Homegrown talent Gabe Mastromatteo achieves Olympic dream with support of Kenora

by Ryan Stelter

Gabe Mastromatteo isn’t one to boast about his accomplishments, even if he has every right to do so. When applying for internships at the University of Toronto, where he’s studying commerce, the scholarships he’s received and all the accomplishments in the pool played second fiddle to his job experience at Kenora’s Home Hardware.

Mastromatteo told his mom and coach, Janet Hyslop, “I just don’t want to be a jock.”

School remains top of mind for the 19-year-old.

Reaching the Olympics was realizing a lifelong dream for Mastromatteo, who told Hyslop at the tender age of five that he wanted to make it on the world’s biggest stage. When Mastromatteo got out of the pool in Toronto at Olympic trials doing what he needed to make it, Hyslop said it was “glorious.”

“The overwhelming sense of pride that I have for the kid who has not just overcome the challenges of COVID-19, but having to train outside of Kenora, having to be creative with training, there was a sense of relief for him but also an immense sense of when you believe in something you can achieve it,” Hyslop said.

Through it all, Mastromatteo kept his head and performed his best when it mattered most.

Before heading into one of the biggest races of his already distinguished career—the 4x100 metre medley relay—on the final day of swimming at the Toyko Olympics, Mastromatteo was as cool as ice.

“I’ve done all the training, I know how to swim. I’m not going to forget how to swim all of a sudden,” he laughed. “Once I dive into the pool, I just start doing what I have to do.”

Mastromatteo already has a formula that works, and it has been working since he was a Kenora Swimming Shark taking laps at the Kenora Recreation Centre. However, while brushing shoulders with some of the world’s best men’s swimmers, he noticed one thing— their music selection.

“I switched mine up,” Mastromatteo said. “Usually everyone plays real amped up music. I heard the British team was playing some house music that I really liked, a couple of club mixes. I think I’m going to start using that instead. I really liked it.”

Mastromatteo and his Canadian teammates finished seventh in the relay, but he posted his best time in his specialty event—the breaststroke. He completed his leg in just under a minute at 59.67 seconds.

“It’s the fastest I’ve ever been in my 100 metre breaststroke. Overall, it was the best experience there,” he said.

“It was really cool just to see the four best swimmers from the eight best countries in the world.”

It’s a list on which Mastromatteo can now include himself, but he already has his eyes set on Paris.

“In 2024, it’ll be a bit more noticeable,” he chuckled.

To reach the summit of the Olympics, any athlete’s dream competition, Mastromatteo got his start in little ‘ol Kenora, the city of just over 15,000 people, nestled on the north shore of Lake of the Woods.

During the Olympics and the weeks following the sporting festival, Kenora woke up to plaster its windows and storefronts with messages of encouragement for Mastromatteo. Upon arriving back home, he was struck by how much support he got, as was his family.

“I hope that any athlete that achieves that level is celebrated in the same way,” Hyslop said.

“It was really impressive, just the scale of it and how many people took part in it,” added Mastromatteo. “It was pretty moving actually. I felt a lot of support coming back. It’s a pretty cool place to be from.”

As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, and it certainly takes a village to create an Olympic athlete. The City of Kenora played their part in helping Mastromatteo achieve his dream, opening the pool up for him to get some laps in.

Kenora is no stranger to star athletes, with the likes of Hockey Hall of Famers Silas Griffiths, Tom Hooper, 1972 Summit Series participant Gary Bergman, goaltender Rick St. Croix and more recently two-time Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Mike Richards.

And of course, that plucky Kenora Thistles team who won the Stanley Cup in 1907, of which Griffiths was a member.

With hockey usually taking the spotlight in Kenora, it can be a bit tougher for athletes in other sports trying to carve their own path. Having a one-track mind when it comes to sports is not ideal, according to Hyslop.

“I did not take that approach with my own kids,” she said. “As a coach, I had a very big shift in philosophy in really embracing multisport in a small community, which I think is essential.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic posing many challenges, Mastromatteo and Hyslop needed to find creative solutions to prepare for the Olympics. With gyms closed, Mastromatteo did a lot of weight training in his garage, sometimes slinging iron in frigid temperatures.

And much like the hockey greats who came before Mastromatteo, who plied their trade skating on the frozen Lake of the Woods, he was out there swimming in a wet suit as the ice retreated.

The lake shaped Mastromatteo.

Pretty hard not to be a swimmer in Kenora, you might not get very far in the lake, or have much fun in the summer,” he said. “It definitely helped out there, the motivation to just have fun with my friends in the summertime.

Mastromatteo has already put Kenora on the map in the swimming world with his exploits at the FINA World Junior Championships, as well as countless other international competitions.

But no matter where Mastromatteo may be in the world, he will always call Kenora home.

During his time in Kenora, he played volleyball, hockey and soccer while attending St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Growing up in a small town allowed Mastromatteo to go to hockey practice in the morning then hit the pool in the evening.

“It was really easy to stay motivated in Kenora,” he said. “I find a lot of people end up getting into these sports and not really loving what they’re doing.”

With Mastromatteo setting his sights on the next Olympics, when he and his teammates will try to emulate the women’s success in the pool in Tokyo, Hyslop said that any kid’s Olympic dream is possible. She stressed the importance of building relationships with your hometown coach, but also people in the community and drawing expertise from other people outside Kenora.

Gabe Mastromatteo is a shining example of the commitment and drive needed to make it to the top of the heap.

He did it right at home in Kenora, with some help along the way. an