Dozens of children leaned on the railing of the Toronto Pan Am Sports Center gallery, shouting at their swimming heroes, begging for an autograph.
“Magic! “Kylie!” “Penny!” “Summer!” “Sydney! »
The choir of young voices was at its peak when Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., won the women’s 100-metre butterfly in 54.78 seconds on Sunday to set a World Cup record and break her own Canadian record.
The reigning Olympic and world short course champion also finished the weekend as the overall winner, with 58.5 points.
It was the third victory of the competition for Mac Neil after reaching the podium in the 50m backstroke on Friday and the 50m butterfly on Saturday.
“It makes me so proud,” Mac Neil, 22, said on the pool deck as the children called to him. “I’m still getting used to my role, but I hope to make everyone proud.
“It means so much to have their support, and it’s great to have them cheered on in the crowd this weekend.”
WATCH | Mac Neil wins gold in the 100m butterfly:
Sweden’s Louise Hansson (55.02) and Brazil’s Giovanna Tomanik Diamante (57.41) completed the podium in the women’s 100-metre butterfly.
Katerine Savard (57.68) of Pont-Rouge, Que., was fourth.
Canada finished with five gold, nine silver and seven bronze at the World Cup, just behind the United States.
American Beata Nelson (2:00.50) won gold in the women’s 200-metre backstroke, with the Canadians taking the next three spots.
Kylie Masse of LaSalle, Ont., took silver in 2:02.21, Summer McIntosh of Toronto (2:02.85) took bronze and Ingrid Wilm of Calgary finished just behind the podium in 2:02.94.
Masse is now fourth in the overall women’s standings for the season. She hopes the event will inspire young children to pursue their dreams and see what they can achieve in swimming.
“I think that’s the end goal,” Masse said after signing swim caps, floats, flags and even winter coats. “It would be amazing to see swimming in Canada look like hockey or soccer or baseball, basketball.
“I think that’s something that we all hope for and hope that we can leave an impact and a legacy in this sport so that swimming becomes more popular in Canada.”
More medals for Kylie Masse and Summer McIntosh 🥈 🥉
Masse swam to second place, while McIntosh finished third in the 200m backstroke final 🇨🇦https://t.co/HcDPQfSU1B pic.twitter.com/L0K0fhvYKD
Nelson also won gold in the women’s 200 individual medley clocking 2:05.08 to finish second in the overall women’s standings over the weekend with 58.3 points. Sydney Pickrem of Halifax was second in 2:05.23 and McIntosh earned his second medal of the day in 2:06.57.
Bailey Andison of Smiths Falls, Ont. was fourth, Kelsey Wog of Winnipeg was fifth, Ashley McMillan of Penticton, B.C. was sixth, Ella Jansen of Burlington, Ont. was seventh and Mary-Sophie Harvey of Laval, Que., finished eighth.
Sydney Pickrem and Summer McIntosh finish Toronto World Cup stage on podium 🥈🥉
Pickrem finished 2nd and McIntosh 3rd in the women’s 200m QNI 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/RtNEcdWzWF
Pickrem trained at the east Toronto facility for nearly 18 months during the heaviest days of the pandemic. She said it was exciting to finally compete in front of Canadian fans and show how Swimming Canada’s program has grown over the past four years.
“I think it’s amazing for Canada to see this high level of competition,” she said after signing autographs. “Knowing that Canada is in the game and we have been for the past two years and it’s really cool to bring it home for them.”
Other notable Canadian results include Javier Acevedo of Toronto who was fourth in the men’s 100-metre backstroke, Josh Liendo of Markham, Ont., who was sixth in the men’s 50-metre butterfly, Sophie Angus who placed seventh in the women’s 50-metre breaststroke, and Mac Neil was fifth in the women’s 100-metre freestyle.
Indianapolis will host the next leg of the World Cup Nov. 3-5.
WATCH | FINA Swimming World Cup in Toronto – Evening session of day 3:
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