The COC had set a goal of finishing in the top 16 in total medals;[5] at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Canada finished 19th. Despite failing to win a single medal in the first week of the Games, Canada would rebound, winning a combined 18 medals in the next 9 days. This 9-day medal haul exceeded the 12 medals Canada won in Athens four years earlier. The country would wind up finishing 19th in gold medals and 14th in total medals in Beijing.[6]Equestrian show jumper Ian Millar competed at his ninth Summer Olympics, tying the record set by Hubert Raudaschl. He has been named to ten straight Olympic teams, but did not compete at the 1980 Summer Olympics due to the Canadian boycott.[7] For the first time, Canadian athletes were paid for medals earned. Gold medalists earned $20,000; silver medalists were paid $15,000; and bronze medalists $10,000. A total of $515,000 from the Athlete Excellence Fund was given to the medal winning athletes.[8]
Canada qualified its men's team by finishing eighth during the 2007 world championships. The individuals later qualified at the Canadian Olympic archery trials.[9] It was Canada's first three-man team since the 1992 Summer Olympics.[10] Canada also qualified an archer in the women's division after the Netherlands waived its quota for the women's archery competition.[11]
Previous world champion hurdler Perdita Felicien officially announced on July 14 that she would not compete. This followed a foot fracture sustained during a February training session.[12]Dylan Armstrong established a new Canadian record in the shot put.
Key
Note–Ranks given for track events are within the athlete's heat only
Q = Qualified for the next round
q = Qualified for the next round as a fastest loser or, in field events, by position without achieving the qualifying target
* The athlete who finished in second place, Lyudmila Blonska of the Ukraine, tested positive for a banned substance.[13] Both the A and the B tests were positive, therefore Blonska was stripped of her silver medal, and Zelinka moved up a position.
Men's team
Canada qualified its men's baseball team for the Olympics by winning the final Olympic Baseball qualification tournament with a 6–1 record.[14] Canada went 2–5 in the tournament, but all five losses came by one run, including one in extra innings.
Twelve years after qualifying boxers in 11 of 12 events in 1996, Canada only sent one boxer to Beijing. Adam Trupish qualified for the Olympics by reaching the quarterfinal at the 2007 AIBA World championships.[17]
Canada qualified three athletes for the men's road race and the right to send a cyclist to the time trial event. To be eligible to compete in the men's time trial, an athlete must have also competed in the road race or in a track, mountain bike or BMX event.
Canada qualified a female entry for the event, which was contested at the Olympics for the first time, via the UCI Nations ranking and a male entry via the 2008 UCI BMX World Championships.[20]
Ten Canadian athletes qualified for the Olympics, and competed in six of the eight diving events. Spots were allocated at the Olympic Trials, held in Victoria, B.C., June 20 to June 22.[21]
Canada qualified all of its current quota places via the world ranking (Pan-Am zone). Philippe Beaudry qualified for the Sabre individual event at the last chance continental qualifier held in Querétaro, Mexico.[22]
Canada named a squad of 18 players and 4 alternates for the tournament.[25][26][27] Prior to the tournament, Amber Allen withdrew injured and was replaced on 3 August 2008 by Jodi-Ann Robinson, who was initially selected as an alternate player. Chelsea Stewart subsequently filled the vacant alternate spot.[28]
Canada has qualified a six-man team and two women for Beijing.[30][31]
Men
No Canadian man made an apparatus final, with Kyle Shewfelt finishing ninth on vault and eleventh on floor exercise in the qualifying round. The Canadian team similarly failed to advance to the final, finishing ninth and missing out by less than four-tenths of a point. Two Canadian men, Adam Wong and Nathan Gafuik, did advance to the all-around final. Ken Ikeda and Jared Walls were the reserves for the men's team.
Finishing in fourteenth place at the 2007 World Gymnastics Championships (Only the top 12 teams qualified), Canada failed to qualify a full women's team to the Olympics.
Josh Riker-Fox and Monica Pinette qualified for Beijing by respectively finishing third and second at the 2007 Pan-American Games and Kara Grant qualified via the world rankings.[36][37]
Qualification Legend: FA=Final A (medal); FB=Final B (non-medal); FC=Final C (non-medal); FD=Final D (non-medal); FE=Final E (non-medal); FF=Final F (non-medal); SA/B=Semifinals A/B; SC/D=Semifinals C/D; SE/F=Semifinals E/F; QF=Quarterfinals; R=Repechage
Canada earned a quota in all the classes above during the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships held in Cascais, Portugal, except for the quota in the Tornado class, which was earned at the 2008 Tornado World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand.[40]
Canada qualified for both events by finishing third in the team event at the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Olympic Games Synchronized Swimming Qualification Tournament.[42]
Canada's Sébastien Michaud and Ivett Gonda qualified Canada in the men's −80 kg and the women's −49 kg by respectively finishing first and third at the World Taekwondo Qualification Tournament in Manchester, United Kingdom. World champion Karine Sergerie secured an additional berth for Canada, this time in the women's −67 kg, by finishing second at the Pan American Taekwondo Qualification Tournament in Cali, Colombia. In Beijing 2008, Sergerie made Silver after advancing to the finals opposite to Kyungseon of Korea who secured the gold.
Canada's men's team qualified by reaching the semifinal at the FINA men's Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament, beating host Romania 9–8.[45] The team finished in 11th place.
Roster
The following is the Canadian roster in the men's water polo tournament of the 2008 Summer Olympics.[46]
Canada qualified three female Weightlifters by finishing fourteenth in the combined country ranking of the 2006 and 2007 World Weightlifting Championships.[47] Canada then qualified two men's weightlifters by finishing second among non-qualified teams at the 2008 Pan American Championships held in Callao, Peru.[48]
Christine Girard, who competed in the women's 63 kg category initially finished in fourth place. However, her performance was elevated to third place after the disqualification of the second place athlete from Kazakhstan, following the re-tests of the urine samples conducted by the IOC in 2016.[49]
Seven athletes qualified at the 2008 Pan-American Wrestling Championships while Travis Cross and Carol Huynh qualified by finishing in the top 8 at the 2007 Wrestling World Championships and David Zilberman qualified at the first freestyle qualification tournament.[50]
^"Canada – Squad List". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Archived from the original on 10 October 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
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