While the watching experience and timing for the 2024 Paris Olympics isn't quite as challenging for Canadian viewers as it was for Tokyo 2020 or Beijing 2022, a good chunk of action during these Games happens when plenty of Canadians are fast asleep.
Whether you were crushing some zzz's, busy at work, had family activities to partake in or just didn't have a chance to tune in, we have you covered throughout these Olympics from start to finish, with Team Canada currently sitting at seven medals.
Here's what you may have missed on Day 5, including a huge win for Canada's women's soccer team, a bronze medal for Ilya Kharun, Felix Auger-Aliassime advancing to the quarterfinals, a gusty performance from gymnast Felix Dolci, and the men's basketball team securing its place in the quarterfinals.
Canadian women's soccer team overcomes drone-spying penalty with gutsy performance
Defying all odds imaginable, Canada's women's soccer team has overcome the immense adversity of the drone-spying scandal, beating Colombia 1-0 on Wednesday afternoon. It means they've now won all three of their group stage matches, in order to make their six-point FIFA penalty irrelevant, as they officially booked their trip to the women's soccer tournament's knockout stage.
Canada's Vanessa Gilles scored midway through the second half to give the red and white the lead, though Colombia didn't go down quietly. The Colombian side had a few decent chances to tie it up late in the game, but the Canadians managed to shut the door to keep the lead.
Canada advances as the official second seed in Group A, with a knockout match against Germany on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 1 p.m. ET.
Through to the quarter-finals! ⚽
The defending Olympic champions have advanced after a 1-0 win over Colombia 🇨🇦#TeamCanada | #Paris2024 | @RC_Sports #rcsports #soccer pic.twitter.com/gxO7V5wMLw
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) July 31, 2024
Canada’s women’s soccer team are true heroes.
All the adversity and make it out after a 6-point deduction to make it to the Quarter finals!#CanWNT #CANXNT
— Alex Adams (@AlexAdamsBTP) July 31, 2024
Canada’s Women’s Soccer Team needed to win every game after being deducted six points.
And they did just that.
You can’t help but root for them after the events over the last week.
They face Germany in the QF on Saturday at 1pm ET. 🇨🇦
— Ilyas Hussein (@IlyasHSN) July 31, 2024
Earlier in the day, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the joint appeal from the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer after FIFA docked the women's Olympic team six points due to the drone-spying controversy at the 2024 Summer Games.
The CAS released a statement on the appeal early Wednesday morning:
The application filed by the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Soccer (the Applicants) in relation to the six-point deduction imposed on the Canadian women’s soccer team for the football tournament at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 has been dismissed.
The Applicants sought a decision from the CAS Ad hoc Division either cancelling or reducing the points deduction imposed by the FIFA Appeal Committee in its decision of 27 July 2024 after it established that breaches of the FIFA regulations applicable to the Olympic football tournament concerning the prohibition on flying drones over training sites had occurred.
The CAS' decision, however, did not prevent the Canadian women's soccer team from progressing into the quarterfinals. Against improbable odds, the women's team found itself in a "win-and-they're-in" situation and did just that, qualifying for the knockout stage while overcoming extreme adversity by winning all three of their group stage matches.
For more reaction and game analysis, see here for Yahoo News Canada's coverage.
Ilya Kharun makes history, wins bronze medal in men's 200-metre butterfly
Montreal's Ilya Kharun picked up Canada's seventh medal of the Paris Summer Games, claiming bronze in the 200-metre butterfly final with a personal-best time of 152.80. Leon Marchand of France picked up the gold with a time of 1:51.21, while Italian Kristof Milak (1:51.75) claimed silver.
The 19-year-old made Canadian history with his third-place finish, becoming the first Canadian swimmer ever to medal in this event.
🥉19-year-old Ilya Kharun wins the bronze medal in the men's 200m butterfly!
