Paris 2024 Olympics Day 13: Charron reaches weightlifting podium again, Park wins taekwondo bronze
Canada added two more medals to its tally, with at least one more guaranteed on Friday.
It was a huge day for Canadians at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, as two athletes walked away with some hardware, and another pair confirmed they’ll receive a medal on Friday.
For the second Olympics in a row, weightlifter Maude Charron reached the podium, winning a silver medal in Thursday’s women’s 59kg event.
She matched her own Canadian record in the snatch portion of the event, lifting 106kg — temporarily an Olympic record — to sit second to China’s Luo Shifang by just one kilogram. In the clean and jerk portion, her best lift came on her second attempt, lifting 130kg for a total combined weight of 236kg. Only Luo had a higher clean and jerk weight, lifting 134kg, another Olympic record, for a combined record of 241kg. Kuo Hsing-chun of Chinese Taipei finished third, one kilogram back of Charron, lifting a total of 235kg.
The 236kg that Charron lifted in this event matched the weight she lifted to win the gold medal in the 64kg category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. That weight class was removed from the Olympic program after Tokyo, forcing Charron to drop down, but she was able to reach the podium once again — saying afterwards that this experience was more meaningful than her gold in Tokyo because she was able to share it with her friends and family.
With a gold and a silver in her career, Charron is now the most successful Olympic weightlifter from Canada — surpassing her role model Christine Girard, who won a gold at London 2012 and a bronze at Beijing 2008.
Skylar Park stepped onto the podium as well on Thursday, winning a taekwondo bronze medal in the women’s 57kg class.
After winning her last 16 bout earlier in the day, the 25-year-old from Winnipeg lost in the quarterfinals of the competition. She then won her repechage round fight, booking her spot in the bronze medal match, where she beat Lebanese athlete Laeticia Aoun to reach the Olympic podium for the first time in her career.
Park’s bronze is Canada’s first Olympic taekwondo medal since Beijing 2008, when Karine Sergerie finished second in the women’s 67kg event. The only other Olympic taekwondo medal came at Sydney 2000, when Dominique Bosshart won bronze in the women’s +67kg.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson will play for the gold medal in the women’s beach volleyball competition on Friday, after winning their semifinal on Thursday to guarantee themselves a spot on the podium.
Swiss duo Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner, who hadn’t dropped a set in the tournament to that point, won the first against Canada, and were on match point late in the second set. Canada battled back to win the second set before taking the third as well, winning 14-21, 22-20, 15-12.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will take on Brazilian pair Ana Patricia and Duda in the gold medal match on Friday.
Sarah Mitton punched her ticket to the women’s shot put final, throwing 19.77m in the qualification round on Thursday. The final will be on Friday, with Mitton arguably the favourite for gold after twice-reigning world champion Chase Jackson of the United States failed to make the final.
Both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams advanced to the final of their respective events. Sade McCreath, Jacqueline Madogo, Marie-Eloise Leclair and Audrey Leduc set a new national record of 42.50 seconds, the seventh-fastest time overall. The men’s team — made up of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse — finished third in their heat in 38.39 seconds, and look to reach the podium for the third Olympics in a row.
Savannah Sutherland was the only Canadian to race in a final on Thursday, finishing seventh in the women’s 400m hurdles in 53.88 seconds. American star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone defended her title in a lightning-quick race in a world record 50.37 seconds. The top five times are among the eleven fastest of all-time in Olympic competition.
Both Katie Vincent and Sophia Jensen won their C-1 200m canoe sprint heats and advanced straight to the semifinals on Saturday, with the medal races to come later that day. Canada had teams in both the men’s and women’s K-4 500m kayak sprint semifinals, but neither boat was able to reach the final.
Hannah Taylor and Alex Moore both lost in the last 16 of their freestyle wrestling competitions. Taylor lost to Tsugumi Sakurai of Japan in the women’s freestyle 57kg event, while Moore was eliminated by Magomed Eldarovitch Ramazanov of Bulgaria in the men’s 86kg event. Both will compete in the repechage rounds and still have a chance at bronze medals after Sakurai and Ramazanov both reached their respective gold medal matches.
After the second round of stroke play at Le Golf National, Alena Sharp and Brooke Henderson both sit tied for 29th at three-over-par. Henderson was one-over-par in the second round on Thursday, while Sharp was four over.
In track cycling, Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest placed sixth in their respective quarterfinals of the women’s keirin and did not advance to the semis. Dylan Bibic competed in the four races that make up the men’s omnium competition on Thursday, finishing 19th overall.
Emma Finlin was Canada’s lone competitor in the Seine River for the women’s 10km open water swimming event, finishing 23rd in a time of 2:22.06.
Canada’s women’s water polo team lost their first of two classification matches, which are used to determine the final rankings at the Olympic tournament, falling 10-5 to Italy. Canada will play against Greece on Saturday to decide which team finishes seventh and which one finishes eighth.
What’s happening on Day 14?
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.
Sarah Mitton competes in the women’s shot put final after having the top throw in the qualification round. Mitton is the reigning champion at the Pan American Games, Commonwealth Games, and World Indoor Championships, and was the silver medallist at the 2023 outdoor World Championships. Canada’s men’s and women’s 4x100m relay teams will also compete in their finals on Friday, with the men looking to reach the podium for the third-consecutive Olympics.
Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are guaranteed a medal in the women’s beach volleyball competition, taking on Brazil’s world number one pair Ana Patricia and Duda in the gold medal match.
Katie Vincent and Sloan Mackenzie will compete in the semifinals of the women’s C-2 500m canoe sprint event. Canada will also field teams in the men’s and women’s K-2 500m kayak sprint events, with Courtney Stott and Natalie Davison racing in the women’s boat and Pierre-Luc Poulin and Simon McTavish in the men’s event. Connor Fitzpatrick will race in the semifinals of the men’s C-1 1000m canoe sprint. In all four of these events, the finals will take place shortly after the semifinals.
Hannah Taylor and Alex Moore compete in the repechage rounds of their freestyle wrestling competitions, looking to advance to the bronze medal bouts in the women’s 57kg and men’s 86kg events, respectively.
In track cycling, Ariane Bonhomme and Maggie Coles-Lyster will compete in the women’s madison race.
Boady Santavy competes for Canada in the men’s 89kg weightlifting competition.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 14:
Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray compete in the preliminary round of the men’s individual 10m platform diving event, looking to advance to the semifinal and final on Saturday. They won a bronze medal together on July 29, in the synchronized 10m platform event.
Reigning world champion Marco Arop will compete in the men’s 800m semifinal, while Mariam Abdul-Rashid will race in the semifinal of the women’s 100m hurdles. Canada’s women’s 4x400m team race in the first round of that competition as well. All of these finals will take place on Saturday.
Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell will compete in the qualifying rounds of the women’s track cycling sprint event, in which Mitchell is the reigning Olympic champion.
Ana Godinez Gonzalez will take on France’s Ameline Douarre in the 1/8 final of the women’s 62kg freestyle wrestling event. Amar Dhesi will take on Zhiwei Deng of China in the men’s 125kg 1/8 final. Athletes will have to win those matches as well as the quarterfinals and semifinals on Friday in order to advance directly to the medal matches on Saturday.
Audrey Lamothe and Jacqueline Simoneau take part in the first of two stages of the women’s artistic swimming duet competition — the duet technical routine.
Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp will both compete in the second of four rounds in the women’s golf competition.
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