Canada at the 2004 Summer Olympics
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Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
competed at the
2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
in
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. Canadian athletes have competed in every
Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
since
1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
, except the
1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
in Moscow because of the country's support for the US-led boycott. The
Canadian Olympic Committee The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC; french: Comité olympique canadien) is a private, non-profit organization that represents Canada at the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is also a member of the Pan American Sports Organization ...
sent a total of 263 athletes, 130 men and 133 women, to take part in 28 sports. This was the nation's smallest delegation to the Games, since the nation boycotted the games in 1980. This had become a result of the COC changing its qualification standards, after a reduced medal showing at the
2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, with the aim of sending fewer athletes but focusing its energy on those who have the best chance at winning medals. It has been suggested that the "logical response" of winning fewer medals was diverting funding away from sports where Canadians struggled (track and field) to ones where Canadians excelled (kayak and diving). Athletes that qualified for the Olympics would not be sent to Athens unless they had finished in the top twelve worldwide, a policy that was widely criticized as numerous Canadian Olympic medallists in past Games would have been excluded by such criteria. Over 50 Canadian athletes, including two-time Olympian marathoner
Bruce Deacon Bruce William Deacon (born December 5, 1966) is a former Canadian long-distance runner, notably in the full marathon. Deacon was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Deacon competed in the marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2000 Summer Ol ...
, did not make the COC's "top 12" cutoff despite achieved the international qualifying standards in their respective sports. After 2004 the COC scrapped this policy but still maintains additional hurdles beyond international standards to ensure that athletes are in shape for the Olympics. Canada left Athens with a total of 12 medals (3 golds, 6 silver, and 3 bronze), the lowest in Summer Olympic history since 1988. Canada's overall medal count had been dropping in the recent editions of the Summer Olympics, along with the totals for most developed countries as the developing nations capture comparatively more medals. Many expected Canada to win a similar number of medals as they did in
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
. Most of these medals were awarded to the athletes in canoeing, cycling, diving, and gymnastics. Sprint kayaker Adam van Koeverden became the most decorated athlete of the Games with two Olympic medals, including a gold in the men's K-1 500 m. The flag bearer was two-time Olympic medallist
Nicolas Gill Nicolas Gill (born 24 April 1972 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian judoka who competed at four consecutive Olympic Games. He is a two-time Olympic medalist, receiving a bronze in the middleweight (86 kg) division at his inaugural Olympia ...
, a
judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
ka. A mild controversy developed after it was revealed that Gill had made comments in favour of
Quebec separatism The Quebec sovereignty movement (french: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the sovereignty of Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867, including in all matters related to any provision o ...
, and had voted yes in the 1995 Quebec referendum. Gill went on to lose his opening match and was eliminated from the tournament, which was seen as symbolic of Canada's 2004 Olympic woes.


Medallists

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Archery

Two Canadian archers qualified each for the men's and women's individual archery. ;Men


Athletics

Canadian athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at the 'A' Standard, and 1 at the 'B' Standard). The team was selected based on the results of the 2004 Canadian Olympic Trials. ;Men ;Track & road events ;Field events ;Women ;Track & road events ;Field events


Badminton

;Women ;Mixed


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. The game ended in dramatic fashion when Canadian Kevin Nicholson almost hit a game tying homer in the 9th. However, a heavy wind was blowing in from left field that night, which caused the ball to come down inches from the wall and was caught. 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. ;Roster Manager: 12 –
Ernie Whitt Leo Ernest Whitt (born June 13, 1952) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), including twelve for the Toronto Blue Jays, and was the last player from the franchise's inaugural sea ...
Coaches: 42 –
Denis Boucher Denis Boucher (born March 7, 1968) is a Canadian former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, and Montreal Expos. He represented Canada at the 1987 Pan Amer ...
, 7 – Marty Lehn, 10 – Greg Hamilton, 21 –
Tim Leiper Timothy Joseph Leiper (born July 19, 1966) is an American professional baseball coach (baseball), coach and former manager (baseball), manager. He was the first-base coach of the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball from 2014 until 2018. L ...
. ;Round robin ;Semifinal ;Bronze Medal Game


Boxing

Boxing had witnessed 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 Benoit Gaudet (born December 18, 1979 in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada) is a professional Canadian boxer in the Lightweight division. He's the former Canadian National Lightweight and North American Boxing Association Super Featherweight champion ...
defeat of
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
former champion
Somluck Kamsing Somluck Kamsing (name used in the 1996 Summer Olympics) or Somrak Kamsing ( th, สมรักษ์ คำสิงห์; ; born January 16, 1973) is a Thai kickboxer and Olympic gold medal-winning amateur boxer. During the 1998 Asian Games in ...
and
Andrew Kooner Andrew Singh Kooner (born 11 May 1979 in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England) is a Canadian boxer and trainer, currently living in Toronto. Amateur career Andrew Kooner moved to Tecumseh, Ontario at a young age and began boxing at age 13 out o ...
who made it to the quarter-final in the Bantamweight class.


Canoeing


Slalom


Sprint

;Men ;Women Qualification Legend: Q = Qualify to final; q = Qualify to semifinal


Cycling


Road

;Men ;Women


Track

;Sprint ;Time trial


Mountain biking


Diving

Canadian divers qualified for seven individual spots at the 2004 Olympic Games. ;Men ;Women


Equestrian


Dressage


Eventing

"#" indicates that the score of this rider does not count in the team competition, since only the best three results of a team are counted.


