Canada’s Josh Liendo wins silver, Ilya Kharun takes bronze in men’s 100m butterfly

PARIS — Joshua Liendo and Ilya Kharun talked the second into being.

They produced the primary double podium by Canadian males in Olympic swimming with silver and bronze within the males’s 100-metre butterfly Saturday in Paris.

“Me and Josh a pair days in the past spoke about how loopy it could be if me and him each obtained on the rostrum,” Kharun mentioned. “I am so glad we spoke it into existence.”

Hungary’s Kristof Milak took gold in 49.90 seconds forward of Toronto’s Liendo in 49.99 and Kharun in 50.45.

The 21-year-old Liendo turned the primary Canadian Black swimmer to assert an Olympic swim medal.

“It is an enormous milestone and it is one thing that I do not take calmly,” Liendo mentioned. “Positively plenty of satisfaction to get that.”

A number of Canadian sport historical past was made at La Protection Area on Saturday evening.

Teammate Summer season McIntosh captured her third gold medal to turn into the primary Canadian triple gold medallist in Olympic historical past, however she was happy for her male counterparts.

“I used to be super-pumped to see two Canadian males on the rostrum,” McIntosh mentioned. “They’re simply getting began. They’re each such onerous employees and such nice people.”

The swim group’s eight medals in Paris with the medley relays to go Sunday matched the earlier excessive at a non-boycotted Summer season Video games set by the host group in 1976 in Montreal.

Canadian swimmers received 10 medals within the boycotted Video games in Los Angeles in 1984.

The ladies have pushed the swim group’s success just lately by successful all six medals in 2016 in Rio and one other half-dozen in Tokyo three years in the past.

Kharun’s second bronze medal — he was additionally third within the 200-metre butterfly — and Liendo’s silver in Paris marked a resurgence on the lads’s aspect.

“That is an enormous momentum shift on the lads’s,” Liendo mentioned. “That is an enormous assertion there.”

Liendo, who swims collegiately for the College of Florida Gators, and Arizona State’s Kharun are roommates in Paris.

“I will throw Ilya below the bus. He talks in his sleep lots,” Liendo mentioned. “He is a humorous dude.”

Kharun was born in Montreal to Ukrainian dad and mom who have been circus acrobats. He was raised in Las Vegas the place they labored in Cirque du Soleil reveals.

Liendo was born in Toronto, however spent the primary 9 years of his life in Trinidad earlier than returning to the town.

Liendo’s silver was Canada’s finest consequence within the 100 fly since Bruce Robertson’s silver in 1972 in Munich.

Kharun was the primary Canadian man to win a number of swim medals since Curtis Myden in 1996.

He was seventh on the flip Saturday, however charged into podium place.

World-record holder and Tokyo champion Caeleb Dressel of the US did not qualify for the ultimate.

Maxime Grousset, the 2023 world champion who had pulled out of the lads’s 50-metre freestyle the earlier night to avoid wasting himself for the 100 fly, positioned fifth.

Liendo was fourth within the males’s 50-metre freestyle, simply two-hundredths of a second out of a medal.

“I simply needed to make use of that as gas for the 100 fly and I obtained the job accomplished,” Liendo mentioned.

Kharun says when he took his bronze medal from the 200 fly earlier within the week again to the athletes’ village, the opposite males on Canada’s swim group needed to see it.

“I believe it was motivating,” he mentioned.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Aug. 3, 2024.