Paris 2024 Olympics Day 6: Summer McIntosh golden again in the pool
Canada has won at least one medal on all six days at Paris 2024 so far.
Summer McIntosh is golden again.
Canada’s superstar swimmer claimed her second gold medal of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Thursday, winning the women’s 200m butterfly in an Olympic record time of 2:03.03. Her time is also the new Canadian record and new world junior record. It was Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the event, 40 years after McIntosh’s mother Jill Horstead competed in 200m fly at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The 17-year-old is the first Canadian swimmer to win multiple gold medals at a single Olympics since Alex Baumann at Los Angeles 1984. She also took gold in her signature event, the 400m individual medley, and added a silver medal in the 400m freestyle.
Also in the pool, Canada finished in fourth in the women’s 4x200m relay — represented by McIntosh, Mary-Sophie Harvey, Ella Jansen, and Julie Brousseau. Emma O'Croinin swam in the heats in place of McIntosh but was replaced for the final.
Kylie Masse qualified for Friday’s women’s 200m backstroke final, while Regan Rathwell was eliminated in the heats. Finlay Knox raced in the men’s 200m individual medley semis, and was able to qualify in the eighth and final spot for Friday’s final. Joshua Liendo initially narrowly missed out on the men’s 50m freestyle final, coming in ninth — five hundredths of a second away from eighth and final spot — but French swimmer Maxime Grousset scratched from the race, so Liendo will compete in his first Olympic final on Friday.
In the first athletics event of Paris 2024, Evan Dunfee finished fifth in the men’s 20km race walk, finishing just five seconds back of the podium. He will have another chance to compete next week, when he teams up with Olivia Lundman in the Olympic debut of the marathon walk relay.
Félix Auger-Aliassime will play for two tennis medals at Paris 2024. He beat Casper Ruud in three sets 6-4, 6-7 (8), 6-3 in the quarterfinals, guaranteeing himself a chance to play for either gold or bronze. Later on Thursday he and Gaby Dabrowski played in the mixed doubles semifinals, losing to Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac. The mixed doubles bronze medal match will be on Friday.
Canada nearly won a bronze medal in fencing on Thursday, falling 33-32 in a tight bronze medal match against Japan after beating France in the quarterfinals but losing to the United States in the semis. Canada’s team was made up of Eleanor Harvey (who won an individual foil bronze medal on Sunday for Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the sport), Jessica Guo, and Yunjia Zhang, and tied the nation’s best ever Olympic result in any team fencing event.
Reigning Olympic champions Canada are back into the women’s eight rowing final, finishing second in their repechage heat on Thursday to give themselves a chance to defend their crown.
Wyatt Sanford secured Canada’s first Olympic medal in boxing in 28 years, beating Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan in Thursday’s quarterfinal bout in the men’s 63.5kg weight class. There is no bronze medal fight in Olympic boxing, so he is guaranteed at least a bronze, but he will be looking to beat Frenchman Sofiane Oumiha in the semifinals to ensure it’s either silver or gold that he’s bringing back to Canada. Oumiha was the Rio 2016 silver medallist.
Ellie Black placed sixth in the women’s artistic gymnastics individual all-around final, the second-best result ever by a Canadian, beaten only by her own fifth-place finish at Rio 2016. Black impressed in the vault, uneven bars, and floor routine parts of the competition, but a fall on the balance beam played a role in her missing the podium by 1.666 points. Ava Stewart placed 19th in her first Olympic all-around final.
Corey Conners and Nick Taylor competed in the first round of the men’s golf competition, sitting in 14th and 29th so far, respectively. Conners shot a 3-under-par 68 in the opening round, with Taylor two strokes behind with a 1-under-par 70 round.
Molly Simpson advanced to the semifinals of the women’s BMX racing event, placing fourth overall in the quarterfinal standings after finishing second in each of her three races. The semifinals and final go on Friday.
In 3x3 basketball, Canada lost 19-15 to Germany to begin the day, but bounced back in their second match of the day to beat the hosts France 13-9. In the traditional five-against-five variant of the game, Canada was defeated 70-65 by Australia, falling to 0-2 and sitting bottom of Group B.
Canada’s equestrian jumping team finished 14th in the qualifying round of the team event, failing to advance to the final.
In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Sophie Bukovec and Heather Bansley lost a third match in a row in straight sets, this time against Australian duo Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho to finish bottom of Pool B and not move onto the knockout rounds.
Brian Yang lost his second Group A match in the men’s singles badminton event, falling in straight sets to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto. He finished the group stage in second place with a 1-1 record, behind Nishimoto, and was eliminated from the competition.
