She has a long list of accomplishments in the pool, including an Olympic bronze medal, and now swimmer Kylie Masse is hoping to end her varsity career atop of the podium at this week's U SPORTS Odlum Brown Swimming Championships.
The 23-year-old Ontario native made a name for herself when she tied for bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and a world record in the 100m backstroke followed, officially putting her on the swimming map.
"I always want to keep improving and get better, so I think to not get hung up on my successes, but to keep having goals and push myself further and further," Masse told CTV News Wednesday.
Masse joined the University of Toronto from a small swimming program in Windsor, Ontario. When she first arrived, her head coach, Byron MacDonald, didn't think she would rise to the top as quick as she did.
"I would have never predicted when she first enrolled in the fall of 2014 that she would win an Olympic medal 18 months later, that was not on the radar. The hope was she would become an international swimmer, but certainly not that quadrennial. So she fast tracked the whole program", MacDonald said.
While Masse's focus is on nationals, she's also looking ahead to April for the World Championship trials. Along the way she's hoping to recapture that world record, which she lost last year.
"I'm still learning how to be a medallist and a world champion. And all those things come with pressures and expectations and I'm just trying to be the best version of myself and grow as myself and a swimmer," Masse said.
