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PARIS – Josh Liendo loves all the pieces about an Olympic ultimate. The stress. The competitors. The necessity for pace. And now particularly, the glittering medal that may go round his neck because the product of all of the work and dedication it took to get there.

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The Toronto swimmer grew to become the second member of the resurgent Canadian males’s workforce to achieve the rostrum when he completed second within the 100-metre butterfly ultimate. However he wasn’t the one Canadian swimmer to get a medal within the race: Teammate Ilya Kharun completed behind him with one other bronze — his second of the Video games.

For Liendo – who simply narrowly missed gold due to the timing of his contact on the ultimate wall – the medal efficiency was the end result of three years of coaching to construct off his first Olympics in Tokyo which drove him to a dedication like by no means earlier than to race with the world’s greatest.

“I like to be on the market with these huge guys,” Liendo stated in an interview previous to the Video games. “I thrive off of being subsequent to somebody who’s going quick. I at all times need a problem and I at all times need to be in a ultimate and racing in that high-pressure setting.”

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He definitely confirmed that verve for competing on Saturday. Whereas nonetheless younger within the sport, particularly on the boys’s aspect, Liendo is seen because the chief of the Canadian males who’re decided to match a few of the success the ladies have had on the Olympic pool.

Liendo has been in touch with Canadian males Olympic medallists of the previous, profitable swimmers who have been invested in urging the boys to catch as much as the profitable Canadian girls.

“I hope we made them proud,” he stated after the race. “For some time it was a query of when are the boys going to cease up. It’s good that we did.”

Liendo was well-regarded within the 100m butterfly coming into Paris 2024 having completed second and third respectively on the earlier two world championships. These performances gave him confidence coming into his Olympic 12 months, as did his success competing as a Florida Gator in Gainesville the place he skilled alongside veteran U.S. standout, Caeleb Dressel.

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He’s been progressively enhancing to the purpose the place his efficiency has matched his confidence — a deadly mixture.
“I assume you may say it was gradual,” Liendo stated of his emergence as one of many higher younger butterfly racers on the market. “It was constructing. The 100 fly grew to become my strongest occasion, clearly. My confidence was clearly constructing and I simply believed and raced in the long run.”

Swimming in 5 occasions in Tokyo, which included a reputable fourth within the 4x100m freestyle relay supplied the Olympic style that fuelled him probably the most. It definitely left a profound impression on Liendo on condition that these Tokyo Video games have been his first main worldwide competitors.

“The ultimate of the Olympics, that’s the place you discover out whose capable of execute underneath probably the most stress,” Liendo stated in an interview previous to the Video games. “I simply need to have the ability to execute. It’s racing at its greatest and I like to race.”

Liendo, a workforce captain right here, is thrilled to be a part of the enhancing males’s aspect and to hitch the ladies of their success on the Video games courting again to Rio 2016.

“You simply continue learning this sport and getting higher, that’s what I’ve completed over the past 4 years,” Liendo stated.

“Clearly getting greater, stronger and extra skilled helps so much for positive. We’re beginning to present that we’re world class and I’m enthusiastic about that.”

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