After 16 days of over 11,000 athletes competing in 48 disciplines, the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have come to a close. With the time difference and the most Team Canada medals since the boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, here’s a recap of how the T-Bird athletes performed.
Athletics
Alum Kieran Lumb qualified for the 1500m race in his debut Olympics. He placed 10th in his opening heat, not qualifying him for the semis, but he did advance to the “repechage round,” a newly added round that translates roughly to “second chance” in French.
It was added to try to make final qualifications more fair; previously, athletes had to finish in the top three of their heat to move on, meaning it was more about who else is in the heat than time. The repechage round gives another opportunity for those who didn’t qualify out of their heat.
However, Lumb finished 14th in the repechage round and did not advance to the semi-finals.
On the field side of track and field, Rowan Hamilton, who competed with the T-Birds from 2019–2023, made it through to the finals of the men’s hammer throw competition after he threw a personal best of 77.78m. He finished 9th overall, while Canadian teammate Ethan Katzburg (who shares a similar hairstyle) took the gold.
Field hockey
Competing for Belgium, UBC alum Abigail Raye had a successful run at the Olympics. In the opening round play, Belgium easily showed dominance in their pool with a 2–1 win against China, a 5–0 blowout against France and a 2–0 win over Germany.
They moved onto the quarter-finals against Spain, which held them scoreless until the last quarter when the Belgians scored twice in a span of three minutes. The 2–0 score propelled them to the semi-finals, where they played China.
Unfortunately, Belgium lost their first game of the tournament in a 3–2 shootout, forcing them into the bronze medal match. Belgium put up a fight against Argentina for a podium spot, but once again lost in a shootout 3–1. However, this is the country’s best finish in women’s field hockey.
Race walking
UBC alumnus and current UBC race walking coach Evan Dunfee competed in the 20km race walk and placed 5th with a time of 1:19:16.
“I’m proud of the resilience I’ve shown myself not only during the race, but the days, weeks and years leading up to it. Finding motivation and purpose in redeveloping myself as an athlete in a new event,” he wrote in an Instagram post after the race.
This comes after his bronze-medal performance in Tokyo 2021 in the 50km race walk, an event that was discontinued after the 2021 Games in favour of the 20km race.
Dunfee and three-time NAIA champion Olivia Lundman competed as a team in the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay. The pair started off well, with Dunfee finishing his first leg in 7th. He passed it off to Lundman, who then set a personal best in her leg. The team continued strong, giving it their all in the last 21km. With a three-minute penalty for Lundman’s bent knee in her second leg of the race, the team finished in 20th place.
Despite not medaling in the event, the pair set a Canadian record and improved on their qualification time by close to three minutes.
Rugby sevens
Piper Logan and Florence Symonds came back with extra hardware from the Olympics — a historic silver medal from the women’s rugby sevens tournament. This is Canada’s best finish since the sport was introduced in 2016.
Placed in Pool A with tough competitors Fiji, New Zealand and China, the Canadians had their work cut out for them. They earned a close 17–14 win over Fiji in their opening match, where Symonds scored the first try for the team.
The round robin game against the reigning Olympic gold medalists — New Zealand — was much tougher. The red and white only mustered one try on the board and lost the game 33–7. However, they rebounded with a good game against China and advanced to the quarter-final stage.
The Canadians faced an uphill battle playing against the host nation of France. However, they quickly proved why they made it that far when Logan scored just three minutes into the game. She’d score again in the second half, running over half the field off a scrum pick, to tie the game. Queen’s University player Chloe Daniels won the game with a blindside try to advance them to the semis with a score of 19–14.
In the semis, Canada was once again the underdog, facing the no. 2 ranked Australians. Aussies Maddison Levi and Sariah Paki quickly scored to put the red and white at a disadvantage, but just before the half, Canadian rugby icon Charity Williams went for a three-quarter field run to make the score 12–7.
Canada kept their foot on the gas, keeping possession and eventually scoring a try to take the lead 14–12, and Logan cemented the win with a photo-review try for the 21–12 win.
They faced New Zealand in the finals and an upset this time would be tough, with the Kiwis having the women’s highest international sevens point scorer Tyla King and rugby legend Portia Woodman-Wickliffe.
