Paris 2024 Olympics Day 3: McIntosh and Deguchi win Canada's first gold medals
Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray added a diving bronze on Monday.
O Canada played not once but twice at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Monday, as a pair of Canadian athletes reached the top step of the Olympic podium for the first time in their careers.
Canada’s first gold medal of Paris 2024 came from Christa Deguchi, who is the new champion in judo’s women’s -57kg category. The world number one defeated Huh Mi-mi of South Korea in the final to win Canada’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport.
After the four minutes of regulation time ended scoreless, sudden death was needed to decide the winner, where Huh picked up three penalties, automatically awarding the victory to the Canadian.
It was a bit of revenge for the 2024 World Judo Championships final, where Huh beat Deguchi in the final. Deguchi defeated Sarah Leonie Cysique of the host France in a gruelling semifinal, also in sudden death.
Deguchi was already Canada’s most successful female judoka, winning gold at the 2019 and 2023 world championships. Now she adds an Olympic title to a growing trophy case that also includes the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold.
Also in judo, Arthur Margelidon won his first two matches of the men’s 73kg event, but lost in the quarterfinal round, and again in the repechage round.
A few hours after Deguchi’s victory, 17-year-old swimming sensation Summer McIntosh claimed her second medal of Paris 2024, and the first Olympic gold of her career.
Competing in her signature event, the 400m individual medley, McIntosh dominated the competition, finishing in a time of 4:27.71, nearly six seconds faster than Katie Grimes of the United States. Emma Weyant, another American, finished third.
McIntosh’s lead grew bit by bit, leaving her opponents battling for second. That was perhaps to be expected from the back-to-back world champion and current world record holder, but that didn’t make it any less impressive.
She will have several more chances to win medals in Paris, adding to Monday’s gold and Saturday’s silver in the 400m freestyle. She will be a contender to be Canada’s closing ceremony flag bearer in a couple of weeks, and at age 17 still, catching her idol Penny Oleksiak’s Canadian record of seven Olympic medals at some point in her career seems like a real possibility.
Mary-Sophie Harvey narrowly missed the podium in the women’s 200m freestyle event, finishing fourth. Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm advanced from the semifinals of the 100m backstroke, and will be among the medal contenders for Tuesday’s final.
Also in the pool, the diving pool to be specific, Canada won another historic medal in the men’s synchronized 10m platform event for their first medal of the day. Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray won the country’s first-ever medal in that event with a third-place finish, scoring 422.13 points across six dives to finish third, behind China (490.35) and Great Britain (463.44) on the podium.
Wiens and Zsombor-Murray previously made history at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, winning Canada’s first ever world championship medal in the event with a bronze in Budapest. Now they have an Olympic medal to add to their collection.
Canada’s previous best Olympic results in the were fifth place finishes — at Athens 2004 by Alexandre Despatie and Philippe Comtois, and at Tokyo 2020 by Zsombor-Murray and his former partner Vincent Riendeau. It is Canada’s first Olympic medal in men’s diving since Beijing 2008, when Despatie finished second in the 3m springboard event.
One of the other major stories of Day 3 for Team Canada was the women’s rugby sevens team. After beating China in their final Pool A game, Canada upset the hosts France in the quarterfinals in front of nearly 70,000 fans at the Stade de France. Chloe Daniels scored the winning try with 53 seconds left in the match to send Canada to Tuesday’s semifinals and a chance to play for a medal that same day.
Canada’s women’s basketball team was less successful against France on Monday, falling 75-54 to the hosts in their Group B opener. Over in women’s water polo, Canada fell 12-7 to the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Hungary.
There were also mixed results for Canada on the now-beloved beach volleyball court at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson won their first match in Pool D action with a straight sets victory over Giuliana Poletti and Michelle Valiente of Paraguay, but over in Pool B the other Canadian duo, Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley lost in straight sets to Xue Chen and Xia Xinyi of China to fall to an 0-2 record.
Leylah Fernandez became the first Canadian woman to reach the third round of an Olympic women’s singles tennis event at on Monday, beating Cristina Bucsa of Spain in straight sets. Bianca Andreescu fell to Croatia’s Donna Vekic in straight sets after seemingly dealing with an injury, while Fernandez and Gabriela Dabrowski won their opening women’s doubles match over Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva of France. In the men’s doubles, Milos Raonic and Félix Auger-Aliassime were defeated in the first round by American duo Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz.
In artistic gymnastics, the Canadian men were competing in the team final for the first time ever. Canada had some standout performances on the vault and horizontal bar apparatus, but struggled with the pommel horse and rings among others and ended up finished eighth of eight teams.
Canada also finished eighth in the jumping portion of the equestrian eventing competition, and finished eleventh in the final overall standings following the dressage and cross country portions over the weekend. None of the Canadians qualified for the individual jumping final with the required top-25 finish, with Karl Slezak and horse Hot Bobo closest in 32nd, Mike Winter and El Mundo finishing 35th, and Jessica Phoenix finishing 38th alongside Freedom GS.
Three Canadians competed in the men’s street skateboarding competition, with Cordano Russell the only one to reach the final, finishing seventh. Matt Berger finished eleventh in the preliminary round, just missing out on qualification for the eight-man final, while Ryan Decenzo finished 18th.
