Kylie Masse

World Swimming Championships Following Rio de Janeiro, Masse's next event was her first World Swimming Championships, held in a short course (25 m) pool. The 2016 edition was held in her hometown of Windsor, Ontario, where her Olympic success had raised her to the level of local celebrity. Masse won the silver medal in the 100 m backstroke, finishing behind only reigning Olympic champion Katinka Hosszú. Commenting on the results, her coach Byron MacDonald predicted "the upside for Kylie is tremendous. You have to remember she's new to this. Anything can happen right now. She has not hit her limit yet."

Masse was assigned to compete at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest. There she broke a world record that had stood for eight years, en route to winning her first world championship title in 58.10 seconds. She competed in the women's 200 m backstroke setting the Canadian record at 2:05.97 in the semis and qualifying for the final second overall, but was unable to duplicate her time and placed fifth at 2:07.04 ahead of teammate Hilary Caldwell. Following the championships the town of LaSalle, Ontario dedicated an August 18 day to fest her accomplishments and celebrated with her and a town barbecue.

2018 season Masse was named as part of Canada's team at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She began her part of the competition in her preferred event, the 100 m. Masse set two Commonwealth Games records en route to the final. In the final she again set the record, just out-touching Emily Seebohm for the gold medal. After seeing she had won the event she told reports how she felt about the win and coming in to the event as the favourite, saying, "Relief, happiness. Just coming into another big meet with kind of a target on your back is something relatively new to me. So I’m still trying to kind of focus on my stroke and what I can control and not worry too much about outside pressures or anything like that." Masse followed up her victory in the 100 m back with a gold in the 200 m backstroke the next day. She again set a Commonwealth Games record, finishing ahead of 17-year-old teammate Taylor Ruck. Masse ended her games with a silver medal and a Canadian record in the 50 m backstroke and another silver medal in medley relay event.

Following the Commonwealth Games, Masse made her Pan Pacific Swimming Championships debut at the 2018 edition in Tokyo. The 100 m backstroke was anticipated to be one of the highlights, featuring as did reigning World champion Masse as well as top rivals Seebohm and Kathleen Baker, the latter having broken Masse's world record earlier in the season. Masse won the gold medal, finishing 0.11 ahead of Seebohm, though she came up short of reclaiming her world record. She also competed in the 200 m backstroke event, finishing in fourth place, 0.54 seconds behind bronze medallist Regan Smith. She was also part of the Canadian team in the medley relay, which finished in fourth place. Masse was named the female swimmer of the championships. With the victory Masse became the first Canadian swimmer to defend a world title and only the second to win two golds at the event.

On March 18, 2020, Masse was signed to the Toronto Titans of the International Swimming League as the team captain. This was to be Masse's first time in the ISL. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic upended the planned swimming calendar, including delaying the 2020 Summer Olympics by a year. With training facilities closed in Canada starting in March, Masse was unable to train in a competitive environment for several months, resorting to out-of-water training at home and making use of her parents' pool. In June, she opted to leave the University of Toronto's swimming program to join the Canadian national team, as its facility was reopening.

After seven months away from competition, Masse travelled to Budapest to join the ISL. October 25, 2020, in her ISL debut during Match 3, she finished 8th in the match MVP standings with 30.5 points. She won the 100m backstroke with a time of 56.38 seconds. On November 1, 2020, during Match 6 of the ISL, Masse won the 50m backstroke and helped her team win the 4x100 medley relay. As a result, for the medley win, her team got to pick which skin they wanted to race in. On November 2, Masse won the 100m backstroke, and the skin for the 50m backstroke. On November 5, 2020, during Match 7, Masse won the 50m backstroke again.

2021 season Summer Olympics Despite having already been named to the Canadian Olympic team, Masse competed at the national swimming trials, going below the 58-second mark for the first time to win the 100 m backstroke event with a time of 57.70 seconds. Competing first in the 100 m backstroke event, Masse was identified as one of the three medal favourites, alongside Australia's Kaylee McKeown and American Regan Smith. Masse set an Olympic record in her first heat, which was broken minutes later by McKeown, and then in turn by Smith. Masse won her semi-final over McKeown, while Smith won the other with a fourth Olympic record.

