Silver medallist Josh Liendo of Canada and bronze medallist Ilya Kharun of Canada pose after competing in the men's 100-metre butterfly final on Saturday in Paris.Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Josh Liendo and Ilya Kharun are roommates at the athletes’ village in Paris, and a few days ago, the two Canadian swimmers spent their downtime hatching a plan.
Kharun had just won bronze in the 200-metre butterfly, and they were heading into the 100-metre version of that race on Saturday, in which Liendo was a top podium contender.
The plan was simple, Liendo said: One medal would be nice, but what if they both got on the podium?
“We were just talking about it, like almost joking, but at the same time, we did want to do it,” Liendo said.
“It would be crazy,” Kharun said. “Because it’s never been done before.”
On Saturday night, the two roomies did exactly that, making it the first time two Canadian men have ever stood on the podium at an Olympic swimming event.
Liendo was second at the turn, locked in an all-out sprint for first, but unable to catch rival Kristof Milak of Hungary. Kharun was right behind them. When he touched the wall, Kharun said he was in disbelief that it actually happened.
Milak won gold in a time of 49.90 seconds, Liendo took silver in 49.99, and Kharun claimed bronze in 50.45.
“I’m so glad we spoke it into existence, it’s such a great feeling,” Kharun said.
With three medals between them, their room now boasts a lot of hardware. Both had nothing bad to say about living with the other guy this week. Well, except for maybe one thing.
“He talks in his sleep a lot,” Liendo said. “He just does. But yeah, he’s a funny dude.”
Beyond their camaraderie, the two-medal showing was the clearest sign yet that the men’s side has finally achieved the breakthrough they’ve long been seeking after watching the Canadian women rack up 12 medals since 2016.
Before Paris, the men hadn’t won an Olympic medal since 2012. Kharun is now the first men’s swimmer to win two medals for Canada at one Games since Curtis Myden won two bronze at Atlanta in 1996.
Kharun said that when he brought his first bronze back to the village, the rest of the men’s team wanted to see it up close, and it served as motivation for Saturday’s race.
“I think our momentum is going great, everyone is motivating each other,” Kharun said. There’s no words. Everything is going pretty good for Team Canada.”
Canada has now won eight medals at the pool heading into the final day of competition on Sunday. Three of them have come from the men, Liendo and Kharun, four have come from 17-year-old phenom Summer McIntosh, and one from backstroke specialist Kylie Masse.
Liendo, 21, has been heralded as the future of men’s swimming in Canada. He is the best sprinter this country has produced on the men’s side since Brent Hayden won bronze in the 100-metre freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics.
Kharun, 19, who was born in Montreal and grew up in Las Vegas, arrived recently as more of a wild card. He is the son of Ukrainian acrobats who performed for the Cirque du Soleil, and before that went to Montreal as part of a travelling circus, which is when Kharun was born in Canada.
He came to swim for Canada a year and a half ago when the American program said he was ineligible because he only held a Canadian passport.
Born in Toronto, Liendo moved to Trinidad as a young boy when his father’s career with Xerox took them to the island country, where Liendo learned to swim. The family moved back to Toronto when he was about 10 years old, where he soon began to climb the Canadian swimming ranks.
“He’s competitive,” Liendo’s sister Sophia said. “But he’s always been such a sweetheart, even now like, I’m still surprised he is so humble. I don’t know how I would be; like, yeah, I can swim this fast. But he carries himself really well.”
Liendo became the first Black Canadian swimmer to win a medal at an Olympics on Saturday, something he said was a great honour and hopefully an inspiration to other kids looking to come up in the sport.
Liendo’s arrival on the international swimming scene came at the 2022 world championships, where he won bronze in the 100-metre freestyle and the 100-metre butterfly, and helped the men’s squad to a silver in the 4x100 freestyle relay.
A few weeks later, he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in the 100-metre butterfly, and later followed that up with a silver medal in the 100-metre butterfly at last year’s world championships.
In the fall of 2022, he began swimming for head coach and former Olympic gold medalist Anthony Nesty at the University of Florida, working out alongside Caeleb Dressel, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist for the U.S. prior to Paris.
This season, Liendo won the NCAA championship in the 50-metre freestyle.
Liendo’s sister, a 20-year-old student at the University of Alberta, said she’s seen how hard her brother has worked to get to the Paris Games.
“Every swim meet or practice I would be dragged along to go and watch him swim,” she said, joking about all the early mornings she spent poolside in Toronto with her parents.
“I can appreciate how much work he’s had to put in. I’ve seen him get up at 5 a.m. to go travel to practice. And he’d travel by himself when my mom couldn’t help him out. At my age now, I’m like, wow, he put so much work, and I’m so proud of where’s he’s at.”
Follow the latest news and highlights from the Paris Olympic Games
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Josh Liendo was born in Montreal. He was born in Toronto.