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Rio 2016
Left to right: Canadian gold medalists Erica Wiebe, Derek Drouin, Penny Oleksiak and Rosie MacLennan on August 21, 2016 at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

Left to right: Canadian gold medalists Erica Wiebe, Derek Drouin, Penny Oleksiak and Rosie MacLennan on August 21, 2016 at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail

With a total of 22 medals, Team Canada's performance at the Rio Olympics was one of its best at a Summer Games.

The Canadian team of 314 athletes brought home 15 bronze, three silver and four gold medals.

Here's a look at how the medals break down:

Canada's medal haul

Canada's gold-medal haul from the Rio Olympics is the best the country has seen in the past two decades of the Summer Games. Canada also won 22 medals at the Atlanta Games in 1996, but the composition was quite different: Canada won more gold medals in Rio than in Atlanta, but it didn't win as many silver medals.

Canadian athletes had their best showing at a Summer Olympics at the Los Angeles Games in 1984, winning 44 medals in total.

Tenth in the world for medal count

Canada's 22 medals placed it 10th in the world for the overall medal count, falling nearly 100 medals short of the United States, which took the top spot.

Most gold medals since Barcelona

Team Canada won four gold medals at the Rio Olympics – the third highest number of golds the country has ever won at a Summer Games, behind Los Angeles in 1984 and Barcelona in 1992.

Canada achieved four gold medals during a Summer Olympics twice before: St. Louis in 1904 (men's 400-metre hurdles, 56-pound weight throw, football and golf), and Amsterdam in 1928 (men's 100 metres, men's 200 metres, women's 4x100-metre relay and women's high jump).





Trich McAlaster/The Globe and Mail

Women dominate overall medal count

Women brought home the majority of Canada's medals from Rio, winning 16 out of the total of 22.

Four of those 16 medals were thanks to 16-year-old swimming star (and flag-bearer for the closing ceremony) Penny Oleksiak, who won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Canadian diver Meaghan Benfeito also won multiple medals – a bronze in the women's 10-metre platform and a bronze with teammate Roseline Filion in the women's 10-metre synchronized event.


Women athletes participating in the Summer Games this year outnumbered the men (all team sport participants included). The Rio Olympics had the highest percentage of female participants of any Olympics.

The number of total medals won by women at the Summer Olympics has been growing over a number of years.

Not one woman won a medal at the Tokyo Summer Games in 1964.

The number of medals won by women in Rio this year hit an all-time high, tying the record set in Los Angeles in 1984.


With reports from Danielle Webb and The Canadian Press


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