Masse's second event was the 200 m backstroke, which she had not contested at the Rio Olympics. She was again cited as one of the medal favourites, alongside McKeown and American Rhyan White, and placed second behind McKeown in both the heats and the semifinals, tying with White in the latter. In the final, Masse lead McKeown through the first three lengths of the race, ultimately being overtaken in the final stretch, and won her second silver medal of the Games. In the process she set a new national record.

For her final event, Masse was again the backstroke leg of Canada's team in the medley relay, facing off again against McKeown and Smith. Masse won her segment of the competition with a 57.90 time, while the Canadians took the bronze medal, Masse's fourth.

World Swimming Championships Masse ended the year at the 2021 FINA World Swimming Championships in Abu Dhabi. Masse's first event was the 100 m backstroke, where she won silver, finishing just behind Sweden's Louise Hansson while setting a Canadian record in the process. She then competed in the 200 m where she won silver behind Rhyan White, though in this distance Masse told media she was disappointed with her time though content with the medal. Masse then competed in the 50 m where she won a third medal behind teammate Maggie Mac Neil who set a world record. She added a silver medal in the women's medley relay to win her fourth silver medal of the competition and tenth total medal won at a World Championships to make her the most decorated swimmer at the World Championships. She won the silver medal, finishing 0.18 behind Regan Smith, standing on her third consecutive World podium but missing another title defence. Masse then placed first in the heats and semi-finals of the 50 m backstroke, qualifying to that event final for the first time. She won the gold medal, her third at the World Championships, finishing 0.08 seconds ahead of American silver medallist Katharine Berkoff. Masse said that the win was a tribute to her "50 progress over the last couple of years." She missed the podium in the 200 m backstroke, finishing fifth, but won a bronze medal on the final day as part of the Canadian team in the medley relay.

A month later, Masse was part of her second Commonwealth Games team. On her first day of competing, she finished first in both the heats and semi-finals of the 100 m backstroke. Masse won the silver medal, 0.13 seconds behind Australian Kaylee McKeown. The 200 m backstroke was viewed as another contest between Masse and McKeown, which Masse again taking the silver medal. She said afterward that "I always know Kaylee is going to put down a great race and I tried to stick to my race plan and do the best I could." Qualifying to the final of the 50 m backstroke, she set a Games record of 27.47 in the semi-final. On the same day, she swam the backstroke leg for Canada in the mixed medley relay, winning another silver medal. Beginning the final day of competition, Masse won gold in the 50 m backstroke final, lowering her previous day's Games record again to 27.31, exactly equal to her winning time in Budapest earlier in the season. She then swam the backstroke leg of the medley relay, winning a final silver medal, her fifth medal of the Birmingham Games.

2023 season In what was considered a significant upset, Masse finished second in the 100 metre backstroke at the Canadian swimming trials, behind Ingrid Wilm. She won both the 50 and 200 metre distances.

Masse began the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka competing in the 100 m backstroke, where she finished fourth, nearly a second behind bronze medalist Berkoff. This was the first time she had failed to reach the podium in the event at the World Championships. Masse said she was "a little bit disappointed" afterward, acknowledging that "the 100 didn't come together this season." She participated in the mixed medley, where the Canadians finished in sixth place. Masse reached the final of the 50 m backstroke next, finished fourth as well, 0.08 behind Briton Lauren Cox for the bronze medal. Her time of 27.28 was faster than her winning time for the previous year. She said it was "the fastest I've gone this year so I have to be pleased with that." Masse recorded a fifth-place finish in the final of the 200 m backstroke, for the first time concluding a World Aquatics Championships without an individual medal. On the final day of the championships, she swam the backstroke leg for Canada in the medley relay, helping the team to another bronze medal. This was her ninth World Aquatics Championship medal, tying Oleksiak for the most by a Canadian swimmer, though her national record for the most gold medals was broken the same day by Summer McIntosh. She posted her fastest time of the week in the relay.