The first Olympic medal for a Canadian man in swimming since London 2012 🇨🇦#TeamCanada | #Paris2024 | @RC_Sports pic.twitter.com/EnET9BScn9
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) July 31, 2024
Both of Kharun's parents were acrobats for Cirque du Soleil. They travelled around the world performing and happened to be in Montreal when the future-Olympian was born, before moving to Las Vegas.
Auger-Aliassime advances to men's singles quarterfinals with an upset win, makes Canadian history
Montreal native Felix Auger-Aliassime is moving on in men's tennis singles tournament after beating Russian Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6(5) in a third-round upset. The Canadian got off to a great start, taking the first set and posting a 4-3 lead in the second before the match was suspended for about 20 minutes due to rain.
Félix Auger-Aliassime is making history 🎾
Advancing to the quarterfinals in men’s singles, he will have Canada’s best Olympic result in either singles tournament since tennis returned to the Olympic program in 1988 🙌
Watch #Paris2024 on CBC Gempic.twitter.com/oWqhtb0p0N
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) July 31, 2024
For the Olympic tournament, the Canadian is ranked 13th, while Medvedev is ranked fourth. This is the first time Auger-Aliassime has defeated Medvedev in eight career matches against the Russian former No. 1 player in the world.
Auger-Aliassime must now prepare for battle in the quarterfinals, which begins Thursday morning at 6 a.m. ET. He's the first Canadian to advance this far in a single's tournament since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.
Canadian gymnast Felix Dolci suffers freak accident on high bar — draws roaring ovation for finishing Olympic routine
Things did not go well for Canadian gymnast Felix Dolci on Wednesday, but they also could've gone much, much worse. During the Olympic high-bar portion of the men's all-around gymnastics final in Paris on Wednesday, the Saint-Eustache, Que. product suffered a brutal fall that left him bloodied after one his hand-guards actually snapped — sending him flying through the air and hard to the mat.
The freak equipment malfunction interrupted a pretty good routine, too.
Here is video of Dolci's fall. Not the type you expect to see. https://t.co/QcHFV41McH
— Jock Cartier (@JockCartier) July 31, 2024
Dolci, after taking nearly 20 minutes to regroup, was allowed to give it another go, according to Olympic rules, because the fall was due to an equipment issue and not deemed his fault. The 22-year-old then returned to the bars for his second attempt, but he once again fell to the mat with his hands appearing to take some serious damage on the first spill.
It wasn't over there though, as Dolci, after chalking up and putting his hand through some minor repair work, completed his set and stuck his landing.
The Paris crowd, who gave Dolci a roaring ovation when he returned to the apparatus for his second and third attempts, was vocally behind the gutsy Canadian the entire way.
A bruised and bloodied Dolci gave the love right back in a heartwarming moment, thanking the crowd for its support before gesturing a heart toward the bleachers — where the damage he suffered to his hand was more than evident.
For more on this story, see our Yahoo News Canada coverage here.
Summer McIntosh cruises into 200-metre butterfly finals
The Canadian Olympic sensation will get the chance to swim for another gold medal after Summer McIntosh cruised to a win in her semifinal heat with a time of 2:04.87.
🇨🇦 SUMMER MCINTOSH WINS HER SEMIFINAL
EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING
The 17-year-old swimming sensation goes for gold in the 200m fly tomorrow night. Canadians teens lighting up the pool in Paris. pic.twitter.com/czfAKgIs1H
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 31, 2024
McIntosh seemed to pace herself in Wednesday morning's preliminary heats, swimming into the semifinals with a time of 2:07.70, the sixth-best time in the heats.
The burgeoning star, who still has plenty of races to swim in Paris, wisely conserved energy for when the races really count. The Toronto native is a two-time world champion in the 200-metre butterfly and is considered a frontrunner to make the podium once again on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Summer McIntosh is about to enter a wicked stretch of swimming and just told me she wanted to take it as easy as possible this morning.
