Masse spearheading Canadian assault on GC2018 pool

Cold Coast, Jan. 15 (NsNewsWire) — Canadian swimming looks once again to be in rude health with all eyes on a record haul at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The 26-strong squad of swimmers includes 16 women and 10 athletes under the age of 20 and – after out-shining their male teammates comprehensively at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – Canada’s golden girls are ready to put their Tokyo 2020 credentials firmly on show in the Optus Aquatic Centre in April.

At July’s FINA World Championships in Budapest, it was Ontario native Kylie Masse who was taking all the headlines winning the 100m backstroke gold, breaking a seven-year world record in the process. That world title arrived just 12 months after Masse’s brilliant bronze in the same event in Rio, one of six medals in total for Team Canada in the pool, all of them won by women.

“Those first medals in Rio made us believe that we really belonged on the world stage and showed us what we can do,” Masse said.

“That snowballs into great things, and the success and enjoyment we had as a team built up off each other and really helped us forward.”

Back in Delhi at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, all eyes had been on Ryan Cochrane and the Canadian men’s team that he headed up, while the women searched for someone with his ability to build a team around. By Glasgow 2014, that scenario had begun to balance out with a new structure behind the scenes and medals for the likes of Hilary Caldwell and Brittany MacLean confirming their ascension onto the international stage.

“I can remember back at the London 2012 trials, I idolised Ryan Cochrane and (triple Commonwealth bronze medallist in Delhi) Julia Wilkinson,” she said.

“I was young and I think I placed around 100th in my race, but I was just in awe as I watched those guys in the finals.”

“Go forward four years and I was racing the likes of Hilary Caldwell and now we are teammates and it’s crazy how fast things have gone. It feels surreal that now I’m part of that structure and that people look up to me.”