When it comes to growing their medal count at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Canada got an early start on Friday.
This morning’s 500-metre sprint canoe final saw the Canadian duo of Katie Vincent and Sloan MacKenzie take home a bronze medal in a nail-biting race.
Katie Vincent and Sloan MacKenzie paddle to C-2 500m bronze medal at Paris 2024! 🌟🥉 https://t.co/r9PidzYAHl
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) August 9, 2024
With paddlers pushing hard until the finish line, the Canadian duo placed third with a time of 1:54.36. missing out on the silver medal by just 0.06 of a second, which was picked up by Ukraine. Meanwhile, China topped the podium with a time of 1:52.81.
It was the second Olympic medal in as many tries for Vincent. She won bronze with Laurence Vincent Lapointe at Tokyo 2020, which was the Olympics that women’s canoe events made their debut.
Canada is also guaranteed another medal later today, with the beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson participating in the gold medal game.
Canada faced a match point in the second set in yesterday’s semifinal against Switzerland, after dropping the opening set. However, they were able to rally back, and went on to win the third and final set 15-12 to clinch a medal for Canada.
“There was no way that we were going to let that game finish without putting up a fight,” said Humana-Paredes. “We know that we had more in us, and we just stuck with it.”
The Olympics are closing in on their final weekend in Paris, with only a few more days left of competition. The closing ceremony is set for Sunday, August 11, as are the final medal events.