PARIS – Andre De Grasse equalled a Canadian standard for Canadian Olympic excellence on Friday, and, along with Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake and Brendon Rodney, helped his country do the same.
Canada’s men’s 4×100 relay team sprinted to victory to give Canada its seventh gold medal at the Paris Olympics. That tied the record for a non-boycotted Games Canadian athletes first set in 1992 and equalled three years ago in Tokyo.
It also gave Canada 23 medals overall. With Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson set to play in the women’s beach volleyball later Friday, Canada was guaranteed to finish Day 14 of the games equal with the 24 medals won in Tokyo. That was also a record for a non-boycotted Games.
It was also a measure of redemption for De Grasse. The 29-year-old from Markham, Ont., is now tied with swimmer Penny Oleksiak as Canada’s most decorated Olympian with seven medals (two gold, two silver, three bronze).
De Grasse failed to qualify for the finals of either the 200 metres, which he won in Tokyo, or the 100 in Paris after not missing a final — or a podium — in any of his previous Olympic events.
But Canada has proven to be a well-oiled machine in the relay. The four sprinters combined to win the world championship in 2022 in Eugene, Ore., and De Grasse, Rodney and Brown were relay silver medallists in Tokyo.
“It feels pretty amazing. To be out with these guys, my brothers, I’ve been with them since the beginning of time, so it’s amazing,” said De Grasse.
“We talked about this moment for years. It feels good to bring it to fruition. I’m super grateful.”
De Grasse also moved past Carl Lewis for second overall in career sprint and relay Olympic medals and is one short of the all-time mark set by the legendary Usain Bolt.
It was Canada’s second medal of the day after Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ont., teamed with Sloan MacKenzie of Windsor Junction, N.S., to take the bronze medal in the women’s sprint canoe double 500-metre final.
It’s Vincent’s second Olympic bronze in the event after finishing third with three years ago in Tokyo.
The Canadians lost the silver medal to the Ukrainians in a photo finish and posted a time of one minute 54.36 seconds. Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiia Rybachok had a late burst to take silver with 1:54.30.
China’s Shixiao Xu and Mengya Sun won gold with a time of 1:52.81. The Chinese beat the Olympic record they set in the semifinals after Vincent and MacKenzie set the Olympic mark in the heats.
“Oh, man. That Chinese crew, they’ve got it all figured out,” Vincent said. “They have been pretty perfect for the last three years, haven’t had a slip. So I’m honestly just so proud to see our sport at that level.”
There was disappointment as well, as Sarah Mitton failed to add to Canada’s throwing success when she finished last in the 12-athlete final of the women’s shot put.
Mitton, from Brooklyn, N.S., won silver in the event at the 2023 world championships and was considered one of Canada’s strongest medal contenders entering the Paris Games.
Also Friday, Derek Drouin of Corunna, Ont., was presented a silver medal in high jump from the London 2012 Olympics in a ceremony featuring athletes receiving reallocated medals from previous Games.
In women’s golf, Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., had an impressive third round to give herself an outside shot of a medal. Henderson shot 5-under Friday to give her a combined score of 2-under heading into Saturday’s final round.
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux led at 9 under, two strokes ahead of Rose Zhang of the United States and Japan’s Miyuu Yamashita.
“I mean, I’m still pretty far back, but it was nice to get the jump that I did today and move up as much as I did,” said Henderson, who moved 16 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 13th. “I feel like a lot can happen and (there could be) a lot of movement, especially on Sunday afternoon. So I feel like, right to the end, I’ll have a shot at it.”
In diving, Rylan Wiens of Pike Lake, Sask., was third in preliminaries and qualified for Saturday’s semifinal in the men’s 10-metre platform. Nathan Zsombor-Murray, of Pointe-Claire, Que., secured 10th place and also advanced.
The two Canadians teamed up to win the bronze medal in the synchro event earlier at the Games.
Drouin was among 10 past Olympians at the Trocadero who received new or upgraded medals in a ceremony. He originally finished third in London but was upgraded after Russia’s Ivan Ukhov was stripped of the gold for a doping violation.
Drouin said he didn’t have any negative feelings toward Ukhov, who he said was part of a Russian doping scandal that was “much more widespread than just any one individual athlete.”
“I don’t harbour any ill will toward him,” he said. “I don’t think really any individual athlete in this scenario can really be, or should really be, held accountable in the way that maybe other doping scandals have been.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2024.
