Paris 2024 Olympics Day 12: Alysha Newman makes history with women's pole vault bronze
Field athletes continue to put on a show for Team Canada.
Canadian field athletes continue to put on a show in week two of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The day after Camryn Rogers became Canada’s first women’s hammer throw Olympic champion, Alysha Newman became the first Canadian woman to win a pole vault medal at the Olympics, finishing third in Wednesday’s final. They followed Ethan Katzberg winning the men’s hammer throw on Sunday, with shot putter Sarah Mitton still yet to compete as well — although that will change on Thursday.
Competing at her third Olympic Games, Newman reached the final for the first time with a jump of 4.55 in the qualification round, but needed to up that by a lot to get onto the podium in the final. Her personal outdoor best, and the Canadian record, coming into Paris 2024 was 4.82m, and she beat it by clearing 4.85, one of just three athletes to do so to guarantee a medal. Nina Kennedy of Australia took gold, the only one to clear 4.90, while American Katie Moon also jumped 4.85 but had the edge over Newman after having fewer missed attempts at earlier heights.
Newman’s bronze is the first medal for Canada in pole vault since the Stockholm 1912 Games, and the first by a Canadian woman. Her feat comes after several years battling injuries — including an ankle sprain at the World Athletics Indoor Championship earlier this year that forced her to miss 12 weeks, and trying to compete through a concussion at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Her story is one of resilience, and she now has the Olympic hardware she has fought so hard for.
A Canadian record was also set in the inaugural Olympic marathon race walk mixed relay, with Evan Dunfee and Olivia Lundman walking to a time of 3:04:57 in Lundman’s Olympic debut. The pair were aiming for a top-20 finish and nailed it, crossing the line in exactly 20th.
Jean-Simon Desgagnés finished 13th in the men’s steeplechase final in his Olympic debut, in a time of 8:19.31.
Reigning world champion Marco Arop advanced to the semifinals of the men’s 800m after finishing second in his heat with a time of 1:45.74. Also moving onto the semifinals is Mariam Abdul-Rashid, whose time of 12.80 seconds in the first round of the women’s 100m hurdles was good enough to advance out of the first round. Michelle Harrison was six tenths of a second slower in her hurdles heat and needs to compete in a repechage round in order to book her spot in the semis.
Lucia Stafford, Kate Current and Simone Plourde raced in the repechage round of the women’s 1500m event, but none of them were able to advance.
Thomas Fafard will be the lone Canadian in the final of the men’s 5000m, finishing eighth in his first round heat on Wednesday. Fellow Canadian Mohammed Ahmed raced in that heat as well, but fell and ended up finishing 16th. Ben Flanagan was actually ten seconds faster than Fafard in the other heat, but finished 17th in his race and missed out on the final.
Finally, it was a disappointing day on the track for Canada’s men’s 200m sprinters, with Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown and Brendon Rodney all not able to advance to the final. De Grasse is the reigning champion in the event, but for the second time this week was not able to reach an Olympic final — something he had done in each of his six previous Olympic events — and revealed in an interview with CBC that he has been dealing with a lingering hamstring injury. All three of them will be part of Canada’s 4x100m relay team as they look to reach the podium for a third consecutive Olympics in that event.
For the first time ever, Canada will play for a medal in the women’s beach volleyball competition at the Olympics. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson beat Spanish duo Daniela Álvarez and Tania Moreno — 21-18 21-18 — in Wednesday’s quarterfinal to advance to the semis on Thursday, and confirm that they will play for a medal of some kind on Friday.
They will take on Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli of Switzerland in the semifinal. The other side of the bracket features Ana Patrícia and Duda of Brazil, who will be up against Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy of Australia.
Alena Sharp sits in a tie for seventh place in the women’s golf tournament after shooting one-under-par in the first round on Wednesday. Brooke Henderson is currently tied for 30th, finishing round one two strokes over par.
