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Historic Games conclude for Team Canada in the swimming pool at Paris 2024

It wasn’t the ending Team Canada was hoping for at Paris La Défense Arena.

On the final day of swimming competition at Paris 2024, both the Canadian men and women came up short of the podium in the 4x100m medley relays. The women nearly medaled, finishing fourth, while the men came in fifth.

While it was a disappointing ending, these Olympic Games will go down as one of the most successful for Team Canada in the pool. Canada will head home with eight swimming medals, matching their total from Montreal 1976 for the country’s second most ever. Canada won 10 swimming medals at Los Angeles 1984.

The total is also two better than what Canada won at Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016.

“It’s incredible,” Kylie Masse, one of the team captains, told CBC about the success at this year’s Games. “Thinking about when I started on the senior national team back in 2016 to now, to see the results that we’ve achieved as a program, and to see it just continuing to grow and the sport continuing to grow in the country is really beautiful. That’s what we all want to do, is to be able to inspire the next generation and inspire other Canadians to do what they love.”

Summer McIntosh hangs off the edge of the pool as her teammates reach over to her
Summer McIntosh, Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus, and Maggie Mac Neil react to their fourth place finish in the women’s 4x100m medley relay at Paris 2024. Photo by Candace Ward/COC

Four of those eight medals were won by Summer McIntosh, who captured three gold medals and a silver. McIntosh swam the anchor freestyle leg in the women’s relay and had Canada in second after 50m. But on the final lap, she was caught by Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan and China’s Yang Junxuan who went on to win silver and bronze, respectively.

The United States won gold in a world record time of 3:49.63. Canada’s time of 3:53.91 was just 0.68 seconds out of a podium spot.

“I think we all really left everything that we had in that pool,” McIntosh told CBC. “Going into Day 9, no one is feeling fresh, no one is feeling great. Just try to go out there and try our best for Team Canada.”

With this being the last swimming event in Paris, Canada loaded up its relay team, using Masse, Sophie Angus and Maggie Mac Neil along with McIntosh. Masse swam the first 100m of backstroke and had Canada in third. Angus swam the breaststroke leg followed by Mac Neil in the butterfly, which pushed Canada into second after 300m. It wasn’t until the final 50m that McIntosh was passed by Australia and China, putting the Canadians in fourth.

“Every race had been like that,” Mac Neil told CBC about the close finish. “The atmosphere has been electric while we’ve been here. We definitely tried to feed off that energy.”

Angus was the only team member that swam in both Saturday’s qualifiers and the final. In the qualifier, Ingrid Wilm swam backstroke, Angus did breaststroke, Mary-Sophie Harvey raced in the butterfly and Penny Oleksiak competed in the anchor leg of freestyle. That team had a time of 3:56.10 to win their heat. Only Australia posted a better time in qualifying.

Team Canada’s men's 4x100m medley relay team reacts at the wall
Team Canada’s men’s 4x100m medley relay team react after competing in the final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France on Sunday, August 4, 2024. Photo by Candice Ward/COC

Before the women, the team of Blake Tierney, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo competed in the men’s 4x100m medley relay final. The squad posted a time of 3:31.27 – nearly touching the Canadian record of 3:31.02 – to finish fifth, an improvement over their seventh place finish in Tokyo.

China won gold in the event while the United States took silver and France the bronze.

In Saturday’s qualifiers, Kharun, Tierney, Knox and Javier Acevedo finished fourth in their heat and seventh overall. The Canadians were as far back as seventh in their heat but a strong second half to the race by Kharun and Acevedo gave the team a time of 3:32.33, good enough to grab one of the final spots in the final.

Despite not medaling in the relay, the Canadian men leave Paris with three medals in the pool. The men’s side hadn’t medaled in any swimming event since London 2012.

While this was the final day of swimming inside Paris La Défense Arena, marathon swimming is still to come. Canada’s Emma Finlin will compete in Thursday’s 10km swim, which is planned to be held in the Seine at the Pont Alexandre III venue.

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