Canada at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Infobox Olympics Canada
games=2004 Summer
competitors=262 (130 men and 132 women)
sports=28
flagbearer=Nicolas Gill
gold=3
silver=6
bronze=3
total=12
rank=21

Canada competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.The Canadian Olympic Committee sent a team of over 200 athletes, the lowest since Canada boycotted the games in 1980. This is a result of the COC changing its standards for qualifying, with the aim of sending fewer athletes but focusing its energy on those who have the best chance at winning medals. This somewhat controversial policy was pursued after a reduced medal showing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Canada is not a power at the Summer Olympics. Many Canadians turn to winter sports, and recently the country has performed relatively better at the Winter Olympics. Canada's overall medal count has been dropping, along with the totals for most developed countries as the developing nations capture comparatively more medals. Most expected Canada to win a similar number of medals as they did in 2000.

The flag bearer was Nicolas Gill, a judoka. A mild controversy developed after it was revealed that Gill had made comments in favour of Quebec separatism, and had voted yes in the 1995 Quebec referendum.

Medalists

Canada finished in 21st position in the final medal rankings, with three gold medals and 12 medals overall.

Broadcasts

The main network for Olympic coverage in Canada is the CBC which covers events live, and then replays highlights in prime time. Both the French and English CBC are covering the CBC often showing different events, with Radio-Canada focusing more on Quebec athletes. The cable channels TSN & RDS won the rights to broadcast some parts of the games, mostly team sports that CBC and Radio-Canada decided not to cover. The digital channel CBC Country Canada, only available to a minority of Canadians, covered equestrian events.

Results by event

=Archery=

Men's individual:
* Jonathan Ohayon - scored 140 in the last 64 to come in 47th place

Women's individual:
* Marie-Pier Beaudet - scored 128 in the last 64 to come in 56th place

=Athletics=

Men

100 m

* Nicolas Macrozonaris ran 10.40 s in the first round of the men's 100 m and 10.28 s in the second round; he did not advance to the 100 m semifinal.
* Pierre Browne ran 10.32 s in the first round of the men's 100 m and 10.21 s in the second round; he did not advance to the 100 m semifinal.

800 m

* Gary Reed ran 1:46.74 min in the first round of the 800 m and 1:47.38 min in the semi-final, finishing 12th overall.
* Achraf Tadili ran 1:46.63 min in the first round of the 800 m finishing 25th overall.

1500 m

* Kevin Sullivan ran 3:39.30 min in the first round and 3:42.86 in the semi-finals, placing 19th overall.

110 m hurdles

* Charles Allen In the first round, ran 13.35 s, a personal best. In second round, he ran 13.30 s, another personal best and the in semi-final he ran 13.23 s, another personal best, to qualify for the final. In the final, he ran a 13.48 to finish 6th.

4x100 m relay

* Nicolas Macrozonaris, Anson Henry, Charles Allen, and Pierre Browne - Round 1, 0:38.64 (did not advance)

50 km walk

* Tim Berrett – 4:10:31 (31st place)

High Jump

* Mark Boswell, who was seen a potential medal winner, jumped 2.28 m in the first round and 2.29 m in the second round to finish 7th overall.

hot Put

* Brad Snyder threw 19.46 m in the first round to finish 20th overall.

Discus

* Jason Tunks threw 61.21 m in the first round to place 15th overall.

Women

100 m hurdles

* Perdita Felicien and Angela Whyte qualified for the women's 100 m hurdles final. In the final, Felicien, well-favoured to medal, fell at the first hurdle and did not finish; Whyte finished sixth, better than was expected.
* Priscilla Lopes ran 13.08 s in the first round to finish 20th overall.

800 m

* Diane Cummins ran 2:01.19 min in the first round of the 800 m and 2:00.30 min in the semifinal to place 14th overall.