Show jumping


Fencing

;Men ;Women


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 medallist
Kyle Shewfelt Kyle Keith Shewfelt (born May 6, 1982 in Calgary, Alberta) is a Canadian gymnast. His gold medal in the men's floor exercise competition at the 2004 Athens Olympics was the first-ever medal for a Canadian in an artistic gymnastics event and was ...
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. ;Men ;Team ;Individual finals ;Women ;Team ;Individual finals


Trampoline


Judo

Six Canadian judoka (two men and four women) qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics. ;Men ;Women


Modern pentathlon

Two Canadian athletes qualified to compete in the modern pentathlon event.


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 Jacob Wetzel (born December 26, 1976) is a Canadian rower. He has represented both Canada and the United States at the World Championships and the Olympics. He was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. College years As a te ...
, Thomas 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 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. ;Men ;Women 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; R=Repechage


Sailing

Canadian sailors have qualified one boat for each of the following events. ;Men ;Women ;Open M = Medal race; OCS =
On course side On the course side is an expression used in sailboat racing to indicate that a boat was on the wrong side of the starting line when the starting signal was given. According to the Sailing Instructions valid for a specific racing event, being on th ...
of the starting line; DSQ = Disqualified; DNF = Did not finish; DNS= Did not start; RDG = Redress given


Shooting

Two Canadian shooters qualified to compete in the following events: ;Women


Softball

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 placed 4th and moved on. ;Team Roster ;Preliminary Round


Swimming

For the first time in decades Canada did not win a single medal in swimming. This led to calls for the resignation of head coach Dave Johnson by a number of former swimmers, most notably Barcelona gold medallist
Mark Tewksbury Mark Roger Tewksbury, (born February 7, 1968) is a Canadian former competitive swimmer. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also hosted the first season of ''How It's Made'', ...
. Swim Canada focused 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 Richard Say (born May 18, 1979) is a three-time Olympic and National record-holding swimmer from Canada. Say swam as a child for the Salmon Arm Sockeye Swim Club with his two brothers and two sisters. At the age of 18, he began attending the Uni ...
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. Rick Say created a minor controversy after the 4×200-metre freestyle relay immediately in the post-race interview which was aired live on national television, when he said that he was "pissed off at not being able to make up for my teammates' mistakes". The other three team members - Brent Hayden, Brian Johns, and Andrew Hurd - expressed disappointment not in the effort, which broke the Canadian record by over 3.5 seconds, but only in the 5th-place finish which was out of the medals. ;Men ;Women


Synchronized swimming

Nine Canadian synchronized swimmers qualified a spot in the women's team.


Table tennis

Four Canadian table tennis players qualified for the following events.


Taekwondo

Two Canadian taekwondo jin qualified for the following events.


Tennis

Canadian Tennis Association nominated two male tennis players to compete in the tennis tournament.


Triathlon

Canada had a strong
triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...
program, including the defending men's gold medallist
Simon Whitfield Simon St. Quentin Whitfield (born May 16, 1975 in Kingston, Ontario) is a retired List of Olympic medalists in triathlon, Olympic triathlon champion from Canada. Whitfield won 10 consecutive Canadian Triathlon Championships titles and List of f ...
, who won surprisingly in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
. 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 11th.


Volleyball


Beach


Water polo

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.


Women's tournament

;Roster ;Group play ---- ---- ---- ;Classification round ;Classification 7th–8th


Weightlifting

Two Canadian weightlifters qualified for the following events:


Wrestling

;Men's freestyle ;Women's freestyle


Media coverage

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 and
Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
are covering different events. 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 Cottage Life is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Blue Ant Media. Operated as a brand extension spin-off of the magazine of the same name, the network originally aired a variety of programming focusing on the co ...
, only available to a minority of Canadians, covered equestrian events.


National outfits

Roots Canada Roots Corporation (doing business as Roots) is a publicly held Canadian brand that sells apparel, leather bags, small leather goods, footwear, athletic wear, and home furnishings. The company was founded in 1973 in Toronto, Ontario, by Michael ...
was the official outfitter of clothing for members of the Canadian Olympic team. The same clothing was also sold at Roots stores in Canada. This was the last year for Roots, thereafter HBC was given the contract for official Olympic clothing.


See also

*
Canada at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Canada was represented at the 2002 Commonwealth Games by a team that was selected by Commonwealth Games Canada (CGC). Canada is one of only six countries to have competed in all of the Commonwealth Games held since 1930 and was the host nation for ...
*
Canada at the 2003 Pan American Games Canada participated at the 2003 Pan American Games, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from 1 to 17 August 2003. It was an interesting competition. Medals Gold *Men's 800 metres: Achraf Tadili *Men's discus throw: Jason Tunks *Women's l ...
*
Canada at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Canada participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. With 28 gold, 19 silver, and 25 bronze medals, the Canadian team placed third in the 2004 Summer Paralympics medal count, medal rankings, behind China at the 2004 Summer Paralym ...


References


External links


Official Report of the XXVIII OlympiadCanadian Olympic Team
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canada At The 2004 Summer Olympics Nations at the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...