Michelle Toro (néeWilliams; born January 2, 1991) is a Canadian competitionswimmer who specializes in thefreestyle in the sprint distances.[1] She won a gold medal in the2015 Pan American Games inToronto in the 4 x 100 m freestyle and in the 4 x 100 m medley relay.[2] She also won a bronze at the2014 Commonwealth Games in the 4 x 100 m freestyle.
She competed as part ofCanada's Olympic team for the2016 Summer Olympics, commonly known as Rio 2016.[3] Williams would help fellow CanadiansTaylor Ruck,Chantal van Landeghem andSandrine Mainville in the women's 4 x 100 m freestyle relay heats, with the team swimming the third fastest time. She then had to make way for teenage starPenelope Oleksiak in the final, where Oleksiak helped anchor the team to the bronze medal.[4] In an interview after the event, Williams said "we've come a long way, this group of us. It's our medal and it's our medal for Canada, it's just so amazing."[4]
Williams was born inPretoria,South Africa and speaks fluentAfrikaans alongsideEnglish, she often goes back to South Africa to visit her family inJeffreys Bay.[2] On December 17, 2016, shortly after theShort Course World Swimming Championships, she married her childhood teammate Guillermo (Billy) Toro.[5] They met when she was 12 and he was 14 at the North York Aquatic Club and started dating six years later.[5]
On December 7, 2020, the couple welcomed their first child, Jacob Murray Toro.
Toro's third child, named Samuel, was born in April 2024.
Canada