1500 m

* Courtney Babcock ran 4:08.18 min in the first round to place 26th overall.
* Malindi Elmore ran 4:09.81 min in the first round to place 32nd overall.
* Carmen Douma Hussar ran 4:06.90 min in the first round and 4:05.09 min in the semi-finals to qualify for the final. In the final, she ran 4:02.31 to place 9th overall.

5000 m

* Emilie Mondor ran 15:20.15 min in the first round to place 17th overall.
* Courtney Babcock ran 15:47.35 min in the first round to place 29th overall.

Pole Vault

* Dana Ellis and Stephanie McCann both qualified for the final with jumps of 4.40 m both. In the final they again reached 4.40 placing 6th and 10th respectively.

=Badminton=

Women's singles:
* Charmaine Reid - defeated in round of 32

Women's doubles:

* Helen Nichol and Charmaine Reid - defeated in round of 32
* Denyse Julien and Anna Rice - defeated in round of 32

Mixed doubles:
* Mike Beres and Jody Patrick - defeated in round of 32
* Philippe Bourret and Denyse Julien - defeated in round of 32

=Baseball=

Canada's baseball team did very well in the initial stages of the round-robin winning their four first games. Despite losses to Japan and Cuba, they rebounded in their final game vs. Australia. Most notable has been the performance of second baseman Richard "Stubby" Clapp.

With a 5-2 record in the preliminary round, Canada finished in 3rd position, behind Japan and Cuba and ahead of Australia. In the semi-finals on August 24, Canada lost 8-5 to Cuba. Canada was leading Cuba 3-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning but then gave up 6 runs. Japan lost 1-0 to Australia in a surprising result in the other semifinal, almost ruining Canada's hopes for a medal in Baseball, which would later prove true as Canada lost to Japan on August 25 in the Bronze medal game, thereby finishing fourth.

Team Canada's roster:

Scores:
* August 15: Canada 7 - 0 Chinese Taipei
* August 16: Canada 9 - 3 Italy
* August 17: Canada 7 - 0 Netherlands
* August 18: Canada 2 - 0 Greece
* August 20: Canada 1 - 9 Japan
* August 21: Canada 2 - 5 Cuba
* August 22: Canada 11 - 0 Australia
* August 24: Canada 5 - 8 Cuba (semi-final)
* August 25: Canada 2 - 11 Japan (bronze medal game)

=Boxing=

Boxing saw much controversy over the COC higher qualifying standards. After an appeal it was decided that three more boxers could go to Athens. Canada's most notable success was Benoit Gaudet defeat of Thai former champion Somluck Kamsing and Andrew Kooner who made it to the quarter-final in the Bantamweight class.

*Trevor Stewardson defeated Flavio Furtado of Cape Verde in the round of 32 in the Light Heavyweight (81 kg) division. He later lost to Ahmed Ismail of Egypt in the round of 16.
*Jean Pascal was defeated by Yordani Despaigne Herrera of Cuba in the round of 32 in the Middleweight (75 kg) division.
*Adam Trupish was defeated by Ruslan Khairov of Azerbaijan in the round of 32 in the Light Middleweight (69 kg) division.
*Benoit Gaudet defeated Somluck Kamsing of Thailand in the round of 32 in the Featherweight (57 kg) division. He later lost to Seok Hwan Jo of South Korea in the round of 16.
*Andrew Kooner defeated Alexander Espinoza Hernandez of Venezuela in the round of 16 in the Bantamweight (54 kg) division. He later lost to Bahodirjon Sooltonov of Uzbekistan in the quarter-final.

=Canoe/Kayak=

lalom Racing Men's

* James Cartwright finished 11th in the first round of his heat for men's C1 canoe singles, and 10th in the second round. He finished 9th in the semi-final, and did not qualify for the finals.
* Margaret Langford finished 16th in both rounds of her heat for women's K1 kayak singles, and did not qualify for the semi-finals.
* David Ford finished 4th in the men's K1 kayak singles slalom final.

