Canada wins four medals in most successful Olympic day yet

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Today marked Canada’s best showing so far at the Paris 2024 Olympics, as they were able to secure four more medals.

It was another great showing for Canada, particularly when it came to swimming, where they racked up all three of today’s medals. It also featured a rare double-podium finish, the first in the Summer Olympics for the nation since Montreal 1976.

Canada is now tied with Germany for 10th in gold medals amongst all countries with four, and are alone in ninth for total medals with 15. Here is a look at the highlights from the top Canadian athletes today.

Swimming

The first two medals in today’s swimming events came courtesy of 21-year-old Josh Liendo and 19-year-old Ilya Kharun. The two were both competing in the 100m butterfly, where they made their nation extremely proud.

Liendo was able to win silver in the event, finishing with a time of 49.99 seconds. In doing so, he became the first Black Canadian to win an Olympic swimming medal.

Kharun, who is competing in his first Olympic Games, was able to pick up a bronze in the event with a time of 50.45 seconds. The double-podium finish was one of two major swimming successes for Canada today.

Shortly after Liendo and Kharun’s finish, Summer McIntosh picked up her third gold medal of the Olympics. The 17-year-old trailed USA’s Katie Douglass going into the final 50m of the 200m medley, but was able to pull off an epic comeback to get the job done.

Meanwhile, Penny Oleksiak, the most decorated Olympian in Canadian history, will have a chance to add an eighth medal to her collection tomorrow after herself, Ingrid Wilm, Sophie Angus, and Mary-Sophie Harvey won their heat in the women’s relay. The final will get underway at 1:26 pm ET / 10:26 am PT.

Rowing

While many in Canada were still sound asleep, the women’s eight rowing team were able to pick up a silver medal.

Canada’s boat featured Jessica Sevick, Caileigh Filmer, Maya Meschkuleit, Kasia Gruchulla-Wesierski, Avalon Wasteneys, Sydney Payne, Kristina Walker, Abby Dent, and Kristen Kit. The group was able to finish the 2000m course with a time of 5:58.84, finishing just slightly behind the gold medal winning Romanians who had a time of 5:54.39.

While there was plenty of triumph today for Canadians, however, there was also some disappointment in the following events.

Soccer

The journey for the Canadian women’s soccer team came to an end today, as they fell in the quarterfinal against Germany.

This game came right down the wire, as the two sides went scoreless through 90 minutes, resulting in penalty kicks to decide the winner.

The first three shooters found the back of the net for both teams, but both Ashley Lawrence and Adriana Leon went on to be denied by German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger. Berger went on to seal the win, firing one in the low right corner to seal Canada’s fate.

It was quite the tumultuous run for the women’s team, who had major controversy thrown their way before the tournament even began due to the drone spy scandal. Despite being deducted six points, however, they were able to scratch and claw their way into the quarterfinal in what was an extremely impressive run.

Tennis

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime entered the day with a chance to win his second bronze medal of the Olympics, having won bronze in mixed doubles with Gabriela Dabrowski on Friday.

It wasn’t meant to be, however, as despite winning the first set over Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, he wound up to lose the second set 6-1 and the final 6-3. While the result wasn’t what he had hoped, it was a valiant effort for the 23-year-old up against the world No. 15 Musetti.

Athletics

Canadian Damian Warner knew he had some work to do in order to repeat as the gold medal winner of the decathlon. The 34-year-old had an up and down opening day, ending in fourth place but still giving himself a shot to compete for gold.

“I have what it takes and know I can get it done,” he said to CBC reporter Devin Heroux.

Warner’s fate was sealed when he failed to clear the 4.60m target in the pole vault portion of the event, resulting in no points earned. The result eliminated him from medal contention.

Warner, who was clearly devastated by the mishap, went on to withdraw from the final two events a short time later.

Another mishap on the track occurred early in the day, when Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown was disqualified in the 100m after a false start. He’ll have a chance to redeem himself, however, as he is set to compete in the 200m relay, as well as the 4×100 relay, this coming week.

There was some positives for Canada on the track, however, as Andre De Grasse put forth a time of 10.07 to finish third in the penultimate heat. The time allowed him to knock off Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi by just one-hundredth of a second for the final qualifying spot.

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