SportsOlympics

Canada wins another medal on busy day at Paris Olympics

Noah Strang
Noah Strang
|
Jul 31 2024, 11:49 pm
Canada wins another medal on busy day at Paris Olympics
Candice Ward/COC

Canada added another medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Wednesday, keeping their streak of at least one podium finish everyday alive.

It came in the pool when Montreal native Ilya Kharun pulled out a spectacular performance in the men’s 100m butterfly to earn a bronze medal.

Canada now has seven medals, including two golds, two silvers, and three bronzes. It ranks ninth among all competing nations in both total medals and gold medals.

Today also featured a huge soccer victory, some impressive performances on the tennis court, and much more. Keep reading for a full breakdown of Canada’s performance in Paris this Wednesday.

Swimming

The nation’s biggest result of the day came in the pool when Kharun swam an amazing race to earn a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly. It’s the first Olympic medal of the 19-year-old’s career.

It’s also the first medal by a male Canadian swimmer at the Olympics since the London 2012 Games, more than a decade ago.

Kharun’s parents were in the crowd to watch the teenager earn his medal. His time set a new Canadian record, breaking the old mark, which he had also set, by more than a second.

While Kharun earned Canada’s only medal in the pool today, it was far from the only impressive performance.

Summer McIntosh, who already has two medals at these Olympics, qualified for the 200m butterfly finals tomorrow at 2:30 pm ET/11:30 AM.

She posted one of the fastest times in qualifying today and looks to have a great chance to add to her medal collection.

Soccer

The Canadian women’s soccer team pulled out a third consecutive victory to sweep group play and advance to the knockout round. They beat Colombia 1-0 today to finish second in their group, securing a game against Germany in the quarter-finals.

Vanessa Gilles scored the game’s lone goal in the 61st minute to secure Canada’s victory. It was all they needed as they held onto the clean sheet to steal all three points.

Canada won every game in the group stage but finished with just three points. As punishment for the spying scandal, they were given a six-point penalty.

It’s been a remarkable run for a team that has had everything that could go wrong, go wrong. They’ve shown an incredible amount of resilience and still have a chance to defend their gold medal from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Basketball

The Canadian women’s three-on-three basketball team picked up their second straight win in a game against China.

The game was not particularly close, as Canada won by double-digits, finishing with a 10-point margin of victory. The Canadians are now 2-0 and have one more group-stage game against Germany.

Triathlon

The triathlon competition at the Paris Olympics, which was delayed due to unsanitary conditions in the Seine River, finally took place today.

Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk came ninth, while teammate Charles Paquet finished 13th in the men’s event.

Emy Legault finished in 35th place for Canada in the women’s competition.

Diving

Canadians Caeli McKay and Kate Miller had a heartbreaking finish in the women’s 10m springboard competition.

They finished in fourth place, just a few points away from a podium result. The two athletes were clearly disappointed and spoke candidly in an emotional interview.

“I thought today was a strong showing, but it wasn’t our best. But I’m proud of both of us… Fourth place is hard… and I think we’ve already won by being here,” said McKay.

Rowing

Canada also had a heartbreaking rowing finish, with one of their boats not making it as far as they were hoping.

Jill Moffatt and Jenny Casson competed in the lightweight double sculls event but failed to make the final after finishing fifth in their semi-final heat.

After the race, the two were both emotional and gave a very raw interview.

“There were a lot of people who went out of their way to support us here and we feel like we’ve let them down so it’s pretty hard,” said Casson.

“To see it unfold in a pretty disastrous way, it feels a little bit like whiplash and like how Tokyo felt. So it’s been really tough,” continued Moffatt.

Water polo

The Canadian women’s water polo squad picked up their first victory of the event with a 12-7 win over China. They got off to an early lead and managed to ride it all the way to the end.

The team now has one win and one loss, as they fell to Hungary earlier in the event. They have one more group-stage game against Australia on August 2.

Tennis

Canada showed up on the tennis court on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics. Félix Auger-Aliassime beat the highly rated Daniil Medvedev, who is playing without a nation, in straight sets.

It was the first time that Auger-Aliassime had defeated Medvedev in eight career contests. The game was suspended at one point due to weather but that didn’t seem to slow down the Canadian.

Auger-Aliassime will now face off against another talented young player, Casper Ruud, in the quarter-finals. That game takes place tomorrow at 6 am ET / 3 AM PT.

He is guaranteed Canada’s best result in tennis singles at the Olympics since it returned to the Games in 1988.

The Canadian tennis star also teamed up with Gabriela Dabrowski later in the day to win the mixed doubles event. The duo beat Americans Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff to advance to the next round, and they’ll also play tomorrow morning in the semi-finals.

Boxing

Canadian Tammara Thibeault was on the wrong end of a shocking upset when she lost on points to Cindy Ngamba from the refugee team.

Thibeault has a long history of success at the top level, including a fifth-place finish at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and a victory at the 2022 world championships. She had a 25-fight win streak entering today but is now out of the competition after the shocking result.

Gymnastics

Rene Cournoyer and Felix Dolci both competed in the men’s individual all-around final today in gymnastics.

Dolci had a tough time in the final, falling to the mat twice when attempting different moves.

Dolci finished 20th overall in the event, and Cournoyer finished 17th.

Beach volleyball

The Canadian duo of Sam Schachter and Dan Dearing faced off against a team from Brazil today.

They couldn’t manage to pull out the victory and now have lost both of their two games, leaving them at the bottom of their group. They have another game against Austria scheduled for August 2 but look unlikely to advance.

The women’s duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson also played today against a team from Switzerland. They also lost, by a score of two games to one, and now have a 1-1 record through the first two games of group play.

They face off against an Australian team tomorrow.

Noah StrangNoah Strang

Noah Strang is a sports reporter from Vancouver, British Columbia. In the past, he has worked covering the Vancouver Canucks and Las Vegas Raiders for a variety of publications including CanucksArmy and Vegas Sports Today.

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