2024 Olympics: Team Canada's Top 11 moments from a historic Summer Games in Paris

Another Olympics has come and gone in what seemed like the blink of an eye, but not before Team Canada posted its best-ever medal haul at a non-boycotted Summer Games.

With Katie Vincent's gold on the last Saturday of the Games, Canada officially eclipsed the 24 medals it secured in Tokyo three years ago. Canada finished the Paris Games with 27 medals in total, including nine gold, seven silver and 11 bronze.

From Vincent's record-setting win to Summer McIntosh's triumphs in the pool, to a shocking relay gold, to Canada establishing itself as a hammer-throw nation and more, Canadians had plenty to celebrate as the Paris Games went on.

In no particular order, here are the Top 11 Canadian moments and triumphs of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, along with some honourable mentions.

Summer's summer

Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh thrust herself atop the swimming world in Paris, and it looks like she's only getting started.

At just 17 years old, McIntosh tallied a gold-medal hat-trick in the pool, grabbing first place in the women's 200-metre butterfly, the women's 400-metre individual medley, the women's 200-metre individual medley.

Her triumphs made McIntosh the first Canadian ever to secure three gold medals at the Olympic Games — Winter or Summer. With a silver medal in the women's 4x100m earlier in the Paris, The Toronto product also matched fellow swimmer Penny Oleksiak's record from Rio 2016 for the most medals won in a single Summer Games by a Canadian with four.

With likely another 3-4 Olympics left to go for the teenage superstar, McIntosh could very well be staring down all-time great status when her career is said and done.

De Grasse, Canada shock the world 4x100 relay gold

Arguably the highlight of the Olympics for most Canadian fans was a gold that came out of nowhere.

On a damp day in Paris, the Canadian quartet of Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake and anchor Andre De Grasse shocked the world by capturing gold in the men's 4x100 relay. The team entered as massive long-shots to win at 50-1 odds.

Adding more theatre to Canada's incredible triumph was how Andre De Grasse, running the anchor leg, was stuck in the middle of the pack before finding another gear to take the lead over the final 20-30 and leaving the field in his dust before crossing the line first in thrilling fashion.

Canadians also got to relish the win a little bit more with the Americans' brutal seventh-place finish — before it was revoked after Team USA was disqualified for a botched handoff during the race.

It left a nation wondering if polarizing U.S. star Noah Lyles — who didn't end up competing in the relay after contracting COVID — was still scoffing at the idea of Canada-U.S. relay rivalry.

The gold marked the seventh Olympic medal of De Grasse's career and the second gold after he won the men's 200-metre in Tokyo three years ago. It ties him with Oleksiak as Canada's most decorated Olympian ever.

It was Canada's second time sitting atop the relay world, as the Donovan Bailey-led quartet claimed the country's only other gold in the event — winning it in 1996 in Atlanta.

Hammer-throw double-double

Seemingly out of nowhere, Canada became a hammer-throw nation in Paris.

First, it was moustache-laden Canadian Ethan Katzberg chucking his way to a gold medal with a dominant win in the men's hammer throw event — recording a length of 84.12 metres on his very first throw, which was enough to seal the victory for the Canadian. No other competitor even reached the 80-metre mark.

Katzberg became the first Canadian to secure an Olympic gold in hammer throw with the win, as well as the youngest hammer-throw gold medallist in Olympic history at 22 years old. His gold also marked Canada's first medal in this event in 100 years.

Not to be outdone was another British Columbian product, Richmond's Camryn Rogers, who secured the gold medal in the women's — becoming the first Canadian woman to ever earn an Olympic medal in the event just days after Katzberg made history of his own.

Moments like this mother-daughter embrace are what makes the Games so special:

Volleyball medal served on a silver platter

In a match where tensions boiled over late in the tie-breaking set, Canada fell to the top-ranked Brazlian duo of Ana Patrícia Ramos and Duda Lisboa in the women's beach volleyball final. However, they claimed a historic silver medal in the process.

The Canadian squad of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson staved off three set points from Brazil — and had a couple of their own — before dropping the opening frame 26-24. The Canadian pair fought back to take the second set in dominant fashion, 21-12, but fell short in the third and final set as the Brazilians claimed gold.

