With the FINA Swimming World Cup making its return to "We The North" for the first time since the inaugural event back in the winter of 1988, Canadian athletes are making the most of hosting the premiere short-course athletes. Among this stacked swimming roster, here's a sensational seven from the Maple Leafs.

National Stars

Kylie Masse Windsor, Ontario

The 26-year-old Canadian has long been one of the most consistent backstrokers in the world over the last six years, winning medals at every major meet since the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Last year at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), she won three short-course silvers in all three backstroke distances, and this past summer at the 19th FINA World Championships, she was the gold medallist in the 50m backstroke as well as silver medallist in the 100m.

On the all-time fastest list, Masse is third in the 50m backstroke, sixth in the 100m and has shown no signs of slowing down at this stage of her impressive career. The Toronto stop will be extra special for Masse as the Windsor native has been living and training in Toronto since 2015.

Maggie Mac Neil – London, Ontario

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The 22-year-old from London, Ontario, has been one of the world’s most dominant swimmers over the past year. She was named Best Female Athlete of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the 2021 ANOC Awards after capturing gold in the 100-m butterfly - in a Canadian and the Americas record time - and helped Canada claim a pair of relay medals.

A few months later, at the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), Mac Neil broke the world record in the 50m backstroke as part of a five-medal tally (4-1-0), including a second individual triumph in the 100 fly. At last summer’s FINA World Championships in Budapest, she focused on relays and returned home with two silver medals and one bronze. 

Javier Acevedo – Toronto, Ontario

A 24-year-old Toronto native, Acevedo was one of the busiest Canadian swimmers at this summer’s FINA World Championships in Budapest. He was part of the mixed 4×100m freestyle relay team that broke the Canadian record and captured silver, competed in three other relay races, while also swimming in the individual 50m and 100m backstroke.

Budapest is also where he had claimed his first two world championship medals back in 2017, bronze in the 4×100m Mixed Freestyle and in the 4×100 Mixed Medley relays. A few weeks after the FINA World Championhips this past summer, the two-time Olympian had a strong showing at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, U.K., where he helped Canada claim three relay medals and also captured individual bronze in the 50m back, lowering his own Canadian record from five years earlier.

Summer McIntosh – Toronto, Ontario

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McIntosh became a household name to Canadian fans at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Trials held at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, winning gold in the 200m and the 800m freestyle to qualify for her first Olympic Games at the age of 14.

In her Olympic debut a few months later, the Toronto native barely missed the podium in the 400 free and the 4×200 free relay, finishing fourth in Canadian record time in both events. McIntosh resumed her international success at the 2021 FINA World Championships (25m), where she captured gold with the 4×200 free relay and added silver medals in the 4×100 medley and the 400 free.

At the 19th FINA World Championships, she broke the world junior record in the three individual events she swam and lowered the world junior 200m freestyle mark in the first leg of the 4x200m freestyle relay. The now 16-year-old returned home from Budapest with four medals, including individual titles in the 200 butterfly and the 200 IM.

Tessa Cieplucha – Georgetown, Ontario

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Cieplucha enters the 2022-23 season as the reigning world short course champion in the 400m Individual Medley, having captured gold in a personal best time last December in Abu Dhabi. At the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi (UAE), the 24-year-old from also swam in the preliminaries for the women’s 4×200 freestyle that went on to win gold and finished sixth in the 200 breaststroke thanks to another personal record.

At this summer’s FINA World Championships in Budapest, Cieplucha finished 11th in the 400m IM to improve from her 14th place in the event at Tokyo 2020, where she made her Olympic Games debut. She had previously been crowned 400m IM champion at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.

Josh Liendo – Markham, Ontario

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Liendo made his Olympic Games debut at Tokyo 2020, where he was a part of the men’s 4×100m freestyle relay that broke the Canadian record and finished fourth. He also swam the butterfly leg of the men’s 4×100m medley that placed seventh and competed individually in the 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle.

A few months later, the 20-year-old native of Markham, Ontario, collected three medals at the 2021 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi (UAE), including gold as a member of the mixed 4×50m freestyle relay team in Canadian record time as well as bronze in the 50m and 100m freestyle, the former thanks to another Canadian record performance.

Liendo added three more world medals last summer at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, where he captured bronze in the 100m freestyle and the 100m butterfly, while also helping the Canadian 4×100m mixed freestyle relay claim silver and break the Canadian standard.

Katerine Savard – Pont-Rouge, Quebec

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An Olympic bronze medallist from Rio 2016 in the 4×200m freestyle relay, the 29-year-old from Pont-Rouge, Quebec, has been representing Canada on the international scene since 2010 when she made her FINA World Swimming Championships 25m debut in Dubai (UAE).

Savard achieved sensational FINA World Championship success over the past few months. At the 2021 FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Abu Dhabi, the three-time Olympian helped Canada capture four relay medals, including gold in the women’s 4×100m freestyle, the women’s 4×200m freestyle and the 4×50m mixed freestyle relay.

Savard went on to reach the podium twice more last summer at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, where she swam in the women’s 4×200m freestyle relay that earned bronze and was a heat swimmer for the silver-medal-winning 4×100m freestyle relay.

Parting Shot

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