It doesn’t get much closer than this. Joshua Liendo was agonizingly close to bringing home another Olympic medal for Canada from the pool in Paris today.
It would have been the first Olympic medal of his career, though all is not lost.
..More on that in a moment.
The 21-year-old Toronto swimmer finished fourth in the 50-metre freestyle with a time of 21.58 seconds. That was just 0.02 seconds behind Florent Manaudou of France, who won bronze. Cameron McEvoy of Australia (21.25 seconds) and Great Britain’s Benjamin Proud (21.30 seconds) took home gold and silver, respectively.
Natation 🏊 : le Canadien Josh Liendo 🇨🇦 termine 4e au 50 m libre.
🥇 Cameron McEvoy 🇦🇺
🥈 Benjamin Proud 🏴
🥉 Flaurent Manaudou 🇫🇷#Paris2024 #RCsports #jeuxolympiques #natation pic.twitter.com/PJvLpQbrYt— Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) August 2, 2024
Liendo was lucky to qualify for the final in the first place. The Canadian finished with the ninth-fastest time in the semi-final but got into the eight-swimmer final after Maxime Grousset of France scratched, opting to skip the final.
This is the second Olympics for Liendo, who finished 18th in this event in Tokyo.
Liendo has a great chance to get onto the podium tomorrow, though, in the 100-metre butterfly final. He posted the third-fastest time in the semis today and was just 0.04 seconds behind Kristof Milak of Hungary for the fastest time.
Canada won three medals in Paris today. Kylie Masse (swimming), Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gaby Dabrowski (tennis), and Sophiane Methot (trampoline) all landed on the podium.