She then told me about her call with the Prime Minister after her gold🥇
She’s fired up for tonight and ready to make Canada proud once again. pic.twitter.com/eYw8i4oXDB
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 31, 2024
Also in the pool, Canadians Kelsey Wog and Sydney Pickrem battled hard but ultimately failed to qualify for the 200-metre breaststroke final on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, both swimmers had qualified for the women's 200-metre breaststroke semifinals, finishing 12th and 13th respectively among the 16 swimmers to advance.
🇨🇦Sydney Pickrem JUST missed qualifying for the 200m breaststroke final.
It was the first time competing in this event at the Olympics for Pickrem.
🇨🇦 Kelsey Wog finishes in 13th. pic.twitter.com/atU8u9qBRx
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 31, 2024
Canada men's basketball team clinches berth into quarterfinals
The Canadian men's basketball team has only played two games in group play, but that didn't stop them from clinching a trip to the Olympics quarterfinals, thanks to a little help from their friends in France and Germany.
Both the French and German teams won their second group games on Tuesday. With those two wins, as well as Canada's 93-83 win over Australia, Team Canada is now guaranteed to earn no worse than a wild-card spot in the knockout round, which begins next week.
Canada hasn't advanced to the knockout stage since 2000, when a Canadian squad led by Steve Nash lost to France 68-63 in the quarterfinals. Canada's next group-play game goes Friday, Aug. 2 at 11:15 a.m. ET against Spain.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads the Canada basketball team to knockout stage at Paris Olympics for the first time since 2000! Averaging 18.5 points, 5 assists, and 4.5 rebounds. #Basketball #Canada #SixSigmaSports #ChangeTheGame *Forbes pic.twitter.com/Fmuko9pYBw
— SIX SIGMA SPORTS (@SixSigmaSports) July 31, 2024
Canada's Caeli McKay, Kate Miller finish fourth in women's 10-metre synchronized platform
Caeli McKay and Kate Miller just missed out on a podium finish, finishing fourth Wednesday morning in the women's 10-metre synchronized platform.
The team scored a cumulative 299.22 points over five dives, a little more than five points behind Great Britain's Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini Sirieix, who scored 304.38 points in their dives.
The 2024 Summer Games in Paris mark the team's Olympic debut in this event. It's a little bit of deja vu for Mckay, who competed in the Tokyo Games three years ago with a different teammate, also finishing in fourth place.
The Canadian men's 10-metre synchronized platform team, consisting of Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray, won a bronze medal in this event on Monday.
Canada beats China in women's water polo opener
The Canadian women's water polo squad got off to a hot start in Paris, earning a 12-7 win over China on Wednesday.
What a victory 🙌
Team Canada comes up with the win in the preliminary round in water polo 💪#TeamCanada | #Paris2024 | @RC_Sports pic.twitter.com/6xUd0V6XBp
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) July 31, 2024
Canada takes the pool for its next preliminary-round game Friday against Australia.
Jennifer Casson and Jill Moffatt miss out on lightweight double skulls final
After qualifying for the semifinals through the repechage, Canada's Jennifer Casson and Jill Moffatt failed to make the final after finishing 5th in the first semifinal heat of the women's lightweight double skulls.
They'll have a chance to compete in the B-final, where they could potentially finish the competition in seventh place, five spots ahead of their 12th-place finish three years ago in Tokyo.
Men's sabre team loses to No. 1-ranked South Korea in fencing quarters
The Canadian men's sabre team fell in the the quarterfinals, 45-33, to the top-ranked side from South Korea on Wednesday morning.
Laval, Quebec's, Fares Arfa — who pulled off a stunner for the ages in individual competition days ago — was defeated by Oh Sang-uk in the first relay, with four touches to Oh's five. It was Oh who defeated Arfa in the quarters of the men's individual sabre event after the latter's epic upset of three-time defending gold medalist Aron Szilagyi of Hungary.
Despite the loss, Canada still has one more chance at a team fencing medal as the women's squad, featuring 2024 bronze-medal winner Eleanor Harvey, is considered a serious medal contender in the women's team foil competition, which goes down on Thursday.