'I have the will to live': N.B. woman needs double lung transplant
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Kylie Masse set the pace in a lightning-fast women's backstroke final to emerge with an Olympic silver medal.
The 25-year-old from LaSalle, Ont., led at the halfway turn in the 100-metre backstroke with the fastest first length of her life.
Australia's Kaylee McKeown caught Masse at the wall to take gold by just over two tenths of a second.
Both women went under the Olympic record set in the previous day's semifinals by bronze medallist Regan Smith of the U.S.
"I knew it was an incredibly challenging and talented field of backstrokers that have been swimming crazy-fast this whole year, so I knew it was going to be a battle," Masse said.
"I'm proud of myself to get on the podium tonight."
Her medal was the third in as many days for the Canadian women's swim team following Maggie Mac Neil's gold in the 100-metre butterfly Monday and a freestyle relay silver Sunday.
Toronto's Penny Oleksiak and Sydney Pickrem of Clearwater, Fla., qualified for the 200-metre freestyle and 200-metre individual medley finals respectively Tuesday. They'll race Wednesday morning local time (Tuesday evening in Canada).
McKeown's winning time was two hundredths of a second off her world record of 57.47 seconds. Masse's 57.72 was two hundredths back of her career-best in June's Olympic trials.
Masse (pronounced Moss) is a double world champion in 100 backstroke, having claimed titles in 2019 in Gwangju, South Korea, and 2017 in Budapest.
The global COVID-19 pandemic upended Masse's swimming life for over a year leading into Tokyo, so the Canadian was philosophical about missing out on gold.
"It would have been incredible to have gotten gold. I would have absolutely loved that," Masse said. ""I went the second-fastest time that I've ever gone and I have to be happy with that. I'm proud of that in an Olympic final.
"After such a crazy year, I don't think you can be too hard on yourself."
Masse's home pool is at the University of Toronto, where she trains under coaches Linda Kiefer and Bryon MacDonald.
With that pool closed for much of the COVID-19 pandemic, she relocated to Toronto's Pan Am Sports Centre last year to join a training group overseen by Ben Titley.
When the first wave of the pandemic shut down all pools for weeks in the spring of 2020, Masse got into a harness and tethered herself to a fence so she could swim in place in her parents' backyard pool.
"Everyone's faced challenges this year," Masse said. "Some more than others. I don't want to ever use that as an excuse. I did everything I possibly could."
Masse felt she was able to compensate for a lack of races over the last year with an unprecedented volume of training.
"That helped me go 57 (seconds) early in the year and helped me go 57 now," she said. "That's the fastest I've been in five years.
"I know that the training that I've done this last year, even (with) all of the obstacles, has been successful and some of the best training I've had in my life."
Masse tied for Olympic bronze with China's Fu Yuanhui in Rio in 2016.
The only other women in the world to win multiple career medals in 100 backstroke are American Natalie Coughlin, Krisztina Egerszegi of Hungary and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.
Toronto's Summer McIntosh, the youngest athlete on Canada's Olympic team at 14, placed ninth in the 200-metre freestyle semifinal Tuesday to finish just outside the top eight advancing.
Women's 1,500-metre freestyle made its Olympic debut in Tokyo. Katrina Bellio, a 16-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., finished 21st.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2021.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.