Swimming Canada is ringing in the New Year with the announcement of the 2017 Big Splash Award winners, a backstroke-heavy who\u2019s who of the country\u2019s top swimmers.<\/p>\n
A pair of world-record setting backstrokers headline the awards, with\u00a0Kylie Masse<\/strong>\u00a0taking Female Swimmer of the Year (Olympic Program), while\u00a0Shelby Newkirk<\/strong>\u00a0is the Female Para-swimmer of the Year.<\/p>\n Masse became Canada\u2019s first female world champion at the FINA World Championships when she won the 100-m backstroke in Budapest in an unprecedented 58.10. It was the country\u2019s first world record on the Olympic program side since Annamay Pierse (200-m breaststroke) in 2009.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Newkirk followed up at the Para-swimming Canadian Open with a historic 1:21.43 to establish a new world mark in the S7 100-m backstroke. Newkirk and her teammates overcame the postponement of the World Para Swimming Championships due to the Mexico City earthquake and regrouped for the impromptu meet at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.<\/p>\n That included Paralympic legend\u00a0Beno\u00eet Huot,<\/strong>\u00a0who earns his 12th Swimming Canada Male Para-swimmer of the Year award. Huot\u2019s S10 100-m backstroke time of 1:01.06 was deemed the top performance of the Para-swimming Canadian Open.<\/p>\n Rounding out the Big Splash slate are\u00a0Javier Acevedo<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Yuri Kisil\u00a0<\/strong>as co-Male\u00a0Swimmer of the Year (Olympic Program) winners, and\u00a0Richard Weinberger<\/strong>\u00a0as Open Water Swimmer of the Year.\u00a0Kisil finished 10th in the 100-m freestyle in Budapest and helped both the 4×100-m free and 4×100-m medley mixed relays to bronze medals. Acevedo made the 100-m backstroke semifinal in Budapest, finishing 14th in 54.11, while Weinberger was the top Canadian in the 10-km marathon, coming 23rd.<\/p>\n Each athlete\u2019s qualified coach also receives a Coach of the Year award for the associated category: Linda Kiefer of the University of Toronto (Female Swimmer),\u00a0Tom Johnson of the High Performance Centre \u2013 Vancouver (Male Swimmer), Eric Kramer of Saskatoon Laser Swim Club (Female Para-swimmer), Benoit Lebrun of Acad\u00e9mie de Natation de Montr\u00e9al (Male Para-swimmer), and Ron Jacks of Pacific Coast Swimming (Open Water Swimmer).<\/p>\n Complete list of 2017 Big Splash Award winners:<\/p>\n Olympic program<\/u> Paralympic Program<\/strong><\/u> Press release courtesy of Swimming Canada.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Swimming Canada is ringing in the New Year with the announcement of the 2017 Big Splash Award winners, a backstroke-heavy who\u2019s who of the country\u2019s top swimmers. A pair of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":250618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[65635,25938,881,26270,142,25053],"class_list":["post-292522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-2017-big-splash-awards","tag-backstroke","tag-canada","tag-kylie-masse","tag-swimming","tag-swimming-canada"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n
\nFemale Swimmer of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Kylie Masse, 21, Windsor, Ont. (Gold, 100m Backstroke, Budapest 2017 FINA World Championships, 58.10, World Record)
\nCoach of The Year (Female Swimmer):<\/strong>\u00a0Linda Kiefer, University of Toronto
\nMale Swimmer of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Yuri Kisil, 22, Calgary (10th, 100m Freestyle, Budapest 2017 FINA World Championships, 48.50)\/Javier Acevedo, 19, Scarborough, Ont. (14th, 100m Backstroke, Budapest 2017 FINA World Championships, 54.11)
\nCoach of The Year (Male Swimmer):\u00a0<\/strong>Tom Johnson, High Performance Centre – Vancouver
\nOpen Water Swimmer of the Year:<\/strong>\u00a0Richard Weinberger, 27, Victoria (23rd, 10km Marathon, Budapest 2017 FINA World Championships)
\nCoach of the Year (Open Water Swimmer):\u00a0<\/strong>Ron Jacks, Pacific Coast Swimming<\/p>\n
\nFemale Para-swimmer of the Year:<\/strong>\u00a0Shelby Newkirk, 21, Saskatoon (100m Backstroke S7, Toronto 2017 Para-Swimming Canadian Open, 1:21.43, World Record)
\nCoach of the Year (Female Para-swimmer):<\/strong>\u00a0Eric Kramer, Saskatoon Laser Swim Club
\nMale Para-swimmer of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Beno\u00eet Huot, 33, Longueuil, Que. (100m Backstroke S10, Toronto 2017 Para-Swimming Canadian Open, 1:01.06)
\nCoach of the Year (Male Para-swimmer):<\/strong>\u00a0Benoit Lebrun, Acad\u00e9mie De Natation De Montr\u00e9al<\/p>\n