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Newsletter By Adam Beauchemin, Jackson Starr, Martin Cleary, Dan Plouffe & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
Ashton swimmer Regan Rathwell made her debut as an Olympian today in the women’s 200-metre backstroke heats. The Greater-Ottawa Kingfish product finished outside of a qualifying spot for the semi-finals, landing in seventh place in heat 2, with a time of 2:12.21. She placed 22nd overall.
Rathwell’s Olympic debut comes after a tumultuous two-year period where she battled through multiple injuries and underwent four surgeries in 14 months. Qualifying for the Games was not an expectation she carried into the Canadian team trials when she claimed her first senior national team berth alongside her Olympic ticket.
“The feeling is indescribable. I truly thought I would never get back to this level. I’m really grateful for the people that helped me get back,” she said in an interview with Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Adam Beauchemin.
“Special. That’s the only word I can really use to describe it.”
At May’s trials in Toronto, Rathwell surprised herself when she posted a personal-best time of 2:09.38 to earn a spot in the Paris Games. The 20-year-old says her experience at the Summer Games has exceeded her imagination.
“I don’t know exactly what expectations I had going in, but this has definitely exceeded them,” she highlighted. “It’s been super overwhelming, but in a good way.”
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The University of Tennessee student-athlete started the race strong and was jockeying for the third and fourth position throughout much of the first half.
Rathwell finished the first 100 m in fifth with a split of 1:03.99, but lost some momentum on her way home, earning a back-half split of 1:08.22. Her time placed her 1.7 seconds behind the last semi-final qualifier.
“It wasn’t exactly the performance I hoped for, but it was one of my best prelims performances — it just wasn’t enough to get me through, which was a little disappointing,” Rathwell indicated. “But regardless, I’m proud of myself for the effort I put in.”
Rathwell got to experience her first Olympics with her family in the crowd. Her parents and sister flew out to Paris to watch her compete.
“They were so proud. I don’t think I’ve gotten bigger hugs from my parents ever, same with my sister,” she smiled. “They were just so overjoyed that I made it here to begin with and I think they’re really excited that they got to experience it with me.”
The athlete from Ashton also said she received an outpouring of support from her community back home.
“I’ve been flooded with texts from people I went to high school with, swimmers from my club team, and it makes my heart stop every time,” she added. “I’m so grateful for all the support that I’ve received from everybody.”
Now, Rathwell will get to enjoy some time in Paris before heading home to Ashton and eventually, back to Knoxville, Tennessee to continue her studies in the fall.
“I get to be the biggest cheerleader for the rest of the athletes we have left and then I get to spend a week and a half at home, which is exciting,” she noted. “I’m going to probably take about a month’s break from now until I begin to swim, and then just work my way back up.”
Julie Brousseau anchors Canada to 4th place in 4×200 m free relay
Ottawa Olympic rookie Julie Brousseau anchored the Canadian relay team in the women’s 4×200 m freestyle relay finals, helping the squad to a fourth-place finish.
The 18-year-old swimmer who graduated from Nepean High School little over a month ago, was selected to race the final leg following teammates Mary-Sophie Harvey, Ella Jansen and Summer McIntosh.
“It definitely means a lot,” Brousseau said after the finals on CBC’s broadcast. “I’m pretty honoured to get to anchor those three girls.”
Harvey and Jansen opened the event for the Canadians, and at the halfway point of the race they were in seventh position.
McIntosh, who won her second individual gold medal of the Olympics earlier the same day, was up next and she powered past several of her competitors to put the Canadians in fourth place heading into the final leg.
From there, the fate of Canada’s placement was in Brousseau’s hands. The Nepean-Kanata Barracudas athlete kept things perfectly steady, finishing with a split of 1:58.25 and keeping the fourth position away from the trailing Great Britain team.
“It’s so cool, I grew up with Ella since a very young age, as well as with Julie and to share this moment with them was really, really special,” Brousseau’s teammate McIntosh told CBC. “Obviously, we are disappointed in the finish, but we tried our best. We’ve worked years for this and that’s all we can really do.
