Four Time Olympic Medalist Kylie Masse Traded Ice For Water

Kylie Masse is one of the fastest backstrokers on the planet. She has four Olympic medals from the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Olympics to prove it. She's looking to add to those totals at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Canada.

While she's one of the fastest in the pool, Masse was also an avid hockey player growing up in LaSalle, Ontario. Each winter she'd skate with her family on their backyard rink.

“We were out there all the time,” she told Sportsnet in a 2020 interview . “I remember every night my dad would be outside flooding it for it to freeze overnight. He did a lot of work on that rink, and we were so lucky to have it. A lot of the neighbourhood kids would come over to play, too.”

When she was 12, the Toronto Maple Leafs fan had to trade frozen ice for the pool full time, which "“Sadly...meant my hockey career was done."

“Hockey was a big part of my childhood," she added.

As soon as she gave up the ice, Masse joined the Windsor Essex Swim Team and the rest is history. She took a unique path staying in Canada at the U Sports level swimming with the University of Toronto rather than heading south to the NCAA.

In 2020, Masse reflected on her on-ice days when LaSalle hosted Hometown Hockey.

A two-time World Championship and former 100m backstroke world record holder, Masse has become royalty among Canadian swimmers. With a bronze in 2016 in the 100m backstroke, silver in the 100m and 200m backstroke in 2020 as well as a bronze in the 4x100m medley, Masse is as decorated as they come among Canadian swimmers.

From the ice to the pool, Kyle Masse is an athlete to watch at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

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