They changed the colour of the medal. The Canadian women's soccer (football) team did change that colour from a potential silver to gold in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. They changed the color of the medal, having won bronze in 2012 and 2016.
Christine Sinclair finally got a gold medal after 304 games (caps) for the national team and 187 goals, more goals in international play than any other human being on this planet.
Jessie Fleming converted penalty kicks against the United States in a 1-0 semifinal win and the only Canadian goal against Sweden in the gold medal game.
Julia Grosso goes down as the answer to the trivia question of who scored the winning goal in penalty kicks (3-2). Stephanie Labbé was outstanding in goal for Team Canada.
How did the U.S. take losing to Canada in the semifinal? "That's football. They got, I think, one shot on goal, a PK, and from what it sounds like it was a PK. So yeah, it's a bitter one to swallow. Obviously we never want to lose to Canada. I don't think I've ever lost to Canada." — veteran U.S. forward Megan Rapinoe.
Labbé and Sinclair make a strong argument that the next step is professional women's soccer teams in Canada.
Canada finished in the 11 position with 24 medals: 7 gold, 6 silver, and 11 bronze. This was the highest total for Canada in a Summer Games outside of the 44 medals collected in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a boycotted Summer Games.
Decathlon champion Damian Warner was Canada's closing ceremony flag-bearer. Warner became the first Olympian to break 9,000 points in the event.
🇨🇦 HISTORY MADE 🇨🇦@OleksiakPenny becomes the MOST DECORATED Canadian Summer Olympian of ALL-TIME after capturing her 6th Olympic medal. 🇨🇦👏#TeamCanada | #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/TfPsZlbOIK
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 28, 2021
Women won 14 of the first 15 medals that Canada won in Tokyo.
Penny Oleksiak has more Olympics medals than any other Canadian summer Olympian. Oleksiak won silver and bronze in the swimming pool in 2021. She won gold, 2 silvers, and a bronze in 2016.
"Margaret Mac Neil. Kylie Masse. The women's softball team. Maude Charron. The women's 4x100-meter freestyle swimming team. Jennifer Abel and Mélissa Citrini-Beaulieu. Jessica Klimkait. Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard. Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens. Penny Oleksiak. The women's eight rowing crew." — Jane Thornton/The Conversation.
Sportsnet has a nice breakdown of each of the 24 Olympic medals won by Canada in Tokyo in 2021.
CBC spread out the coverage on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet. Those in the U.S. with CBC access definitely had great viewing options.
CanadianCrossing.com Olympics coverage
Eddy Alvarez became the 3rd American athlete to win a medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Alvarez won the silver medal for baseball (2020) and 4 man short track team (2014).
Clara Hughes is one of 6 Olympians who has done this. Hughes had participated in 6 Olympic Games: 1996/2000/2012 in cycling and 2002/2006/2010 in speed skating. She won 2 bronze medals in 1996 and 4 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) in the Winter Olympics.
photo credit: @CBCOlympics
Twitter capture: @Sportsnet
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