“Even though we’re disappointed, I really hope they’re enjoying this as much as possible because this is such a moment for each of them and they have bright careers ahead of them.”
Australia won gold in 7:38.08, while the USA (7:40.86) and China (7:42.34) took home silver and bronze respectively. The three podium teams occupied the top three positions for most of the race.
Brousseau also competed earlier in the day in the heats to help Canada secure its spot in the finals. She was the third swimmer for the team in the heats and helped Canada to a time of 7:49.98 and a comfortable finish inside the top-8 qualifying spots in sixth.
Gaby Dabrowski loses mixed doubles tennis semis, podium mission continues
Ottawa tennis star Gaby Dabrowski competed in the mixed doubles tennis semi-finals alongside Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, falling 2-0 to the Czech duo of Tomas Macahac and Kateřina Siniaková.
While today’s loss knocks Dabrowski and Auger-Aliassime out of gold-medal contention, the pair’s medal hopes are not lost as they will be competing for bronze on Friday against Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands.
The Canadian pair came into the day off of a thrilling three-set quarter-finals win against the American duo of Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz.
Only hours before the match started, Auger-Aliassime prevailed in a three-set singles quarter-finals match to become the first Canadian player to reach the singles semi-finals at the Olympics, and the only competitor from any nation to reach the semis in two events at Paris 2024.
Today’s action started quite evenly for both sides — the teams were exchanging game wins early on, and reached a 3-3 score in the opening set.
However, the Czech duo hit their stride and won three straight games against the Canadians to earn a 6-3 victory in the first set.
In the second set, momentum was again on the Czech team’s side as they beat the Canadians in three additional games in a row to earn a 3-0 advantage.
Dabrowski and Auger-Aliassime did their best to claw away at the lead, but the deficit proved too much and the Czechs won the day with another 6-3 victory in the second set.
Dabrowski, a 32-year-old three-time Olympian and a three-time Grand Slam champion, will be competing for her first Olympic medal in the bronze match on Friday.
Ottawa Olympians in action on August 2:
Preview: Soccer player-turned-sprinter Jacqueline Madogo to debut in Olympic 100 m
Tomorrow, after only four seasons of competitive track and field, Jacqueline Madogo will make her Olympic sprinting debut in the women’s 100 m dash.
Madogo, a 24-year-old former soccer player with the West Ottawa Warriors and the University of Guelph Gryphons, first began training with the Gryphons track team to improve her performance on the pitch. However, her sports outlook quickly shifted after she became the Ontario and national silver medalist in her 60 m dash debut.
“I wasn’t expecting to be as good as I was or gain success as fast as I did,” Madogo told Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Jackson Starr in advance of the Games.
“Over the years, I figured I can definitely make the jump (from soccer),” she added. “I think it was definitely a factor of who I’m surrounded with and how my environment shaped who I am today.”
Madogo confirmed her spot on the Canadian Olympic team by placing third in the 200 m and second in the 100 m at the late-June Canadian trials in Montreal, which put her in good position to be selected for the 4×100 m relay as well.
Madogo debuts in round 1 of the 100 m tomorrow. She’s currently ranked 80th in the world in the women’s 100 m and 46th in the 200 m.
“I want to take in the experience,” the Franco-Ouest high school grad said of her Paris 2024 objectives. “I want to enjoy every bit of it. I definitely want to go out there competitive (and) put myself out there, put my best foot forward during every single race.”
You can read our full pre-Games feature on Madogo here.
Also competing tomorrow is Ottawa water polo goaltender Jessica Gaudreault, who will be working to keep the Australians out of her team’s net. The Canadians sit at 1-1 after they earned their first win against China on Wednesday.
Canoe slalom paddler Lois Betteridge is back in action tomorrow for the Olympic debut of the women’s kayak cross event. If you haven’t tuned in to this version of the sport yet, it’s a wild one – whitewater paddling with four boats racing on the same course (like ski cross in the winter), though tomorrow’s event is the time trial qualification.
And Gaby Dabrowski will take her shot at winning Ottawa’s first medal of the Games in the mixed doubles bronze medal match.
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