When it comes to growing their medal count at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Canada got an early start on Friday.
This morning’s 500-metre sprint canoe final saw the Canadian duo of Katie Vincent and Sloan MacKenzie take home a bronze medal in a nail-biting race.
Katie Vincent and Sloan MacKenzie paddle to C-2 500m bronze medal at Paris 2024! 🌟🥉 https://t.co/r9PidzYAHl
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) August 9, 2024
With paddlers pushing hard until the finish line, the Canadian duo placed third with a time of 1:54.36. They missed out on the silver medal by just 0.06 of a second, which Ukraine picked up. Meanwhile, China topped the podium with a time of 1:52.81.
It was Vincent’s second Olympic medal on the second try. She won bronze with Laurence Vincent Lapointe at Tokyo 2020, the Olympics at which women’s canoe events made their debut.
Canada is also guaranteed another medal later today, with the beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson participating in the gold medal game.
After dropping the opening set, Canada faced a match point in the second set in yesterday’s semifinal against Switzerland. However, they rallied back and won the third and final set 15-12 to clinch a medal for Canada.
“There was no way that we were going to let that game finish without putting up a fight,” said Humana-Paredes. “We know that we had more in us, and we just stuck with it.”
The Olympics are closing in on their final weekend in Paris, with only a few more days of competition. The closing ceremony and the final medal events are set for Sunday, August 11.