Record Olympic Summer Games for Canada in Paris came with peaks and valleys

Canada’s record performance at the Olympic Games in Paris did not happen without thorns, but athletes provided unforgettable sporting moments.

Nine gold medals and 27 total medals were both records for Canada at a non-boycotted Summer Olympics to surpass previous highs set in Tokyo three years ago and 1992 in Barcelona.

“There have been some highs, some lows, some surprises, a lot of surprises, joy and heartbreak, and we’ve seen it all here in Paris,” Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith said Sunday.

Canada ranked 11th among 84 countries that won medals in both total and gold. The United States is poised for a strong outing as host in Los Angeles in 2028 after finishing atop the table in Paris with 126 medals, including 40 gold which tied China for the most in that category.

Canadians won medals across 15 different sports, which matched the previous high of the boycotted 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A.

Swimming’s eight medals and track and field’s five accounted for almost half of Canada’s output in Paris. Including medallists, Canadians finished top five 49 times.

Summer McIntosh led in the pool with triple gold and four medals in total. Ethan Katzberg’s hammer throw gold was a first, and followed two days later by his teammate Camryn Rogers taking the women’s crown for the sweep at Stade de France.

McIntosh and Katzberg, who left France after their events, were invited back to Paris to carry the Maple Leaf in Sunday evening’s closing ceremonies.

“It was an incredibly successful Olympics for Canada and that’s really great to see,” Katzberg said.

Phil (Wizard) Kim capped Canada’s production with the first Olympic gold medal in men’s breaking Saturday at Place de la Concorde. 

Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and anchor man Andre De Grasse produced an unexpected victory in the men’s 4×100 relay at the track. De Grasse hinted his hamstring was not completely healthy when he missed the finals of the 100 and 200 metres. 

With his seventh career medal, the sprinter joins swimmer Penny Oleksiak for the most career Olympic medals.

Christa Deguchi claimed Canada’s first gold in judo. Katie Vincent captured gold in women’s sprint canoe after its introduction in Tokyo.

A drone spying scandal in women’s soccer rocked the Canadian Olympic Committee just days before the opening ceremonies, and was an embarrassment for a country purporting to espouse fair play.

The COC sent women’s team head coach Bev Priestman and two team staff members home.

Despite FIFA docking the team six points, the women went 3-0 in the group stage to advance before bowing out on penalty kicks in a quarterfinal loss to Germany.

“I certainly don’t think that was how any of us wanted to start our Games, but I’m very happy with how we are ending them,” COC chief executive officer David Shoemaker said at a press conference at Canada Olympic House.

“I felt that it was a tarnish at the beginning of the Games for us and now I can sit here nearly three weeks later and feel that the athletes on the field of play have done an enormous amount of good to remedy that situation (including) the soccer players themselves.”

The fallout appears likely to continue as there were rumblings from Ottawa of a Canada Soccer summons to a parliamentary committee hearing.

De Grasse’s personal coach Rana Reider had his credential yanked by the COC before the Canadian raced the 200 semifinals. Three women that Reider previously coached are suing him in Florida courts for sexual or emotional abuse. 

Reider has not been charged with any crime and allegations have not been proven in court. He was on probation with the U.S. Center for SafeSport until May.

“We learned on, I believe it was Sunday the fourth of August while Andre was sprinting, that in fact (Reider) was subject to a safety order by USA Track and Field and overnight pulled his credential,” Shoemaker said. 

“It was shared with us by USA Track and Field through Athletics Canada.”

The COVID-19 virus that delayed Tokyo’s Summer Games from 2020 to 2021 and held amid tight restrictions was still present in Paris with several athletes, including American star sprinter Noah Lyles, testing positive.

The COC sees avoiding illness as a “performance advantage,” Shoemaker said.

Canada’s chief sport officer Eric Myles said eight members of the team’s delegation tested positive upon arrival in Paris, but the virus was contained and it wasn’t believed illness hampered any athlete’s performance.

The athletes’ village provided a bike share program for all residents, but the Canadian team brought its own bikes to avoid germy handlebars, Shoemaker said.

The delay of Tokyo’s Games by a year compressed three Olympic Games into a four-year span, including Beijing’s Winter Games in 2022. And the 2026 Winter Games in Cortina-Milan, Italy are just 18 months down the road.

The Canadian taxpayer is the largest investor in high-performance sport at $266 million annually, according to federal government figures published in early July. 

The COC and Canadian Paralympic Committee asked for a $104-million infusion into the system for national sport organizations in this year’s federal budget, which was not forthcoming.

“I do worry about the future,” Shoemaker said. “I worry about performance in Milano-Cortina, and certainly for L.A. ’28.

“There hasn’t been an increase in the core funding for the 62 federally funded national sports organizations in 19 years, and so they are having to do so much more with so much less, including the demands upon them to create a safe and barrier-free and healthy sports system that we all want so badly.” 

Winning Olympic and Paralympic medals in both winter and summer sport is a big ask in a geographically vast country.

“I was thinking about that today just walking over, 27 medals, and that’s really close to where we land in winter sport,” said Own The Podium chief executive officer Anne Merklinger.

“It’s important to Canadians that we provide opportunities in summer sport, in winter sport, in Olympic sport, in Paralympic sport. I believe that’s what matters to Canadians. We have to do that, and it’s non-negotiable. Lots to be done, but nothing can be in the too-hard pile.”

The COC provides bonus money for medals of $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. Health-care technology entrepreneur Sanjay Malaviya of Hespeler, Ont., has donated a top-up of $5,000 per medal won.

The Paralympic Games in Paris start Aug. 28 and finish Sept. 8.