Flatwater Racing Men's

Canoeing 1000 m

* Stephen Giles raced 3:52.451 min in the preliminaries, 3:51.720 min in the semi-finals, and 3:51.457 min in the final to finish 5th overall.

Canoeing 500 m

* Richard Dalton raced 1:50.005 min in the preliminaries, 1:51.027 min in the semi-final, 1:48.103 min in the final to finish 6th overall.

Canoeing 1000 m Pairs

* Richard Dalton and Michael Scarola raced 3:31.123 min in the preliminaries 3:32.280 min in the semi-finals, and 3:45.638 min in the final to place 6th overall.

Canoeing 500 m Pairs

* Attila Buday and Tamas Buday Jr. raced 1:40.488 min in the preliminaries and 1:41.210 min in the final to finish 8th overall.

Kayaking 1000 m

* Adam van Koeverden raced 3:24.984 min in the preliminaries, 3:27.502 min in the semi-final, and 3:28.218 min in the final to win the bronze medal.

Kayaking 500 m

* Adam van Koeverden raced 1:37.591 min in the preliminaries, 1:38.907 min in the semi-finals, and 1:37.919 min in the final to win the gold medal.

Kayaking 500 m pairs

* Steven Jorens and Richard Dober raced 1:31.985 min in the preliminaries and 1:34.318 min in the semi-finals to place 13th overall.

Kayaking 1000 m fours

* Steven Jorens, Richard Dober, Ryan Cuthbert, and Andrew Willows raced 2:56.336 min in the preliminaries, 2:55.926 min in the semi-final, and 3:07.714 min in the final to finish 9th overall.

=Cycling=

Road cycling

*Michael Barry finished 32nd in the Men's Road race.
*Gordon Fraser did not finish the Men's Road race.
*Eric Wohlberg did not finish the Men's Road race and finished 18th in the Time Trials.
*Susan Palmer-Komar finished 11th in the Women's Road race and 17th in the Time Trials.
*Manon Jutras finished 30th in the Women's Road race.
*Lyne Bessette did not finish the Women's Road race and finished 16th in the Individual Time Trials.

Mountain biking

* Marie-Helene Premont won the silver medal in the women's cross country mountain bike final.
* Alison Sydor finished fourth in the women's cross country mountain bike final.
* Seamus McGrath finished ninth.
* Ryder Hesjedal did not finish.

=Diving=

ynchronized

*Blythe Hartley and Émilie Heymans finished 7th the women's synchronized 3 m Springboard final, and won a bronze medal in the women's synchronized 10 m platform final.
*Philippe Comtois and Alexandre Despatie finished 5th in the men's synchronized 10 m platform final.

Platform

*Émilie Heymans finished 4th in the 10 m platform.
*Myriam Boileau finished 7th in the 10 m platform.

pringboard

*Alexandre Despatie got the silver medal in the men's 3 m springboard after being the clear leader in the preliminary and final round.
*Blythe Hartley started at 2nd place in the preliminary, dropped to 3rd after the semifinal, and finished at 5th place.
*Émilie Heymans placed 10th after a 7th-place preliminary round and 8th-place semifinal.
*Philippe Comtois was 12th in the priliminaries and 13th in the semi-final. He did not advance.

=Equestrian=

*Hawley Bennett finished 47th at the Mixed Individual Eventing Dressage, 67th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Cross Country, 64th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Jumping Final.
*Michael Winter finished 51st at the Mixed Individual Eventing Dressage, 44th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Cross Country, 40th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Jumping Final.
*Garry Roque finished 52nd at the Mixed Individual Eventing Dressage, 59th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Cross Country, 55th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Jumping Final.
*Bruce Mandeville finished 60th at the Mixed Individual Eventing Dressage, 42nd in the Mixed Individual Eventing Cross Country, 41st in the Mixed Individual Eventing Jumping Final.
*Ian Roberts finished 68th at the Mixed Individual Eventing Dressage, 70th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Cross Country, 67th in the Mixed Individual Eventing Jumping Final.
*Bennett, Winter, Roque, Mandeville and Roberts finished 12th in the Mixed Team Eventing Dressage, 13th in the Mixed Team Eventing Cross Country, and 12th in the Mixed Team Eventing Jumping Final.

