Favourite Toronto Star Sports Photos of the Year

“Photography can trigger a lot of emotion and memories and that’s how it is for me whenever I shoot swimming. I used to be a competitive swimmer and sometimes, when I watch a race, I get flashbacks. Oddly enough, my strongest memories are in my worst stroke — the backstroke. Sometimes it’s coming off the start or perhaps the turns, and other times it’s the distorted, sometimes magnified view of the ceiling of whatever pool I was competing in. So it was great fun for me when I captured superstar Canadian backstroker Kylie Masse just about to break that surface tension in the water, when those distorted views are at their strongest, during the heats for the FINA Swimming World Cup at the Pan Am Sports Centre in October.”

Photo taken by Steve Russell