The silver clinches Canada's best-ever finish and first-ever medal in women's beach volleyball and matched the country's highest-ever medal total at a non-boycotted Summer Olympics.

Wilkerson and Humana-Paredes were guaranteed a medal after beating Switzerland's Nina Brunner and Tanja Huberli in a three-set thriller to advance to the final.

It was just Canada's second-ever medal in beach volleyball, with Mark Heese and John Child claiming bronze in the men's beach event at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Alysha Newman pole-vaults her way to historic bronze

London, Ont.'s Alysha Newman became the first woman to win an Olympic medal for Canada in pole vaulting.

Competing in her third Olympic Games, and her first final, Newman set a new Canadian record at 4.85m. — finishing at the same height as silver-medal winner Katie Moon, but with one more missed attempt than the American, resulting in the bronze for Newman. Australia's Nina Kennedy cleared 4.90 metres to secure gold.

Newman become the first Canadian to claim an Olympic medal in pole vault in 112 years, with William Halpenny last medalling with a bronze in the men's event at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

Canada's only other medal in pole vaulting came in 1908 at the London Games when Edward Archibald took bronze in the men's event.

Katie Vincent's golden photo finish

A day after winning bronze with her doubles canoe partner, Sloan MacKenzie, Mississauga, Ont.'s Katie Vincent snagged a gold medal in the women's single 200-metre canoe final.

Vincent's win came down to a photo finish as her canoe crossed the line at nearly the same time as silver-medal winner Nevin Harrison of the U.S. After a brief pause at the finish line, Vincent eventually would raise her hand as the gold medallist, finishing with a time of 44.12 seconds, just one one-hundredth of a second quicker than Harrison.

Vincent's gold was historic for multiple reasons. She set a new world record in the women's C-1 200-metre competition. It also marked Canada's first-ever Olympic gold medal in any women's kayak or canoe event.

Her winning effort also helped Canada eclipse the 24 medals it won in Tokyo three years ago, making the Paris Games the country's most successful non-boycotted Summer Olympics ever.

Canada secures first (and maybe only) gold in Olympic breakdancing

Just hours after Vincent's gold-medal performance, Canadian breakdancer Phil Kim made more history as he became the first-ever Olympic men's champion in breakdancing.

Phil "Wizard" Kim, as the Vancouver native is known to the breakdancing world, cruised through the event, dancing his way to a gold-medal win over Danis Civil of France — winning all three rounds of their finals battle.

Breakdancing made its Olympic debut this summer in Paris, but the event reportedly won't be included in the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

There may still be an active debate over the merits of breaking as an Olympic sport, but the discourse can't take the medal away from Kim, nor will it stop Canadians from celebrating his historic victory.

Canada soars to silver in women's rugby sevens

Despite a 19-12 loss to the top-ranked team from New Zealand, the Canadian women's rugby sevens squad pulled off its best-ever finish at the Olympics with a silver medal.

It was an incredible overall effort from the Canadian side as, just one day after stunning host country France in front of a raucous home crowd, Canada upset Australia 21-12 in the semifinal, to book a ticket to tits first-ever Olympic final.

Canada finds mixed-doubles tennis podium for first time

Mixed-doubles partners Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gaby Dabrowski knocked off the Netherlands' Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs to secure a bronze medal in Paris — Canada's first-ever Olympic medal in the event.

The Canadian duo won in straight sets, taking the first 6-3 and closing out the second in a tiebreaker. The win marked just the second-ever Olympic medal in tennis for Canada, with Daniel Nestor and Sébastien Lareau securing gold in men's doubles back in 2000 at the Sydney Games.

Canada Soccer overcomes all odds after drone-spying scandal

Canada Soccer's women's team was forced to face an unprecedented amount of adversity since before the Olympic soccer tournament even began. It all started when an uncredited Canadian staffer was caught using a drone to record New Zealand's closed-door training session ahead of the tournament-opening match between the two countries.

After illegal video footage was recovered from the staffers room in Paris, Canada Soccer and the women's team's head coach, Bev Priestman, were engulfed in a controversy that wasn't going away any time soon.

Priestman, as well as two other members of her staff, were sent home from the Olympics shortly after Canada beat New Zealand in the red and white's first game of the Olympics. Then came the penalties from FIFA, including a one-year suspension for Priestman (as well as the two assistants), a $313,000 fine levied against Canada Soccer and, most importantly, a devastating six-point deduction for Canada's women's soccer team during group play.

