PARIS – From the end of a dramatic run for Canada’s women’s soccer team to the summer of Summer continuing, here are five things to know from Saturday at the 2024 Paris Games:
TRIPLE GOLD
Summer McIntosh stands alone in Canadian Olympic history. McIntosh won the women’s 200-metre individual medley in an Olympic-record time of two minutes 6.56 seconds to become the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a Games. The 17-year-old from Toronto won the 400 medley and 200 butterfly earlier this week. She may race in the medley relay on Sunday for more hardware. Elsewhere in the pool, Joshua Liendo and Ilya Kharun became the first Canadian male swimmers to podium in the same Olympic race with silver and bronze, respectively, in the 100 fly.
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BOWING OUT
The defending-champion Canadian women’s soccer team is out, and what a run it was. Canada fell in the quarterfinals 4-2 on penalty kicks to Germany after neither team scored in regulation or extra time. The Canadian women qualified out of their group despite a six-point deduction from FIFA after a drone-spying scandal that rocked the squad. Defender Vanessa Gilles played hero with late winners against France and Colombia to help embattled Canada win all three matches in the group stage.
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PULLING TOGETHER
Canada’s women’s eight team took a tough route to their Olympic silver medal. After finishing third in their heat, the defending Olympic champions had to qualify for the final by finishing second in a repechage race. But the team put in their best performance in Paris when it mattered most, holding off the powerful British team to finish second behind the dominant Romanians. Rower Avalon Wasteneys of Campbell River, B.C., says her teammates have fought through a lot of adversity since winning gold in Tokyo but had the belief they could pull together for a medal.
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NO HEIGHT HEARTBREAK
Damian Warner’s hopes to repeat as Olympic decathlon champion were dashed when he scored a “no height” in the pole vault. Warner, from London, Ont., hit the bar on all three of his attempts, He entered the vault, which was eighth in the gruelling 10-event competition, in second place. After failing to register any points in pole vault, he dropped to 18th and withdrew. Canada had hoped to dominate the decathlon in Paris, but world champion Pierce LePage of Whitby, Ont., pulled out with an injury shortly before the games began.
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FOILED FELIX
Felix Auger-Aliassime will have to settle for one bronze medal. Auger-Aliassime fell 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in the men’s singles bronze-medal match. Canada has never won an Olympic medal in tennis singles. The 23-year-old from Montreal did, however, win bronze Friday alongside Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski in mixed doubles. Before Paris, Canada’s only Olympic tennis medal came in 2000, when Daniel Nestor and Sébastien Lareau captured men’s doubles gold.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 3, 2024.