Canada’s Katie Vincent is back on the Olympic podium.
Three years after winning Olympic bronze in the women’s canoe double 500-metre race in Tokyo with Laurence Vincent Lapointe, the Mississauga, Ont., native teamed up with Sloan MacKenzie on Friday to capture another bronze in the same race in Paris.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Vincent, 28, told CBC Olympics. “It came right down to the wire. I’m just so grateful we ended up on the right side of the podium finish. Right now still no words. Just super excited. And so proud of Sloan and how far she’s come the last two years to get to this point.”
The Canadians finished just .06 seconds behind Ukraine’s Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiia Rybachok in a thrilling race for silver. Canada was just over a half-second ahead of fourth-place Hungary.
China’s Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya easily won gold in an Olympic-record time of one minute, 52.81 seconds — 1.49 seconds ahead of Ukraine.
It was the 22nd medal for Canada at Paris 2024 and the 11th in an event featuring water.
“After Tokyo, I wasn’t done yet,” Vincent said. “I wanted to come here to Paris and make an impact and do something monumental. I think just in our sport it’s pretty rare in Canada … to be able to do it twice.”
The Chinese boat has dominated the event, taking Olympic gold in Tokyo ago before winning two world championships in a row.
Vincent and MacKenzie, from Windsor Junction, N.S., won their semifinal earlier Friday in 1:55.34 to earn a spot in the final.
The Canadians set a then-Olympic record in the heats on Tuesday, finishing in 1:54.16. The Chinese boat broke that record in the semifinals (1:53.73).
“I’m just super excited and super proud of us as a crew,” MacKenzie, 22, said.
Vincent also will compete for a medal in the C-1 200 metres on Saturday
Vincent and MacKenzie qualified for the Olympics by winning bronze at the 2023 world championships. They went on to win gold at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and silver at the first World Cup of 2024.
Vincent set the world-record time in 2018 with Vincent Lapointe, securing a time of 1:51.42.
Vincent Lapointe retired after the 2021 Olympics.