Swimming | Kylie Masse wins bronze in 200m backstroke

Swimming is a matter of hundredths of a second. For better, for worse.

Canadian Kylie Masse benefited from this. The woman who is potentially participating in her last Games in Paris won the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke. She finished the race with a microscopic lead of four hundredths of a second over American Phoebe Bacon, with a time of 2:05.57 s.

Australian Kaylee McKeowna won gold and American Regan Smith took silver.

Masse started the race strong. For the first 100 metres, she held the lead. But the Ontarian is not known for her endurance, so maintaining her lead was going to be a tall order. Little by little, she gave up her lead, slipping to third place.

In the final stretch of the race, Bacon regained her strength, so much so that it was impossible to know whether she had taken third place from Masse. It was not until the officials confirmed that Masse was able to celebrate her fifth career Olympic medal.

Windsor native Kylie Masse finished just off the podium in the 100m backstroke Tuesday, with Kaylee McKeown once again taking gold.

So close to bronze

While Masse was able to take advantage of a narrow lead to win bronze, Canadian Joshua Liendo believed in it until the end. The Ontarian was two hundredths behind Frenchman Florent Manaudou, who finished third in the 50m freestyle final.

Australian Cameron McEvoy took gold, and British Benjamin Proud took silver.

Liendo will have another chance to medal on Saturday when he competes in the 100m butterfly final. Canadian Ilya Kharun will also be in the mix.

Liendo failed to qualify for the 100m freestyle final after competing in the semifinals on Tuesday. The 21-year-old from Toronto is competing in his second Games.

Dominant Merchant

Another Canadian, Finlay Knox, competed in the 200m medley. He finished the race in eighth and last place.

French superstar Leon Marchand triumphed, followed by Britain’s Duncan Scott, while China’s Wang Shun took the final step of the podium.

Knox was part of Canada’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, which finished 6th in the event.^e rank.