New Zealand got on the board quick, and kept the pressure on. With a yellow card to Woodman-Wickliffe for head contact, Canada tied the game with Daniels’ breakaway try, and just a minute later, another Canada try gave them a 12–7 lead going into halftime. However, the Kiwis struck back strong with two tries, and unwavering pressure kept the ball in their favour.
But even when the whistle rang out with a loss for the red and white, they had still made history.
“We are proud to be Canadian. Thank you for believing in us,” wrote Logan in an Instagram post.
The win comes off an incredible year for Canadian women’s rugby — not only did UBC claim their fourth consecutive Canada West championship, but the national sevens team earned their best international result at the HSBC Rugby SVNS tournament in Vancouver earlier this year.
Logan plans to return to the UBC women’s rugby program this fall, with the team’s sights set on an elusive national title.
Rowing
Alumnae Kristen Kit, Kristina Walker and Jessica Sevick all nabbed a silver medal in the women’s rowing eight race. This is Kit’s second Olympic rowing medal and Walker and Sevick’s first.
It was a close race, with the Canadians hoping to defend their gold medal from Tokyo 2021. The Romanians, who outpaced them in the heats, were the biggest threats to the red and white, going toe-to-toe for the first half until the Romanians pulled away with an increasingly dominant lead. The Canadians held onto second place for the rest of the race, even holding off a final Great Britain sprint finish, to capture the silver.
Women’s swimming
Ingrid Wilm battled her way through to the women’s 100m backstroke finals — placing 15th in the heats and 6th in the semi finals, just one spot behind fellow Canadian Kylie Masse. Wilm held onto her 6th place in the final while Masse improved to 4th.
Wilm, along with Sophie Angus, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Penny Oleksiak, easily advanced to the 4x100m freestyle relay finals with a second place finish in the heats. In the finals, they picked up a heartbreakingly-close 4th place finish.
Third-year and 2022 U Sports Rookie of the Year Emma O’Croinin earned her place on Canada’s 4x200m freestyle relay with a fourth place qualification earlier this year. Alongside Harvey, Ella Jansen, Julie Brousseau and Summer McIntosh, the relay team placed 6th in the heats, making it through to the finals where they finished fourth — almost four seconds behind the bronze medalists.
"While my own meet didn’t go according to plan, I’m still so unbelievably grateful for this experience at my first Olympics and for everyone who helped me get here and supported me along the way," wrote O'Croinin in an Instagram post.
Karen Tam (Tam Hoi Lam), who earned her bachelor’s in kinesiology in 2021, competed in two relays for the Hong Kong team. Her team placed 13th in the 4x100m medley relay and slightly lower at 15th in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Kayla Sanchez, who previously competed for Canada but chose to represent the Philippines in these Games, placed 15th in the 100m freestyle race — her only event. Regardless, the incoming recruit will add great depth and experience to the UBC swim team.
Men’s swimming
Alum Yuri Kisil placed an unfortunate 29th in the 100m freestyle heats, not advancing to the semi-finals. However, in the 4x100m freestyle relay, he and teammates Josh Liendo, Finlay Knox and Javier Acevedo earned a better 6th place, just 2.90 seconds behind the leader.
In addition to his 6th place 4x100m freestyle relay finish, future T-Bird Knox also took on the 200m individual medley, placing 8th in the finals. He advanced to the finals of the 4x100m medley race, capturing 5th with Liendo, Ilya Kharun and fellow UBC teammate Blake Tierney.
Tierney swam in the 100m and 200m backstroke races, placing 15th and 19th overall, respectively. In the mixed 4x100m medley relay race, Tierney and Knox advanced to the finals with Masse and Maggie Mac Neil, and ended in 5th place with a time of 3:41.41.
Volleyball
Alumni Fynn McCarthy and current UBC men’s volleyball assistant coach Mike Hawkins represented the red and white in the men’s volleyball tournament.
The team was placed in Pool A with Serbia, Slovenia and host team France. The Canadians had a tough run, losing against Slovenia 3–1, France 3–0 and Serbia 3–2, and did not advance past the opening round.
The 2024 Paris Paralympics, which stars three ‘Birds in men’s wheelchair rugby, will start on August 28.
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