RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s becoming the splash heard across the hemisphere, a Canadian pool party that seemingly has no curfew.
Canadian women won a fourth medal here at the Olympic Aquatic Stadium on Wednesday night when the 4×200-metre freestyle team rallied for bronze.
With Toronto teen sensation Penny Oleksiak once again swimming the anchor leg, the Canadian women continued what is looking like an historic meet.
Oleksiak was the clutch swimmer to touch the wall and secure the medal, but she had plenty of help from her teammates: leadoff Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck and Brittany MacLean, who handed Oleksiak the makings of their medal.
With the latest medal in the pool, Canada has now won four, the most for the suddenly resurgent swimming nation since 10 medals were collected at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
With plenty more opportunities to come, the Canadian team could come close to the eight won way back in 1976.
Santo Condorelli narrowly missed another bronze in the men’s 100-metre freestyle earlier in the night when he was out-touched at the wall by .03 seconds after leading at the halfway mark.
Oleksiak, of course, is the star of the show with three medals and another opportunity on Thursday. With a silver in the 100-metre butterfly and bronze in the 4×100-metre freestyle relay earlier, the multiple world junior record holder will try for a fourth on Thursday night where she’s a strong contender in the 100-metre freestyle.
In Wednesday’s medal swim, Savard got to the wall in sixth after the first 200 metres, giving way to Ruck, who started to make things happen, getting the Canadians up to third.
MacLean maintained spot giving way to the closer, Oleksiak. While the favoured Americans and always strong Australians weren’t about to be caught, Oleksiak closed ground and the Canadians were more than two seconds clear of fourth-place China.