Rosie MacLennan carries the flag as she leads Canada into the opening ceremonies for the 2016 Summer Olympics Friday August 5, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Canada's summer athletes moved the needle at the Rio Olympics with one of their best performances ever.
Lagging behind their winter counterparts since the turn of the century, Canadians won 22 medals to equal the most at a non-boycotted Games after Atlanta in 1996.
Four gold, three silver and 15 bronze bettered the 18 medals and single gold of London four years ago. Quadruple gold was also the best since seven in 1992.
"Our athletes have proved we're one of the best teams ever sent to any Olympic Games," chef de mission Curt Harnett said at Sunday's news conference. "They delivered a historic performance."
What you need to know on the last day of the Olympic Games
A top-12 ranking among nations in the overall medal count has been Canada's goal since Beijing in 2008, but not achieved until Rio. Canada finished 10th behind Italy at 28 medals and one medal ahead of South Korea.
The pool and the track were difference-makers. Generating just a medal or two since 2000, those two sports produced six apiece.
The track team was already on an upward trajectory after collecting eight world championship medals last year.
The swim team's output, led by quadruple medallist and closing ceremonies flag-bearer Penny Oleksiak of Toronto, was remarkable.
Canada's women led the way with 16 medals including the first dozen. And Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, Ont., earned showing jumping bronze aboard Fine Lady, a 13-year-old mare.
The women also provided bronze medals in the team sports of soccer and rugby sevens.
Oleksiak, 16, joins 21-year-old triple-medal sprinter Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., as Canada's athletes to watch heading into Tokyo in 2020.
A gold medal by Ottawa's Erica Wiebe extended Canada's streak of putting a woman on the wrestling podium to four straight Olympics since the sport's debut in 2004.
Reigning world high jump champion Derek Drouin of Corunna, Ont., repeated his championship performance in Rio. Rosie MacLennan of King City, Ont., defended her trampoline gold from London.
What's interesting about the team's performance in Rio is that Canada's conversion rate wasn't higher.
The percentage of athletes who placed in the top five at their most recent world championship and stood on the podium in Rio was 59 per cent, compared to 60 per cent in London and 67 per cent in Beijing.
There were Canadians flying well under the radar into Rio that stood on the podium.
Oleksiak's medals, including a gold, a silver and a pair of relay bronze, Wiebe's gold, a backstroke bronze from Kylie Masse of Lasalle, Ont., and Lamaze's bronze counted among the unexpected hardware.
As swimming and track gained ground, Canada's traditional strength in boats faded with just one silver medal from rowing, canoe and kayak.
"In some cases, some sports didn't have the performances they were hoping for," Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith said.
"Other sports stepped up, stepped up their game so we still have an overall performance that exceeded expectations."
The COC said previously a top-12 finish was a stepping stone to top eight, which required 29 medals in Rio.
"We've talked about top eight in the past," Smith agreed. "There's a price tag to that. We'll have to look at that price tag and see if that's something we can do."
The Canadian taxpayer is the largest single contributor to their Olympic teams. The federal government spent almost $200 million in 2015 on its athletes and hosting international events for them.
Own The Podium directs roughly $36 million of Sport Canada funding annually based on medal potential to Olympic and Paralympic summer sport federations, plus an extra $6 million to summer-team sport.
COC chief executive officer Chris Overholt said Sunday that $105 million was invested in summer and winter sport over the last four years via corporate sponsorships.
That's significant money, but achieving a top-eight finish takes even more, said OTP chief executive officer Anne Merklinger.
"To ultimately be a top-eight nation would require a pretty dramatic increase in financial investment and isn't something that would happen in 2020," she said. "It would be a 2024 plan that would need to be deployed."
OTP's strategy of directing money to sport federations whose athletes demonstrate medal potential has its critics.
Sport's cyclical nature means some federations get a small sliver of the funding pie or none at all. Sport Canada is currently reviewing OTP strategy, but Rio is a check mark in its favour.
"Fourteen years ago we thought this was a good idea, this was the path and this was a cutting edge approach to high-performance sport internationally," Canada's sport minister Carla Qualtrough said.
"So like any coach will tell you we need to keep reviewing the game plan. Medal performances say how well we've done under this particular plan but maybe there's a different direction we need to go to achieve even better results next time."
The Canadian Press projected 19 medals — two gold, five silver and a dozen bronze — for the team in Rio.
The absence of multiple Russians suspended for doping and a slingshot effect from the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, where the host team was second to the U.S. with 217 medals, were perhaps factors in Canada's medal haul.
The COC pays bonus money to medallists of $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.
Each athlete on the soccer and rugby teams receive $10,000 for their bronze medal, so the COC's total payout for Rio will be $750,000.
The coaches of medallist are also rewarded at half the rate of their athletes. That bill comes to $137,500.
The Paralympic Games are scheduled for Sept. 7-18 in Rio despite recent budget cuts.
The Rio Games had its share of problems and bad press, but as Smith put it, the athletes came, competed and won medals.
"Much was said about these Games before they even opened," she said. "Since the Games are about athletes, the key to the success of the Games was ensuring the athletes were given the opportunity to perform to the best of their abilities — good transport, good venues, fair racing and competitive conditions.
"Those were provided here at Rio."