=Fencing=

Women's épée individual:
* Monique Kavelaars - defeated in round of 32
* Sherraine Mackay - defeated in round of 32
* Catherine Dunette - defeated in round of 64

Men's foil individual:
* Joshua McGuire - defeated in round of 32

Men's sabre individual:
* Michel Boulos - defeated in round of 32

Women's épée team:
* Monique Kavelaars, Sherraine Mackay, and Julie Leprohon - 4th place

=Gymnastics=

Artistic

Prior to 2004, Canada had never won an Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics, and hopes for a first seemed to be dashed when the main medal threat, double World Championships bronze medalist Kyle Shewfelt suffered an ankle injury in March. By the Games, though, Shewfelt's injury had healed to the point where it did not adversely affect his performance.

* Kyle Shewfelt won a gold medal in the men's floor exercise final in a tiebreaker with Marian Dragulescu of Romania, Canada's first gold medal of the Athens Games.
* Kyle Shewfelt also finished fourth in the men's vault final. Canada disputed the result.

Rhythmic

=Trampoline=

* Karen Cockburn, a Sydney bronze medallist, won the silver medal in the women's trampoline final.
* Heather Ross-McManus qualified for the final and finished in 6th place.
* Mathieu Turgeon, a Sydney bronze medallist, was eliminated in qualifying for the men's trampoline final, finishing in 11th place.

=Judo=

Men's 90 kg:
* Keith Morgan - defeated in quarterfinals; repechage round of 16

Men's 100 kg:
* Nicolas Gill - defeated in round of 32

Women's 48 kg:
* Carolyne Lepage - defeated in round of 16; repechage round of 16

Women's 63 kg:
* Marie Helene Chisholm - defeated in quarterfinals; repechage semifinals

Women's 70 kg:
* Catherine Roberge - defeated in quarterfinals; repechage round of 16

Women's 78 kg:
* Amy Cotton - defeated in round of 16

=Modern pentathlon=

Women's:
* Monica Pinette - 13th place
* Kara Grant - 22nd place

=Rowing=

Canada's most heralded team going into Athens was its rowers, and there was considerable hope for success by Canadians with expectations of three medals or more. While the Canadians did well, with a number of finals appearances, only one group won medals the men's fours of Cam Baerg, Jake Wetzel, Tom Herschmiller and Barney Williams won the silver medal in the men's four rowing final, losing to Great Britain by only 0.08 seconds.

Most disappointing was the men's eights who had been undefeated for two years before the Olympics, but to the surprise of many finished fifth in their event.

Controversy broke out over the rowing team of Dave Calder and Chris Jarvis (rower) who were disqualified from the men's pairs semifinal race for entering another team's lane, and thus failed to qualify for the final. The COC appealed the decision, but it was upheld.

=Sailing=

=Softball=

Women's Team Competition

The Canadian softball team finished the preliminary round with the same record as China, but had lost to China 4-2 in head-to-head play and therefore received 5th place and did not advance to the semifinals while China got 4th and moved on.
*Preliminary Round Robin:* Lost to Taipei (0:2):* Lost to Greece (0:2):* Lost to PR China (2:4):* Defeated Japan (1:0):* Lost to United States (0:7):* Lost to Australia (0:1):* Defeated Italy (1:0)
*Semifinals:* Did not advance (→ 5th place)
*Team Roster:*Erin White:*Lauren Bay:*Sheena Lawrick:*Rachel Schill:*Sasha Olson:*Cindy Eadie:*Kristy Odamura:*Angela Lichty:*Ani Nyhus:*Alison Bradley:*Erin Cumpstone:*Kim Sarrazin:*Auburn Sigurdson:*Kaila Holtz :*Jackie Lance

