So long, summer 2017: Recapping Canada’s world championship success
The end of summer is bittersweet, but Team Canada has a lot to celebrate.
One year after Rio 2016, Canadian athletes are still shining on the world stage, taking home medals and setting new records at their world championships.
Though there are still a few world championships in summer sports ahead on the calendar, here is a recap of all the medal moments from the summer of 2017:
Kylie Masse – Swimming (100m backstroke)
READ: Masse breaks 100m backstroke world record
Kylie Masse celebrates winning the gold medal after setting a world record in the 100m backstroke final at FINA Worlds. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
Masse won gold in the 100m backstroke at the 2017 FINA World Championships and broke the longest-standing women’s swimming world record in the process. Becoming Canada’s first ever female world champion in swimming, Masse’s winning time of 58.10 seconds took two one-hundredths (0.02) off the previous mark held by Great Britain’s Gemma Spofforth since the 2009 World Championships.
Sydney Pickrem – Swimming (400m individual medley)
READ: Pickrem wins 400m IM bronze on final day of FINA World Championships
Sydney Pickrem reacts to winning bronze in the 400m IM at the 2017 FINA World Championships Photo: Swimming Canada/Ian MacNicol
Pickrem made a mid-race comeback to win bronze in the 400m individual medley for Canada’s fourth swimming medal of the 2017 FINA World Championships. She was the youngest competitor at age 20 and the final came only one week after she was unable to finish a race. Pickrem was back in sixth place after the opening butterfly and backstroke legs of the 400m IM, but as the best breaststroker in the field, she was able to make her move with the fastest third leg to climb into second place. She then held on through the final freestyle leg for a spot on the podium.
Kylie Masse, Richard Funk, Penny Oleksiak, Yuri Kisil, Javier Acevedo, Rebecca Smith, Chantal Van Landeghem – Swimming (mixed 4x100m medley relay)
READ: Team Canada swimmers capture world championship bronze in mixed medley relay
Yuri Kisil, Penny Oleksiak, Richard Funk and Kylie Jacqueline Masse, from left, show off bronze medals for the mixed medley relay event at Worlds. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Team Canada tied for the bronze medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay at the FINA World Championships. In the final, Masse led off for the quartet that combined for a national record time of 3:41.25, matching that of China. She was followed into the water by breaststroker Richard Funk, who then handed the reins to Penny Oleksiak for the butterfly leg. Yuri Kisil was the anchor, swimming the freestyle leg to move Canada up from sixth place into podium position. Javier Acevedo, Rebecca Smith and Chantal Van Landeghem also received medals for their efforts in the preliminary heats of the event that will make its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
Kisil, Acevedo, Van Landeghem, and Oleksiak also teamed up with Sandrine Mainville and Markus Thormeyer to win bronze in the non-Olympic mixed 4x100m freestyle relay.
Jennifer Abel – Diving (3m springboard)
READ: Abel wins 3m springboard diving bronze at FINA World Championships
Abel Jennifer competes in the women’s diving 3m springboard semifinals at Worlds. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
Abel claimed the bronze medal in the women’s individual 3m springboard at the FINA World Championships in Budapest. She was very consistent throughout her five dives in the final, opening with 7.5s on her first dive before moving into third place with her second effort garnering 8.0s from the judges. This is the second career medal for Abel in the individual 3m springboard, adding to the bronze she won in 2011.
Jennifer Abel & Mélissa Citrini-Beaulieu – Diving (3m synchro springboard)
READ: Synchro diving silver for Abel, Citrini-Beaulieu at FINA Worlds
Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini Beaulieu secure second place in the women’s 3m synchro springboard final at Worlds. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)
Divers Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu impressed judges at the 2017 FINA World Championships, winning silver in the women’s 3m synchro event. This was the duo’s first time competing at the FINA Worlds together, after three-time Olympian Abel lost her Rio 2016 partner Pamela Ware to a foot injury. Since pairing up together this year, they had reached the podium at elite FINA World Series stops in both Windsor, Ontario (silver) and Guangzhou, China (bronze). They also posted a first place win in Rostock, Germany at the FINA Grand Prix.
Abel added a third medal to her collection in Budapest when she won bronze in the non-Olympic mixed 3m synchro springboard event with François Imbeau-Dulac. That put them on the podium in every event they competed in this season.
Laurence Vincent Lapointe – Canoe/Kayak Sprint (C-1 200m)
READ: Vincent Lapointe breaks C-1 200m world record and becomes world champion
Laurence Vincent Lapointe wins the first ever women’s Pan Am canoe race on July 14, 2015.
Vincent Lapointe claimed her second ICF World Sprint Championship title in Racice, breaking the C-1 200m world record in the process. She lowered her record to 45.787 seconds to win her fifth career world title in the C-1 200m. Women’s canoe events will be on the Olympic program for the first time at Tokyo 2020.
Laurence Vincent Lapointe & Katie Vincent – Canoe/Kayak Sprint (C-2 500m)
READ: Paddlers Vincent Lapointe and Vincent become C-2 500m world champions
Katie Vincent and Laurence Vincent- Lapointe celebrate their gold medal at the World Sprint Championships. Photo: International Canoe Federation
Vincent Lapointe and Vincent were golden at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Racice, winning the women’s C-2 500m. The duo finished in a time of one minute 56.752 seconds to beat Russian duo Irina Andreeva and Olesia Romasenko by more than half a second (1:57.264).
Justina Di Stasio – Wrestling (75kg)
READ: Fazzari and Di Stasio wrestle to world championships bronze medals
Justina Di Stasio and Michelle Fazzari show off their bronze medals at Worlds. (Photo: Wrestling Canada)
Di Stasio’s bronze medal in the 75kg category at the Wrestling World Championships in Paris gave the Canadian her best ever finish at a world championships.
Michelle Fazzari – Wrestling (58kg)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYPDETvBegH/?taken-by=michellefazzari
Rio 2016 Olympian Fazzari was the first of Wrestling Canada‘s squad to grapple her way onto the podium at Wrestling World Championships. Fazzari bounced back from a loss to the eventual world champion in the semifinal to claim the bronze for her first world championships medal.
Ellie Black – Artistic Gymnastics (all-around)
READ: Black lands historic world silver
Ellie Black made history on Canadian soil in October of 2017. Black earned the nation’s first-ever all-around world medal, after totalling 55.132 points in front of home fans in Montreal. The Canadian’s silver medal came just over a year after she finished fifth at Rio 2016, another best-ever Canadian result.
Sophiane Méthot – Trampoline
READ: Surprise bronze for Méthot at trampoline worlds
Sophiane Méthot surprised Team Canada with a bronze medal at trampoline worlds in Bulgaria. The 19-year-old was the last qualifier into the women’s final, but the Canadian’s stellar performance earned a score of 55.490 and landed her on the podium at her first world championships in November.
