Team Canada won the bronze medal in the women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday. The Canadian team consisted of Rebecca Smith of Red Deer, Alberta, Sarah Fournier of Cochrane, Alberta, Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge, Quebec, and Canadian Olympic silver medalist Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, British Columbia. Savard won the bronze medal in the women’s 4×200 meter freestyle 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and Ruck won the silver medal in the women’s 4×100 meter freestyle at the 2020 Olympics in 2021.
Smith, Fournier, Savard and Ruck posted a time of 3:37.95. The Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 3:36.61. Australia won the silver medal with a time of 3:36.93. Canada reached the podium with a seven-tenths of a second lead over Poland, which finished fourth with a time of 3:38.65. Poland set a national record.
This was Canada’s third medal at the 2024 World Aquatic Swimming Championships, but first at an Olympic event. Jacqueline Simoneau of Montreal, Quebec, won the gold medal in the women’s solo exercise and a silver medal in the women’s technical exercise in artistic swimming. The medals for Smith, Savard, Fournier and Ruck will give them confidence as they prepare 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
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