls and guys who were on the team and just their characteristics. I think when you take a step back and actually think about it and I actually reflect on it, it’s so cool to think about,” she said. “It’s a combination of culture and pushing one another and supporting one another and encouraging one another and wanting them to succeed as a whole and want to help others succeed.”

Canada’s prowess was on full display at the Short Course World Championships at the end of 2021, as the nation won 15 medals (tied for third-most of any country) and seven golds (second-most). Masse captured four silver medals between the 50, 100 and 200 meter backstrokes and the 400 medley relay, and the highlight came in the women’s 50 back with Mac Neil shattering the world record and Masse claiming silver, her time of 25.62 just 2-hundredths off the previous global standard. It was a banner moment for Canadian swimming and a sweet one between two good friends.

A New Normal

Now, Masse needs to find balance again, a new normal. She finished her university degree in April 2021, and she had time for a normal routine after that between the all-important stretch leading up to the Olympics and then months of racing overseas between the ISL and Short Course Worlds.

Back in Toronto for the first extended stretch since pre-Tokyo, Masse plans on attending graduate school in the near future, and she is considering a variety of programs, including exercise science, feminine health and business, with an eye toward accommodating both her training and racing schedules and her post-swimming career goals. In the meantime, though, Masse will be training without having the anchor of school for the first time.

As swimming’s attention turns toward the Paris 2024 Olympics, expect Masse, who turned 26 in January, to remain at the forefront of women’s backstroke on the global stage. “I think this whole last year, and I think this move in programs, I think the jump of PBs and the success I had last year has motivated me even more because I’m still hungry for more,” she said.

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