What’s happening today at the Olympics: Skylar Park wins bronze in taekwondo; Maude Charron claims weightlifting silver

Skylar Park of Canada fight Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon in their bronze-medal match in women’s taekwondo at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 8.Albert Gea/Reuters

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Olympic highlights for Aug. 8

Canadian Skylar Park won a bronze medal this afternoon in women’s 57-kg taekwondo with a 2-0 victory over Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon. She got the opportunity after winning a repechage against Turkish fighter Hatice Kubra Ilgan earlier in the day. Park fell 0-2 in the women’s quarterfinals to South Korea’s Kim Yu-Jin, who subsequently reached the final. Park’s bronze makes 21 total medals for Canada so far at the Games.
Canadian flag-bearer Maude Charron claimed silver in the women’s under-59-kilogram weightlifting final, after a missed last attempt at a 132-kilogram clean-and-jerk dashed her hopes of claiming another gold. She won the women’s 65-kilogram event in Tokyo in a weight class that no longer exists.
Canada’s women’s beach volleyball team is guaranteed its first-ever Olympic medal after beating Switzerland 2-1 in the semi-final to advance to the gold-medal match against the defending champions United States tomorrow. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson already became the first Canadian women to secure a chance to play for an Olympic beach volleyball medal when they eliminated Spain in the quarter-finals.
Andre De Grasse’s hopes for a medal in Paris are still alive after the men’s 4x100-metre relay team qualified for the final with a third-place finish in their heat this morning. The women’s team also qualified for tomorrow’s finals and set a new national record of 42.50 seconds in their heat.

In photos: Day 13 of the Paris Olympics

Canada's Skylar Park stands on the podium during the medal ceremony after winning the bronze medal.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
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Canada's Skylar Park celebrates winning the Bronze medal after her victory over Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon in Women's Taekwondo 57kg .Albert Gea/Reuters
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Skylar Park of Canada in action with Laetitia Aoun of Lebanon during the Women's Taekwondo 57kg Bronze Medal match.Tingshu Wang/Reuters
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Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson celebrate their win advancing to the Women's Beach Volleyball finals.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
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Brandie Wilkerson from Canada hits the ball during the Women's Beach Volleyball semi-finals against Switzerland.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
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Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes in action during the Women's Beach Volleyball semi-finals against Switzerland.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
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Canada's Dylan Bibic, second left, competes in the Men's Omnium scratch race 1/4 during the Olympic Games.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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Canada's Kelsey Mitchell, left, competes in the Women's Keirin Cycling Track during in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
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Lauriane Genest of Canada, Mathilde Gros of France, Katy Marchant of Britain, Emma Hinze of Germany and Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez of Mexico in action during heat 3 of the Women's Track Cycling Keirin quarter-finalsAgustin Marcarian/Reuters
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Silver medalist Maude Charron of Team Canada celebrates on the podium at the Weightlifting Women's 59kg medal ceremony on day thirteen of the Olympic Games.Amanda Perobelli/Reuters
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Maude Charron of Canada competes in the Women's 59kg Weightlifting in Paris.Amanda Perobelli/Reuters
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Brooke Henderson, of Canada, plays her shot to the 15th green from the fairway during the second round of the Women's Golf event at the Olympic Games.Matt York/The Associated Press
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Canada's Nicholas Matveev, Pierre-Luc Poulin, Laurent Lavigne and Simon McTavish in the Men's Sprint Canoe Kayak Four 500m Semifinal 1.Yara Nardi/Reuters
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Canada's Blaire McDowell is about to score during a women's Water Polo 5th and 8th place classification match against Italy.Luca Bruno/The Associated Press
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Canada's Blaire Mcdowell injured in the women's water polo 5th-8th classification match between Italy and Canada.ANDREAS SOLARO/Getty Images
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Jiapeng Chen of China in action before going on to win heat 2 ahead of Pablo Mateo of France and Andre De Grasse of Canada during the final Men's 4 x 100m Relay Round 1.Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
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The final baton exchange before Jiapeng Chen of China, Pablo Mateo of France and Andre De Grasse of Canada during the final Men's 4 x 100m Relay Round 1,Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
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Canada and Britain compete in the Women's 4 x 100m Relay Round 1 heat in Saint-Denis, France.Martin Meissner/The Associated Press
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Sarah Mitton of Canada in action during Women's Shot Put Qualification and will compete in the finals.Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters
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Fans of Team Canada cheer on their Water Polo athletes in the match against Italy.Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
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Japan's Tsugumi Sakurai, right, celebrates after defeating Canada's Hannah Fay Taylor in the round of 16 of the Women's Freestyle 57kg Wrestling match at Champ-de-Mars Arena.Eugene Hoshiko/The Associated Press
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Canada's Alena Sharp plays a shot from the 3rd fairway during the second round of the women's golf event at the Olympic Games.Matt York/The Associated Press
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Coach Jae Park speaks with his daughter Skylar Park as she leaves the mat following her loss to South Korea's Yujin Kim in the women's 57kg quarter-final.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
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Czech Republic's Dominika Hronova competes with Canada's Skylar Park in a women's 57kg Taekwondo match.Andrew Medichini/The Associated Press
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Canada's Toshka Besharah-Hrebacka, Natalie Davison, Riley Melanson and Courtney Stott react in the finish area of the Women's Kayak Four 500m semifinals.Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press
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Katie Vincent, of Canada, competes in the Women's Canoe Single 200m heats in Vaires-sur-Marne, France.Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press
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Sophia Jensen of Canada in action during Women's Canoe Single 200m heats in Vaires-sur-Marne.Molly Darlington/Reuters
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Magomed Eldarovitch Ramazanov of Bulgaria (top) competes with Alexander Robert Moore of Canada during Men's Freestyle 86kg 1/8 FinalKim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
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Here’s what happened today, Aug. 8, at the Olympics

