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Olympic backstroker Masse savours BLG Award as top CIS athlete

By Nathan Sager

Kylie Masse has become a 2016 Rio Olympics-bound backstroker through this country’s university sport system, which made the University of Toronto Varsity Blue all the more grateful to recognized as Canada’s top female student-athlete earlier this week.

Masse received the BLG Award as Canadian Interuniversity Sport female athlete of the year at a ceremony in Calgary on Monday. The LaSalle, Ont., native, lowered the national 100-metre backstroke record twice in one day while qualifying for Rio at the Canadian Olympic & Para-swimming Trials in April. That came after capping her university season by setting marks in 50-m, 100-m and 200-m back on her way to earning four golds and three silvers at the CIS championships in February. That MVP effort helped the Varsity Blues women’s team win the national title.

“After I started reading up on the BLG Award, I was like, ‘Wow, this is huge,’ ” said Masse, who clocked 59.06 to win 100 back at the Trials and will also likely be part of Canada’s 4×100-m medley relay. “I was so honoured to be there and it was so humbling to be chosen one of the top athletes in Canada.

“I think it shows that CIS is an extremely good environment and community to be competing in,” added the 20-year-old, who studies kinesiology at U of T. “It produces a lot of good athletes. It’s a great academic school, which was really important to me. [Head coach] Byron MacDonald and my coach Linda [Kiefer, the assistant coach] do a great job of developing athletes that can compete at the international and university level. They provide that foundation that helps you with racing.”

Byron and Linda do a great job of developing athletes that can compete at the international and university level.

In about 20 months, Masse has evolved from U of T rookie into an elite backstroker. Her breakout came at the 2015 Summer Universiade in July 2015 in Gwangju, South Korea, where she won gold in the 100-m.

“Kylie’s improvement arch since coming to U of T has been remarkable,” MacDonald said in a statement released by CIS. “She went from being ranked 200th in the world to top 10 in just two years. Her hard work has certainly paid off. She loves swimming, loves her team, and is the most unassuming world-class athlete you will ever meet.”

That came to the fore April 6, when Masse and Dominique Bouchard of North Bay, Ont., earned Olympic spots. Masse first broke the Canadian record in prelims by touching in 59.17, then pared it to 59.06 in the evening.

“Honestly, I was going into prelims with a little bit of less pressure than it would have been if it was finals – ‘Just see what you can do, you’re tapered and everything.’ I did the best I could and was happy when I saw what I went. Then I felt less nervous – still nervous, but less nervous – going into finals.”

For Masse, being at U of T combines the best of all possible worlds. Being based in Toronto enables her to train once a week with the Swimming Canada High Performance Centre – Ontario. Moreover, she says the team’s culture enabled her to take her racing up during that seven-medal performance at the CIS championships.

“Just my whole team being so excited and everyone was swimming well and the team atmosphere created so much more energy in the pool that weekend. It made everyone swim that much faster. Having it be a team event and a team atmosphere is what made it all the more special.”

In addition to Kiefer and MacDonald, Masse credits U of T strength and conditioning coach Alanna Veerman for making training sessions seem less like drudgery.

“She’s always teaching us new tricks in the weight room. She’s very fun-spirited, always happy and smiling and encouraging. That’s really important for me; having that attitude in the weight room.”

Masse, whose parents Cindy and Louie had all three of their children swimming as youths, got her start with the Windsor Essex Swim Team. Her former club coach, Alexei Semenov, was at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre when she qualified for Rio.

The BLG Awards, which are sponsored by the Borden Ladner Gervais LLP law firm, are presented to female and one male CIS student-athlete annually. Honourees receive a $10,000 scholarship to attend a Canadian university graduate school.

Each conference within CIS selects one female and one male finalist to attend the April awards dinner in Calgary. University of Calgary Dinos quarterback Andrew Buckley was the male honouree.

Masse has family in Calgary, so her aunt and uncle, Linda and Mark Thomas, were able to share in the honour. She avoided missing too much pool time.

“I swam in Calgary on the Sunday. Monday was an off-day with the awards and then I swam as soon as I got back home. I didn’t miss out on too much.”