Virginie Chénier was eliminated in the last 32 of the women’s individual recurve archery event, losing 6-2 to Indonesia’s Rezza Octavia. Shannon Westlake finished 32nd in the qualification round of the women’s 50m rifle three positions and did not advance to the final.
Only one of the two scheduled races went ahead in the women’s sailing ILCA 6 class, and Canada’s Sarah Douglas finished in 23rd place. Race two was rescheduled for Friday, when races three and four will take place as well.
Shady Elnahas was upset by Switzerland’s Daniel Eich in the men’s -100kg judo event in the round of 16, ending his competition earlier than he had hoped for.
What’s happening on Day 7?
The first week of the Olympics wraps up on Friday, with Canadians competing in several events, including reigning decathlon champion Damian Warner beginning his title defence.
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Friday at the Olympic Games. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every event.
It’s a busy night in the pool on Friday. Kylie Masse will race in the women’s 200m backstroke final on Friday evening, looking to build on her silver medal in the event from Tokyo 2020. Reigning world champion Finlay Knox will compete in the men’s 200m individual medley final after nabbing the final spot in the final during Thursdays semis. Josh Liendo will compete in his first Olympic final, the men’s 50m freestyle, after he was bumped up into the final when another competitor withdrew.
Félix Auger-Aliassime and Gaby Dabrowski take on Dutch pair Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof in the tennis mixed doubles bronze medal match.
In athletics, Mohammed Ahmed will compete in the men’s 10,000m race. Ahmed finished sixth in the event at the Tokyo Olympics and both the 2022 and 2023 world championships, and will be hoping to move up a few spots in Paris. Ahmed won a silver in the 5000m race at Tokyo 2020.
Molly Simpson races in the semifinals of the women’s BMX races on Friday morning, hoping to advance to the final later in the day.
Sophiane Méthot will compete in the qualification round of the women’s trampoline event, with the top eight competitors moving on to the final later in the day.
Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi will make her Olympic judo debut on Friday, starting in the last 32 of the women’s +78kg event. She takes on Nicaraguan judoka Izayana Marenco in that round, looking to advance through the competition ahead of the final later that night.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 7:
The first five events in the men’s decathlon go on Friday, with Canada’s Damian Warner looking to repeat as Olympic champion after setting the Olympic record with 9018 points. Friday’s events will be the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, and 400m. Warner was also the 2023 world championship silver medallist behind fellow Canadian Pierce LePage, but LePage was forced to pull out of the Olympics after he sustained a disc herniation in April that will require surgery before the 2025 season.
Also in athletics, reigning hammer throw world champion Ethan Katzberg makes his Olympic debut on Friday when he competes in the qualifying round for the men’s event alongside fellow Canadians Rowan Hamilton and Adam Keenan — looking to book themselves spots in Sunday’s final. On the track, Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and Kieran Lumb compete in the first round of the men’s 1500m event, Jazz Shukla races in round one of the women’s 800m, and Briana Scott in the first round of the women’s 5000m.
Félix Auger-Aliassime will play Spanish superstar Carlos Alcarez in the semifinals of the men’s tennis singles tournament, looking to advance to the final against either Novak Djokovic of Serbia or Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.
Summer McIntosh looks to add to her three medals already won in Paris, racing in the heats of the 200m individual medley on Friday morning, trying to advance to the evening’s semifinals — joined in the heats by fellow Canadian Sydney Pickrem. Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun will race in the heats of the men’s 100m butterfly in the morning, two days after Kharun won a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly. Canada will also swim in the heats of the mixed 4x100m medley relay, ahead of the final on Saturday.
The men’s basketball team will complete their Group A schedule against Spain, looking to stay undefeated and seal top spot in the group after wins against Greece and Australia.
The women’s 3x3 basketball team will also be taking on Spain, in their second round robin game of the day. Earlier on Friday they are scheduled to play the United States.
Daniel Dearing and Samuel Schachter wrap up their preliminary round in the men’s beach volleyball competition against Austrian duo Julian Hörl and Alexander Horst.
The men’s and women’s kayak cross events will make their debut at the Olympic Games on Friday, with the time trial round to decide the rankings for the first elimination round on Saturday. Alex Baldoni and Lois Betteridge will compete in the men’s and women’s events, respectively.
Nick Taylor and Corey Conners will play in round two of four in the men’s golf tournament.
Jill Moffatt and Jennifer Casson will compete together in the B final of the last women’s lightweight double sculls event at the Olympics before it is taken off the rowing program for the Los Angeles 2028 Games. No medals are on the line in the B final, but the race will determine the final rankings for the athletes that didn’t make it to the medal race.
Sarah Douglas competes in races two, three, and four of the women’s ILCA 6 sailing preliminary round.
The Canadian women’s water polo team continues Group A action with a match against Australia.
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