2019 U SPORTS Swimming Championship Preview

2019 U SPORTS Odlum Brown Swimming Championships

The 2019 U SPORTS Swimming Championships kick off Thursday from Vancouver, British Columbia, as the best university swimmers in Canada will finish off their season and battle for the National titles.

The hosts from UBC come in as the two-time defending champs for both the men and women, with the women in particular having been dominant recently with six titles over the last seven years. Both Toronto Varsity Blue teams, who won swept the titles in 2016, have historically been UBC’s biggest challenge and are coming off Ontario titles a couple weeks ago.

The meet will uniquely feature prelims contested in short course metres and then finals in long course metres.

The most notable name in action will be Toronto’s Kylie Masse, who has arguably been the world’s best backstroker over the last two years with 100 back victories at the 2017 World Championships, 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships (with a 200 back win at the Commonwealth Games as well). She also broke the world record at those World Championships in a time of 58.10 (LC), a time that stood until last summer when American Kathleen Baker went 58.00 at the U.S. National Championships.

Masse will look for a fourth consecutive sweep of the backstroke events, and will also take on the 50 fly after she swam and won the 100 fly last season.

Other notable names in action include Olympic medalists Katerine Savard of Montreal and Emily Overholt of UBC.

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About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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