PARIS — It was a tale of two scandals, of 27 medals across 15 sports, of 49 top-five finishes and just eight cases of COVID in an Olympic family fronted by 315 athletes and backed by a legion of coaches, administrators, volunteers, support staff, families and friends.
It was arguably the finest Canadian parade to the podium at a Summer Games because everybody who was anybody showed up, save the Russians and their Belarusian lackeys, who were prevented from invading the podium here.
Nine gold, seven silver and 11 bronze for Canada put the Paris 2024 team three medals clear of the Tokyo 2020 squad, and that was the primary goal.
At the pool, these were the Summer (McIntosh) Olympics. At Stade de France it was all field and no track for days — hammer throw golds from Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers and a pole vault bronze from Alysha Newman — until the boys of summer passed the relay baton with golden aplomb and Marco Arop gutted out silver in the 800 metres.
There was canoe, judo and breaking gold too; silver in beach volleyball, rowing, rugby sevens and weightlifting; bronze in boxing, canoe, diving, fencing, taekwondo, tennis and trampoline gymnastics. Fifty Canadian athletes are going home with at least one gold, silver or bronze souvenir of their time in Paris, while McIntosh is checking an extra bag for her haul. The 17-year-old swimming star won three gold, a silver and the admiration of sports fans all over the world.
The steady, almost daily clanking of medals seemed to drown out the awful, embarrassing noise made by the Canada Soccer drone after it dropped a bomb on Canada House mere days before the rain-soaked opening ceremonies kicked off what was a moveable feast for the senses.
“I think I began three weeks ago by saying that it was unfortunate and disappointing, and that I felt that it tarnished the beginning of the Games for us,” Canadian Olympic Committee CEO David Shoemaker said of the soccer scandal. “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, the soccer players themselves included.”
The unethical actions of their now former coach Bev Priestman, who directed the drone surveillance of New Zealand’s practices, betrayed those players. Though they went on without her to win all three preliminary matches and negate a six-point penalty from FIFA, they lost on penalty kicks to Germany in the quarter-finals, ending their defence of Tokyo gold.
“It’s certainly not a situation that they would have white-boarded ahead of playing, but it seemed to show off their grit and resilience under the circumstances,” said Shoemaker. “I think we owe it to Canadians to work with Canada Soccer, as Canada Soccer said, to collaborate and contribute to the external independent review that they will conduct. And to the extent that other stakeholders, including the Government of Canada, want to look into it, we’ll participate. I think that’s important that we do it. But I think as we sit here at the closing ceremony and look back at the overall performance of Team Canada, it’s one that we should be very proud of.”
Own The Podium always does the math and their medal window for Canada opened in the low 20s and closed at 29. With 27, bang for the buck has been delivered and OTP’s CEO Anne Merklinger was happy with Canada’s performance, especially given the funding discrepancies that exist internationally.
“It’s been a tremendous Games. I believe that Canada is really punching far above its weight and thrilled about that. It just shows that the partnership and the system is working on that small part. But the more resources we can get, the greater the impact we can get and the greater the inspiration for all Canadians.”
Not all Canadians care about sport. Not all Canadians want more money spent on high performance. But there is surely a significant segment of the population that watched these Olympics and might well take some pride in Team Canada’s performance.
It isn’t free. And it isn’t a matter of shelling out just for summer sport, or just for winter sport, or just for Olympic sport.
“There are several countries that don’t invest in winter sport, don’t invest in team sports, don’t invest in Paralympic sport,” said Merklinger. “It’s everything for Canadians; summer, winter Paralympic. I think that’s what Canada wants, that’s what Canadians want, it’s really important to our country. All of that matters.”
Shoemaker said he hoped these Games would inspire new generations of athletes and yes, new funding from the Canadian government. It is the usual post-Games mantra, in part because the government hasn’t increased core funding for Canada’s national sport organizations, so they are doing more with less.
Not everybody won a medal, not everybody goes home with a personal best and not everyone stayed healthy, but COC chief sport officer Eric Myles said the stringent disease prevention protocols put in place under the direction of Dr. Mike Wilkinson were chiefly responsible for such a low rate of viral transmission. There were indeed eight cases of COVID and a stomach flu made the rounds — sprinter Aaron Brown and hurdler Michelle Harrison were hit by it — but Myles said it didn’t run through the wider Team Canada.
Brown’s relay teammate Andre De Grasse, now tied with swimmer Penny Oleksiak at the top of the country’s all-time chart with seven Olympic medals apiece, had an eventful stay in Paris, to put it mildly. His personal coach Rana Reider was booted from the premises, his credential revoked by the COC on Aug. 4, before De Grasse began what was an unsuccessful defence of his Olympic 200-metre title.
Shoemaker said they yanked Reider’s accreditation after hearing from Athletics Canada that USA Track and Field had issued a safety order on the coach. Reider had also previously served a probationary period instituted by the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, following a complaint.
Shoemaker was asked if the COC’s vetting process should have unearthed that information before the accreditation was even issued, avoiding the second scandal.
“We come away from Games always taking a look at what went right and what went wrong, and we’ll certainly revisit this situation and others to understand if there’s something that we need to change,” he said.
It was a tale of two perceptions, one stained by scandal, the other painted in plenty of gold, silver and bronze. There is much to appreciate, much to learn, and much to organize before they do it all again in Italy, 544 days from now.