=Swimming=

For the first time in decades Canada did not win a single medal in swimming. This led to calls for the resignation of coach Dave Johnson by a number of former swimmers, most notably Barcelona gold medallist Mark Tewksbury. Swim Canada focuses on personal bests rather than medals, but even by that measure Canada fared poorly. This lack of medals also stood in sharp contrast to Canada's sibling dominion Australia which won many medals in swimming, as they did in Sydney. There were a few bright spots, including Rick Say making it to the finals of the 200 m freestyle, considered by many to be the premier event of the 2004 Olympics, and a number of Canadian records were set. Generally though, performances by the swim team were slower than the times they had swum at Canadian olympic trials 2 weeks before.

=Synchronized swimming=

Canada has strong hopes for medals in synchronized swimming having won medals in this event in every Olympic it has been included. Duet team Fanny Letourneau and Courtenay Stewart were in 6th place in the preliminaries and moved on to the finals.

* Team Canada:
Erin Chan
Jessica Chase
Jessika Dubuc
Marie Pierre Gagne
Fanny Letourneau
Shayna Nackoney
Anouk Reniere Lafreniere
Courtenay Stewart
Nicole Cargill

=Taekwondo=

Women's Flyweight
*Ivett Gonda

Women's Heavyweight
*Dominique Bosshart

=Triathlon=

Canada has a strong triathlon program and is the home of the defending men's gold medallist Simon Whitfield, who won surprisingly in Sydney. The women's race was something of a disappointment as top ranked Canadian Jill Savege, who came out of the water in fifth place crashed in the bicycle stage and only finished 39th. The two other Canadian women did not fare much better. In the men's triathlon a day later Whitfield finished a respectable eleventh.

=Volleyball=

Beach Volleyball

* Men's pool results
** August 14: Mark Heese and John Child were defeated by Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel of Switzerland (28-26, 21-18).
** August 16: Heese and Child defeated Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard of the United States of America (21-16, 21-10).
** August 18: Heese and Child were defeated by Julien Prosser and Mark Williams of Australia (21-13, 15-21, 15-12).
** August 21: Heese and Child defeated Mariano Baracetti and Martin Conde of Argentina (21-17, 21-17) in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals.
** August 22: Heese and Child were defeated by Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera of Spain in the quarterfinals.

* Women's pool results
**Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin defeated Nicole Schnyder-Benoit and Simone Kuhn of Switzerland (21-16, 21-13)
**Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs of the United States of America defeated Dumont and Martin (21-13, 12-21, 15-9)
**Dumont and Martin defeated Kathrine Maaseide and Susanne Glesnes of Norway (21-19, 29-27)
**Dumont and Martin defeated Dalixia Fernandez and Tamara Larrea of Cuba (21-18, 21-19) in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals.
**Dumont and Martin were defeated by Kerri Walsh and Misty May of the United States (21-19, 21-14) in the quarterfinals.

=Water polo=

Women's Team Competition

Canada's women's water polo team fared poorly, despite beating the number one ranked team from the United States during the round robin. Losing the other two games in the preliminary round put Canada in last place in the pool and eliminated the team from medal contention. They would end up finishing seventh.
*Preliminary Round (Group B):*Lost to Russia (6:8):*Defeated United States (6:5):*Lost to Hungary (4:5)
*Classification Match:*7th/8th place: Defeated Kazakhstan (10:4) → 7th place
*Team Roster:*Marie Luc Arpin:*Johanne Begin:*Cora Campbell:*Melissa Collins:*Andrea Dewar:*Valerie Dionne:*Ann Dow:*Susan Gardiner:*Marianne Illing:*Whynter Lamarre:*Rachel Riddell:*Christine Robinson:*Jana Salat
*Head Coach: Patrick Oaten

=Wrestling=

* Tonya Verbeek won the silver medal in women's freestyle wrestling, 55 kg class.

Officials

*President: Michael A. Chambers
*Secretary General: Christopher H. Rudge