The Canadians needed to win all three games in group play, coupled with as much luck as they could ask for, just to have a shot at advancing into the quarterfinals. And they did just that, beating New Zealand, France and Colombia to finish second in Group A with three points and advance to the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, Canada fell short to Germany in the quaterfinals, losing the match in penalty kicks, 4-2. It marked the first time the women's soccer team didn't secure an Olympic medal since 2008, after also winning gold in Tokyo. However, the fight and determination the women's team displayed was enough to make Canadians across the country proud.

Moh Ahmed takes 4th in epic men's 10K

Canadian long-distance legend Mohammed Ahmed ran the race of his life in the men's 10K, and he wasn't afraid to let everyone know just how he felt about his performance.

Despite missing out on the podium by a literal inch, the country's most decorated distance runner put on a show during the ultra-competitive men's 10,000-metre event in Paris. The 33 year old, who sat in second place with less than 200 metres to go, slid to fourth place in an absolutely wild finish on the opening night of the athletics competition in Paris.

Ahmed finished in 26 minutes, 43.79 seconds, a mere 0.33 seconds behind bronze medallist Grant Fisher of Team USA, 0.35 seconds back of a silver medal and just 0.84s out of first place. Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei took home gold with an Olympic record time of 26:43.14, just ahead of Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi (26:43.44) who finished second.

Despite just barely missing out on a medal in what surely was a heartbreaking result, Ahmed was thrilled with his performance — capping his impressive run with an epic post-race interview.

Though he left Paris without a medal after a disastrous fall in 5,000-metre qualifying, Ahmed remains Canada's most decorated distance runner ever.

During his illustrious career spanning over a decade, Ahmed has claimed a silver medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021 in the men's 5000m, and a bronze at the 2019 World Championships. He's a three-time Olympic finalist, 10-time World Championship finalist and an eight-time Canadian National Champion.

Honourable mentions: Celine Dion and Felix Dolci

A pair of awesome moments that had nothing to do with podiums, finishes or results complete our list, as Canadian music icon Celine Dion and gymnast Felix Dolci stole the hearts of Olympic fans in their own ways.

First, 28 years after her magical performance kicked off the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, iconic Canadian singer Celine Dion capped off an Olympic opening ceremony once again.

This time, however, under the glow of the Olympic rings fixed upon the Eiffel Tower, there was some extra special meaning behind her appearance.

Dion announced in late 2022 she was taking time off from performing to focus on her health after revealing her diagnosis of a rare neurological disorder known as Stiff Person Syndrome, which affects the nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal cord. During her heartbreaking announcement, the Quebec native said the disorder wouldn't allow her to "sing the way I’m used to."

The last time the Dion performed live was in the summer of 2019 in London, England. Exactly five years later, she was back on the grandest stage of them all.

Another name Canadians, and Olympic gymnastics fans, became familiar with was Felix Dolci, who suffered a nasty fall due an equipment malfunction during the high-bar portion of the men's all-around gymnastics final in Paris.

The Saint-Eustache, Que. product suffered a brutal spill that left him bloodied after one of his hand-guards snapped — sending him flying through the air and hard to the mat.

Dolci, after taking nearly 20 minutes to regroup, was allowed to give it another go, according to Olympic rules, because the fall was due to an equipment issue and not deemed his fault. The 22 year old then returned to the bars for his second attempt, but he once again fell to the mat with his hands appearing to take some serious damage on the first spill.

After chalking up and putting his hand through some minor repair work, however, Dolci went out for a third attempt where he completed his set and stuck the landing.

The Paris crowd, who gave Dolci a roaring ovation when he returned to the apparatus for his second and third attempts, was vocally behind the gutsy Canadian the entire way.

A bruised and bloodied Dolci gave the love right back in a heartwarming moment, thanking the crowd for its support before gesturing a heart toward the bleachers — where the damage he suffered to his hand was more than evident.

It was a moment that encapsulated the heart, resilience and likability of the Canadian-athlete contingent in Paris the past two weeks.

1 / 28

Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony

Canadian flag bearers Ethan Katzberg and Summer Macintosh parade during the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at the Stade de France, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)