2024 season As with most of the Canadian team's top swimmers, Masse opted not to attend the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, citing its proximity to the 2024 Summer Olympics. Appearing at the national Olympic swimming trials, she won both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke events. She posted a time under 58 seconds in the former and under 2:07 in the latter, in both cases her best times since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Joining the Canadian Olympic team for the third time, she was a named captain of the swimming team.

Summer Olympics Masse qualified to the final of the 100 m backstroke, becoming in the process only the third woman to appear in three consecutive Olympic finals in the event. She ultimately came fourth, 0.31 seconds behind bronze medalist Katharine Berkoff of the United States. In her second appearance of the Paris Games, Masse qualified for the final of the 200 m backstroke. She finished narrowly third, out-touching American Phoebe Bacon for the bronze medal by 0.04 seconds. This was Masse's fifth career Olympic medal, and she became the first Canadian female swimmer to medal at three consecutive Olympic Games, and second overall after Tom Ponting. Masse said that the result "means a lot" following her prior disappointment in the 100 metre event.

World Swimming Championships At the close of the year, Masse travelled to Budapest for the 2024 World Swimming Championships. On December 11 she won a silver medal with the Canadian team in the mixed 4×50 m medley relay, equaling retired teammate Maggie Mac Neil's record for the most medals by a Canadian swimmer from the short- and long-course World championships (19). Two days later she took bronze in the 50 m backstroke, her twentieth medal, moving into sole possession of the record. Masse called this "pretty special," adding that as many of her medals "were a part of relay teams so I feel very fortunate that I have such great teammates and have been given opportunities to race on relays in order to continue that count."

2025 season At the beginning of a new Olympic cycle, Masse declined to state whether she planned on continuing through to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, saying that she was "taking it moment by moment and figuring it out, and I'm not really putting any pressure on myself to commit to that at this point." She described herself as "pleasantly surprised" by her results at the national swimming trials.

Masse competed at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, with her first event being the 100 m backstroke. She qualified to the final third among the semi-finalists, but finished fourth in the final, 0.27 seconds behind bronze medalist Katharine Berkoff of the United States. The following day, she won a bronze medal swimming the backstroke leg for the Canadian team in the mixed medley relay. In her second individual event, the 50 m backstroke, Masse reached the final and finished fourth, 0.03 seconds behind Chinese bronze medalist Wan Letian.

2026 season Following the 2025 season, Masse returned to her hometown of LaSalle for the first extended period of time since 2014, remaining there for six months. This time away from training ultimately led to her recommitting to swimming, announcing that she aimed to compete at the 2028 Summer Olympics. After the 2026 national swimming trials, it was announced that she would be part of Canada's team for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, while sitting out the 2026 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

Honours and awards 2016 Lieutenant Governor Athletic Awards Toronto Varsity Blues Female Athlete of the Year: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 U Sports Female Athlete of the Month: February 2018

Personal bests Long course (50-metre pool) Event Time Venue Date Notes 50 m backstroke 27.18 2022 Canadian Worlds Swimming Trials, Canada April 6, 2022 NR 100 m backstroke 57.70 2020 Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials June 19, 2021 NR 200 m backstroke 2:05.42 Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Tokyo July 31, 2021 NR

Short course (25-metre pool) Event Time Venue Date Notes 50 m backstroke 25.62 Abu Dhabi December 17, 2021 100 m backstroke 55.22 Abu Dhabi December 15, 2021 NR 200 m backstroke 2:01.45 Eindhoven, Netherlands November 13, 2021 NR

International Swimming League (25-metre pool) Event Time Venue Date 50 m backstroke 26.19 Danube Arena November 2, 2020 100 m backstroke 56.06 Danube Arena November 6, 2020 200 m backstroke 2:01.76 Danube Arena November 5, 2020