Athletics: Sick with COVID-19 and sapped of his famous finishing kick, American Noah Lyles had to settle for bronze in the men’s 200-metre sprint as Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo captured gold in an upset, and Kenneth Bednarek of the U.S. won silver. Tebogo’s gold-winning time was 19.46 seconds. Lyles, it was later revealed, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday but chose to compete anyway. He later said he wouldn’t compete in the upcoming relays.
Athletics: Canadian Sarah Mitton finished first in the women’s shot put qualifier with a throw of 19.77 metres, and will be the first Canadian woman to compete for a medal in the event at 1:37 p.m. ET tomorrow at Stade de France.
Basketball: The United States faced Serbia in a men’s basketball semi-final and needed a fourth-quarter comeback from its roster of NBA superstars to secure its place in the final, where it will face host France on Saturday. Stephen Curry scored 36 points to pace the Americans to a 95-91 win. Reigning NBA MVP had 17 points and 11 assists in the loss. In the other semi-final, France upended the world championship gold medallists from Germany, 73-69.
Golf: After round two of the women’s individual stroke competition, Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp of Canada are part of a group of seven golfers tied for 29th in the field at three over par. Henderson shot a one-over round of 73 today, while Sharp fell down the leaderboard after her round of 76, or four over. Round three begins tomorrow morning at 3 a.m. ET.
Athletics: Canada’s Savannah Sutherland missed the podium in the women’s 400-metre hurdles at Stade de France, finishing seventh in the final. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. set a new world record with a 50.37-second run for gold. Meanwhile, Canadian Michelle Harrison did not make the women’s 100-metre hurdles final after coming in 19th of 21 in the repechage heats this morning.
Water polo: Canada’s women’s team lost in to Italy 10-5 in the classification round and will play for seventh place on Saturday at 3 a.m. ET.
Open-water swimming: Canada’s only marathon swimmer in Paris, Emma Finlin, finished 23rd out of 24 competitors in the women’s 10-kilometre race final in the Seine River, but said she’s proud to have completed the race. On Wednesday, officials determined the long-polluted river was safe to swim in and allowed practices to begin. Gold medalist Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands even drank some of the water after winning Thursday’s race.
Canoe sprint: The men’s and women’s kayak four sprint teams didn’t qualify for the 500-metre sprint finals after both finished last in their semi-finals.

What to watch for tomorrow, Aug. 9, at the Olympics

Athletics: Canada will race in the men’s and women’s 4x100-metre relay finals beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET at Stade de France.
Athletics: The women’s shot put final will start at 1:40 p.m. ET with Canadian Sarah Mitton looking for a medal.
Boxing: Algeria’s Imane Khelif will face off with China’s Yang Liu for gold at 4:51 p.m. ET, in a tournament that has been overshadowed by a gender controversy surrounding Khelif and another female boxer, Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan. Both boxers will be swinging for gold and an end to the speculation and abuse the uproar has brought in their final matches.

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