In the boxing ring, Wyatt Sanford advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s 63.5kg competition, beating Bulgaria’s Radoslav Simeonov Rosenov by judge’s decision.
The women’s eight rowing team are the reigning Olympic champions, but will need to go through the repechage round to get back to the final after finishing third in their heat. Three years ago in Tokyo they also needed to go through the repechage en route to the gold medal. In lightweight double sculls, duo Jill Moffatt and Jenny Casson finished second in their repechage heat, booking their spot in the semifinals.
Brian Yang kicked off his men’s badminton singles group stage with a straight sets victory, while Michelle Li did the same in the women’s competition. Adam Dong and Nyl Yakura lost their third and final group match in men’s doubles, falling to Great Britain.
In men’s fencing, all three Canadian men lost their matches in the round of 32 of the individual foil event. Blake Broszus won his first round match but lost 15-9 to Italian Tommaso Marini in the second round, Maximilien Van Haaster lost 15-4 to Italian Guillaume Bianchi, and Daniel Gu lost to Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka Long after advancing from the first round as well. In the women’s individual sabre event, Pamela Brind'Amour lost 15-3 to Greece’s in the last 32.
Georgia and Antonia Lewin-Lafrance sit in 13th in the women’s sailing 49erFX class after six races, while Will Jones and Justin Barnes are 17th after six races in the men’s 49er event.
Alex Baldoni finished 15th in the semifinal of the men’s C-1 canoe slalom event, failing to advance to the final. Gunnar Holmgren was Canada’s lone representative in the men’s cross country mountain bike event, finishing 30th a day after his sister finished 17th in the women’s event.
What’s happening on Day 4?
After a huge Day 3 in Paris, Canada have a few big opportunities to add to their medal tally on Day 4, and a chance to inch closer to their goals in several sports.
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Tuesday at the Olympic Games. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every event.
The pool party continues on Tuesday, with Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm competing in the final of the women’s 100m backstroke. Masse is a two-time Olympic medallist in the event, winning a silver at Tokyo 2020 and a bronze at Rio 2016. Both of them have reached the podium in the event as well. Canada’s men’s 4x200m freestyle relay squad will also race in the heats on Tuesday morning looking to advance to that night’s final.
In rugby sevens, Canada will look to get back onto the podium again after winning the bronze medal at Rio 2016. Canada will play for a medal of some kind on Tuesday after causing a major upset in Monday’s quarterfinal against the hosts France. They will play Australia in the semis.
Canada’s women’s artistic gymnastics team will compete in the final of the team event for the first time since London 2012 on Tuesday, looking for a first ever medal in the event. Canada will be represented by Ellie Black, Shallon Olsen, Cassie Lee, Ava Stewart and Aurélie Tran.
After Christa Deguchi won Canada’s first judo gold medal on Monday, two more Canadian judokas will be in action on Tuesday. Francois Gauthier-Drapeau will begin in the round of 32 of the men’s 81kg against Portugal’s Joao Fernando, while Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard starts in the last 16 of the women’s 63kg event.
Tyler Mislawchuk and Charles Paquet will compete in the men’s triathlon, if it is allowed to go ahead after training sessions were cancelled due to water in the Seine River not being clean enough to meet regulations.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 3:
Eric Peters will compete in the individual 1/32 elimination round of the men’s individual recurve archery event against Kazakhstan’s Ilfat Abdullin.
Jeffrey Whaley will become the first Canadian to compete in BMX freestyle at the Olympics when he competes in the qualification round of the men’s park event, looking to make Wednesday’s final.
After beating Greece in their opening match, the Canadian men’s basketball team take on Australia in the second match of their Group A schedule.
The women’s 3x3 basketball team is also playing Australia, kicking off pool play.
After placing 20th overall in the women’s K-1 kayak slalom, Lois Betteridge hits the water in the first two heats of the C-1 canoe slalom event, looking to finish in the top 18 and advance to the semifinals and final on Wednesday. Alex Baldoni will compete in the men’s K-1 heats after competing in the C-1 semifinals on Monday.
Georgia and Antonia Lewin-Lafrance continue the women’s 49erFX sailing event with races seven through nine of the opening round, and currently sit in 13th place after six races. Justin Barnes and Will Jones, who are in 17th in the men’s 49er event, will also compete in races seven to nine of that event.
Ilya Kharun begins the men’s 200m butterfly swimming competition on Tuesday morning with the heats, looking to advance to that night’s semifinals, and eventually Wednesday’s final. Yuri Kisil and Josh Liendo will look to follow a similar path in the men’s 100m freestyle, as will Maggie MacNeil in the women’s event.
Leylah Fernandez will become the first Canadian to play in the third round of the women’s singles Olympic tennis tournament on Tuesday, facing Rio 2016 silver medallist Angelique Kerber of Germany in the round of 16. Félix Auger-Aliassime will be playing a German as well in the men’s singles second round, facing Maximilian Marterer before Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski take on Heather Watson and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain in the first round of the mixed doubles competition.
Canada’s men’s volleyball team continues Pool A action, taking on the hosts France.
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