Canada's first Olympic medal came in the pool

Photo: Photo by Mark Blinch/COC

Canadian swimmers Kayla Sanchez, Margaret MacNeil, Rebecca Smith and Penny Oleksiak win silver in the Women's 4x100m Freestyle during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Sunday, July 25, 2021.

Canada's women's swim team has picked up where it left off five years ago in Rio.

The team picked up Canada's first medal of the Tokyo Olympics Saturday, a silver in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay.

Kayla Sanchez, Maggie MacNeil, Rebecca Smith and Penny Oleksiak finished the race in three minutes, 32.78 seconds, three one-hundredths of a second ahead of the bronze medal-winning Americans.

Australia were again the class of the field, winning the event for the third straight games in world record time.

Kelowna-born Taylor Ruck, who swam the third leg of the qualifying heat, will also receive a silver medal.

Canada was fourth heading into the final leg, but Oleksiak, who along with Ruck, became the first athletes born in the 2000s to win an Olympic medal five years ago, chased down both Swedish and U.S. swimmers to turn for home in second place.

She held off the American swimmer to grab the silver medal.

It was a step up the podium for the freestyle relay team, who won bronze in Rio.

Oleksiak won four medals in the pool in Rio, the first Canadian to win four medals at the same summer games.

Both Ruck, and Kelowna's Kierra Smith will be in the pool early Sunday morning Pacific Time.

Ruck will swim in the heat of the women's 100 metre backstroke while Smith competes in the heats of the women's 100 metre breaststroke.