Connor Fitzpatrick finished second in his heat of the men’s C-1 1000m canoe sprint, earning himself a spot in the semifinals. Michelle Russell and Riley Melanson qualified for the semis of the women’s K-1 500m kayak sprint, finishing second and third, respectively, in their quarterfinals.
Josipa Kafadar was eliminated in the last 16 of the women’s flyweight -49kg taekwondo competition, losing on points to Croatia’s Lena Stojkovic.
After both winning their repechage heats in the women’s keirin event in track cycling, Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell are through to the quarterfinals. Genest is the reigning bronze medallist in the event. Tyler Rorke and Nick Wammes advanced from the qualifying heats of the men’s sprint event to the 1/32 finals, but both lost in that round before losing in the same heat of the 1/32 repechage.
Sarah Douglas finished third in the medal race of the women’s ILCA 6 class sailing event, good for eighth overall in the final standings. Races seven to 16 were cancelled in the women’s Formula Kite sailing competition, and Emily Bugeja — who was in 18th place after six races — did not advance to the semifinals.
Canada finished sixth overall in the artistic swimming team event, after placing sixth in the acrobatic routine on Wednesday, which was the third and final portion of the competition.
Margo Erlam finished 22nd in the women’s 3m springboard diving event, missing out on the top-18 spot needed to reach the semifinals.
What’s happening on Day 13?
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Thursday at the Olympic Games. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every event.
The lone Canadian competing in an athletics final on Thursday will be Savannah Sutherland, who will race in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles.
Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest race in the quarterfinals of the women’s keirin event in the morning, looking to advance to the semifinals and final later on Thursday. Dylan Bibic will compete in the men’s omnium, which is comprised of four different races beginning with the scratch race — the discipline that he won the gold medal in at the 2022 world championships.
Maude Charron competes in the women’s 59kg weightlifting event. She was the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion in the 64kg weight class, which has been removed from the program, forcing her to drop down to 59kg. She was one of Canada’s flag bearers for the opening ceremony, alongside Andre De Grasse.
Skylar Park competes in the women's taekwondo featherweight 49-57kg event, starting in the last 16 against Dominika Hronová of Czechia. The medal bouts will be later in the day for those who are able to advance through the competition.
Emma Finlin will be the lone Canadian competing in the women’s 10km open water swimming event in the Seine River, if the water quality is deemed safe enough.
Canada will field teams in both the men’s and women’s K-4 500m kayak sprint semifinals, looking to reach the finals later in the day. Courtney Stott, Natalie Davison, Riley Melanson and Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka will be in the women’s boat, and Nicholas Matveev, Pierre-Luc Poulin, Laurent Lavigne and Simon McTavish will race in the men’s event.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 13:
Shot putter Sarah Mitton is a threat for the gold medal in Paris, but first needs to qualify on Thursday morning. If she advances as expected, she will compete in the final on Friday. The Canadian men and women will race in the heats of their respective 4x100m relay events, and Michelle Harrison will compete in the women’s 100m hurdles repechage round.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson take on Swiss duo Nina Betschart and Tanja Hüberli in the semifinals of the women’s beach volleyball competition. They will play for a medal no matter what on Friday, but Thursday’s match will determine if that medal they play for is gold or bronze.
Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp will both compete in the second of four rounds in the women’s golf competition.
Sophia Jensen and Katie Vincent will compete together in the women’s C-1 200m canoe sprint heats, looking to advance to the afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semis and final would be on Saturday, if they can advance.
Alexander Moore competes for Canada in the last 16 of the men’s 86kg freestyle wrestling event against Magomed Eldarovitch Ramazanov of Bulgaria. Hannah Taylor competes in the same round of the women’s 57kg event, against Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai. In both events, athletes will look to advance through the rounds to the semifinals, with the medal matches set for Friday.
Canada’s women’s water polo team take on Italy in the first of two classification matches to decide final ranking for that tournament. The winning team will play against the winner of Greece versus Hungary in a match on Saturday to determine who finishes fifth and sixth. The two losing teams meet on Saturday to decide seventh and eighth place.
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