It’s unwise to bet against Kylie Masse at the Olympics.
The Canadian swimmer added to her impressive Olympic haul with a bronze medal in the women’s 200-metre backstroke on Friday.
It is the fifth career Olympic medal for Masse and the 11th for Canada at Paris 2024.
After a fast start, Masse appeared to be losing grip with the leaders on the third of four laps. But she rallied in the last few strokes to overtake Phoebe Bacon, finishing four-hundredths of a second ahead of the American for bronze.
Australia’s Kaylee McKeown won gold in an Olympic-record time of two minutes, 3.73 seconds, .53 seconds ahead of runner-up Regan Smith of the U.S. Masse was 1.84 seconds back of the winner.
Masse finished fourth earlier in the meet in the 100-metre backstroke. She becomes the first Canadian swimmer to win a medal at three consecutive Olympics.
The 28-year-old native of LaSalle, Ont., now has two silver and three bronze medals over three Olympics.
Masse won silver in the 200-m backstroke three years ago in Tokyo. But the University of Toronto product came fifth in the event in the world championships last year and finished that meet without an individual medal.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Josh Liendo missed the podium by just two-hundredths of a second in the men’s freestyle final.
Linedo finished fourth in 21.58 seconds, edged out for bronze by Florent Manadou of France.
Liendo finished ninth in the semifinals on Thursday and appeared to be eliminated. But after France’s Maxime Grousset scratched, Liendo grabbed the final spot in the final.
Australia’s Cameron McEvoy won gold.
