PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 11: Athletes of Team Canada acknowledge the fans during the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on August 11, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
By Andrew Chen
Team Canada ended the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 11 with a record medal haul, setting a new national record for a non-boycotted Games.
Canada secured a total of 27 medals—9 gold, 7 silver, and 11 bronze—surpassing the previous high of 24 medals won at Tokyo 2020.
Most of the 27 medals were earned in swimming, with 17-year-old Summer McIntosh winning three golds and one silver and setting multiple Olympic records. These include a record time of 2:03.03 in the women’s 200-metre butterfly and a record time of 2:06.56 in the women’s 200-metre individual medley. The swimmer from Toronto also triumphed in the women’s 400-metre individual medley, winning in 4:27.71, and won silver in the women’s 400-metre freestyle.
Three is the highest number of gold medals ever won by a Canadian athlete in a single Olympic Games. McIntosh also became the first Canadian swimmer ever to claim multiple Olympic golds.
Other Canadian swimmers also contributed to the medal count. Joshua Liendo won silver in the men’s 100-metre butterfly. Kylie Masse secured a bronze in the women’s 200-metre backstroke, while Ilya Kharun earned bronzes in both the men’s 100-metre and 200-metre butterfly.
Canada swept the gold medals in both the men’s and women’s hammer throw. The victories were claimed by 22-year-old Ethan Katzberg and 25-year-old Camryn Rogers.
McIntosh and Katzberg were selected as Canada’s flag-bearers for the 2024 Paris Olympics closing ceremony on Aug. 11.
Canada also earned gold medals in various other events, winning medals in 15 different sports.
Canada’s men’s team won gold in the 4×100-metre relay, with Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake finishing in 37.50 seconds. This victory marks De Grasse’s seventh Olympic medal, tying him with swimmer Penny Oleksiak as Canada’s most decorated Olympian of all time.
Christa Deguchi, competing in the women’s 57-kilogram category, won Canada’s first gold at the Paris Olympics and the country’s first-ever Olympic gold in judo.
The 27-year-old Philip Kim from Vancouver marked his Olympic debut with a gold in men’s breakdancing. The victory came after he was crowned world champion at the 2022 World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) Breaking World Championships.
Katie Vincent won gold in the women’s 200-metre canoe sprint, becoming the first Canadian woman to achieve an Olympic gold in any canoe or kayak event. Vincent and her athletic partner, Sloan MacKenzie, also earned Canada a bronze in the women’s doubles 500-metre canoe sprint.
Canada’s other silver medals include those won in the men’s 800-metre race by Marco Arop, in women’s beach volleyball by the duo Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson, and in the 59-kilogram weightlifting event by Maude Charron.
Canada’s women’s teams in the rowing eight event and rugby sevens event also captured silver at the Paris Games.
Additional bronze medals were earned by Alysha Newman, who secured Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in women’s pole vault; Wyatt Sanford in the men’s 63.5-kilogram weightlifting event; Eleanor Harvey in women’s individual foil fencing; Sophiane Méthot in women’s individual trampoline; and Skylar Park in the women’s 57-kilogram taekwondo event.
Teamwork also earned Canada bronze in tennis, with Gabriela Dabrowski and Félix Auger-Aliassime in mixed doubles and with Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray in men’s 10-metre platform synchronized diving.
Controversies
Several incidents detracted from Team Canada’s performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Canada Soccer faced scrutiny when an analyst was found using a drone to spy on New Zealand’s practice before the two countries’ women’s soccer match on July 25, which Canada won 2–1. The spying incident resulted in the dismissal of women’s national team head coach Bev Priestman and a six-point deduction. Despite this, the team advanced to the quarterfinals with a 1–0 victory over Colombia on July 31.
In a separate incident, Rana Reider, American sprint coach for De Grasse, had his Olympic accreditation revoked amid “new information” involving allegations of sexual and emotional abuse. Reider had previously been on a one-year probation with the U.S. Centre for SafeSport. The Canadian Olympic Committee said its earlier decision to accredit Reider was based on the understanding that his probation ended in May and that he had no other suspensions or sanctions.