By John Humphrey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter
LaSalle native Kylie Masse has returned home from the 2024 Paris Olympics but still has a monumental task to complete. But rest assured, she will, as she always does.
“I think I am starting to be able to put the Paris games into perspective, but I also think I am going to need a bit more time in order to do it completely,” said Kylie, who was back in LaSalle just over a week following her taking part in the closing ceremony in France’s capital city. After flying back to Canada, Kylie spent a couple of days in Toronto before heading over to Michigan to attend the wedding of one of her best friends from LaSalle who had since moved states-side.
Kylie was named as one of four team captains of Team Canada after a vote by the 338 Canadian athletes prior to the start of competition in Paris. She and her swimming teammates were primed and focused on getting off to a good start so as to serve as motivation while providing momentum for the rest of the Canadian team. And it worked as the Canadian finished with 27 medals, including nine gold, seven silver and 11 bronze. That team total was the highest by Canada in any non-boycotted Olympic games.
“To be part of such an incredible team effort by our athletes in so many sports made me so very proud to be a Canadian,” she claimed. “I’ve always felt that way, but the performance in Paris by so many people was so just amazing.
“We all had each other’s backs and the support we had for each other was incredible.”
Kylie’s bronze medal in the womens’ 200 metre backstroke boosted her Olympic total to five after having previously won silver in Rio (2016) and two bronze and one silver in Tokyo. Her standing on the podium in Paris set a Canadian record for medalling in three consecutive Olympics. Kylie also finished in fourth place in the womens’ 200 metre backstroke and womens’ four x 100 metre relay in Paris.
“I was focused on the 100 heading into Paris and while I was a bit disappointed with my time, I was able to quickly re-focus for the 200 later in the week and to come back and finish on the podium in that event was quite satisfying for me,” she claimed.
Kylie was also happy to participate in another Olympics that had no COVID protocols as the Tokyo games took place during the Pandemic.
“I was fortunate to have competed in Rio in 2016 and the competition that took place in Tokyo (which was actually delayed by one year and took place in 2021) was completely different,” she pointed out. “To have been able to compete in normal games again was great.
“It was really cool to see my teammates who had only competed in Tokyo before now be able to compete under totally different conditions,” Kylie continued. “I was so happy not only for them in Paris, but for Olympic athletes and the Olympic movement from around the world.”
One of the more amazing performances by a Canadian athlete in Paris was that of 17-year-old swimming sensation Summer McIntosh, who won three gold medals.
Kylie was well-aware of Summer’s potential heading into the Paris games and was not shocked by her younger teammate’s performance.
“Summer is someone who I have been able to train with in the past and she works so hard and it inspires all of her teammates,” said Kylie. “It is so great to see the results that she is achieving because it is just the beginning of her time.
“She had been having an incredible year prior to heading into Paris and I really did not have any doubt that she was going to have a great Olympics, which she ended up having,” continued the affable 28-year-old. “It’s been so fun to watch her flourish and grow into an incredibly amazing athlete.”
The LaSalle swimming star admitted that she knows that the Canadian standard that she just set for winning medals in three straight Olympic games was not going to last very long – an inevitability due to Summer’s rising star.
“Records are made to be broken and while I am very proud to have set a record for my country, I am also going to be very happy for and proud of the person that does break that record one day,” Kylie claimed. “Summer is going to be around for a long-time and she is going to have many opportunities to do it.”
While Kylie, who has a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Toronto, is not closing the door on her career as a world-class swimmer, she is going to stop and smell the roses of life while contemplating which adventures await her.
Another reason why Kylie is so busy these days in the aftermath of Paris, is that in 2022 she moved her training base to Spain in order to continue working with coach Ben Titley. The pair had previously worked together at the High Performance Centre – Ontario – in Toronto, where Titley was her head coach and budding superstar Summer was a teammate.
“I am going to take a bit of a breather right now before deciding what I want to do,” she said. “I’ve been in Spain on the other side of the world for the past couple of years and I haven’t taken much of a break since Tokyo either.”
But there is a certain appeal to competing in a fourth Olympics and one that would be the closest to home, even if it will be held roughly 3700 kms away in Los Angeles, California.
“I have no doubt that the 2028 games in Los Angeles will be amazing, and the fact that they will be closer than I have ever competed in an Olympic games is exciting too,” Kylie admitted. “Four years is along way away, but on the other hand, it really isn’t.
“Right now, I am going to enjoy seeing family and friends and the people that I love,” she continued. “For the next little while, I have a lot of catching up to do before I decide what’s next in my life.”
Photo courtesy Swimming Canada/Ian MacNicol
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