LaSalle's Kylie Masse talks about her world-record backstroke
LaSalle's Kylie Masse swam into living rooms across the country two weeks ago, quickly becoming a household name after her world-record backstroke swim in Hungary.
The 21-year-old athlete returned home this week after her victory at the World Aquatic Championships in Budapest, where she navigated a tidal wave of attention.
Masse talked with CBC News about her breakout performance at the Rio Olympics, where she won a bronze medal, and her journey to etch her name into the record books.
You touch your hand on the wall in Budapest. Replay that very instant for me — the first 10 seconds?
"Honestly, I don't really know what I was thinking in the moment. I know I looked at the clock and was double checking to make sure I was looking at the right name and the right time. I saw the WR next to my time. I think I just hugged the two girls I was racing against beside me. I was just overcome with joy."
You've had two weeks to let all of this wash over you. How would you describe the experience in Budapest?
"Pretty incredible. I think it's still kind of surreal and it really hasn't sunk in yet, but it was super exciting and a really incredible experience."
For a couple of days right after that swim it seemed every media outlet in the country wanted a piece of you. What was that like?
"It was quite different. I really had to maintain my focus. I still had a lot of races after that. It was important for me to soak up the whole experience and that accomplishment, but I still had a lot of racing left to do."
There's a difference in expectation from Rio — where you won a bronze medal last year — and the World Championships in Hungary. Walk me through that.
"It was important to just focus on myself and what I could control after Rio and really get back into training and see what I could improve on in order to be better. Then, when I approached our national trials in April ... I was .09 seconds off the world record at that point. I think that gave me a lot of confidence leading into the summer. From then, until I left for the championships, I just really focused on those little small details in my race."
The Olympic bronze medal was a bit of a surprise to you. What about the gold in Hungary?
"I think it was still a surprise because you never know what can happen and you never know what anyone else is going to do, and that backstroke field is extremely talented, so I was super happy to get my hand on the wall first. I was really just trying to focus on the things I had been working on all year."
You swim and study at the University of Toronto, but somebody here in Windsor and LaSalle is responsible for turning you into a swimmer to begin with. How did it all start?
"I started doing swimming lessons with my brother and my sister when we were really young. Then we joined the the LaSalle Lizards (a summer program at the town's outdoor pool) and that was really fun.
What do you remember from you days as a LaSalle Lizard?
The swim meet days were full of freezies and hot dogs. That was fun, and then I just really enjoyed swimming, so I decided to join the Windsor-Essex swim team and moved on from them onto University of Toronto when I went to school."
The 100-metre backstroke is once down the pool, turn, then back. Can you give me some understanding what you can see and how you can react to it tactically?
"You can kind of see — in your peripheral vision — some splashes on the side, if you're close to the people next to you. At the turn, you can kind of see too when you flip. I knew I was with the group going out at the first 50 metres and at the turn. I believe I was third after the turn. I kind of saw the scoreboard after the flip, but I didn't really know."
So you really don't have much to go on. How to you prepare youself to compete in such a huge race basically blind?
"I could only really see splashes. I didn't really know if that was their hands, their feet or their arms. I didn't really know where I was. But something I've been working on all year was my back-end speed and my last 50 metres and building into the last 25 metres into the wall, so I kind of just kept my head still and kept spinning my arms."