Canada's Ilya Kharun earns bronze in men's 200m butterfly final
Montreal native secures Canada's 1st medal in men's swimming since London 2012
The moment wasn't too big for Ilya Kharun.
While La Defense Arena whipped itself into a frenzy over his college teammate and host-country hero Leon Marchand, the 19-year-old from Montreal kept his nerve and produced the first Olympic swim medal by a Canadian man in a dozen years.
Kharun claimed bronze in the men's 200-metre butterfly Wednesday in Paris behind French winner Marchand and silver medallist Kristof Milak of Hungary.
"It means a lot. I'm really happy that I got to this moment," Kharun said.
In other Wednesday swimming action, Marchand and Katie Ledecky continued to impress.
His was Canada's third swim medal in Paris after Summer McIntosh's medley gold and freestyle silver. Kharun was the first Canadian to reach the Olympic podium in 200 fly, although McIntosh is primed to join him Thursday in the women's event.
Kharun's Arizona State Sun Devils teammate Marchand also won the 200-metre breaststroke later Wednesday evening to further ratchet up the hype in the arena, and make the 22-year Frenchman a triple gold medallist in Paris. Kharun wasn't intimidated by him in the 200 fly final
"I"m really happy that I actually got to race with him," Kharun said. "We're enemies in the pool and outside of it we're really good friends.
"The atmosphere is absolutely crazy in here. It's just so great. I just kept my cool and breathed and that's it."
Marchand broke Milak's Olympic record in 200 fly in one minute, 51.21 seconds. The Hungarian touched the wall in 1:51.75 followed by Kharun with a Canadian record 1:52.80.
Brent Hayden in the 100-metre freestyle, Ryan Cochrane in the 1,500 freestyle and open-water swimmer Richard Weinberger in London in 2012 were the last Canadian men to win Olympic swim medals — when Kharun was seven.
Kharun, who will also race Friday's 100-metre butterfly, tied for fourth in the 200 in last year's world championships.
He's somewhat of an accidental Canadian. His says his Ukrainian parents Valeriy and Oksama were acrobats in an international travelling circus.
"I just happened to be born" in Montreal "because that's where the circus was stationed," said Kharun, who was raised in Las Vegas while his parents performed in Cirque du Soleil shows.
"I'm really happy to represent Canada and it's just so amazing to show everyone what I can do," he said.
Kharun dabbled in acrobatics too, but says that pursuit was too expensive and he eventually landed in swimming. Kharun thought his father, who provided the shoulders for other acrobats to stand on, might have passed on a genetic gift that works well in swimming.
Kharun was recruited to Arizona State by Michael Phelps' former coach Bob Bowman, who left the Sun Devils in April for the University of Texas.
McIntosh posted the fastest time in the women's 200 fly semifinals Wednesday, so the two-time world champion will have the coveted middle lane to chase her second gold and third medal of the meet Thursday.
She'll have an advantageous view of her competition in lane four, and the water is less turbulent in the middle of the pool than at the edges.
"My goal for tonight was to try and get a decent lane for the final," McIntosh said. "I didn't really care if I was first or anything, but also wanted to feel on my stroke as best as possible and overall was happy with it."
Sydney Pickrem of Clearwater, Fla., finished ninth and Winnipeg's Kelsey Wog 13th in the women's 200-metre breaststroke semifinal. The top eight advanced to Thursday's final.
Swedish gold
Sarah Sjöström turned her fifth Olympics into a gold-medal celebration.
The 30-year-old Swedish veteran pulled off her own surge to the finish to win the 100 freestyle for the second gold of her brilliant career.
Sjöström was only fourth at the turn but kicked into another gear on the return lap, touching in 52.16 seconds. The U.S. team settled for another silver medal — its eighth of the swimming competition — when Torri Huske finished in 52.29. Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong took the bronze at 52.33, edging Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan by one-hundredth of a second.
It was the fifth Olympic medal overall for Sjöström, who first competed at the 2008 Beijing Games where Phelps won a record eight golds. Her previous gold came in the 100 butterfly at the Rio de Janiero in 2016.
This victory might be the sweetest of all. She gasped in disbelief and pounded the water when she saw her time and, more important, the number beside it.
She was again an Olympic champion.
Pan sets world record
Also on Wednesday, Pan Zhanle of China broke his own world record on the way to winning the men's 100m freestyle, finishing in 46.40 seconds for his country's first swimming gold medal.
That mark topped his 46.80 swum at the February world championships in Doha.
In perhaps the most ferocious race in swimming, the 19-year-old Pan edged Kyle Chalmers of Australia, who clocked a 47.48 for silver and Romanian bronze medalist David Popovici in 47.49.
No world marks had been broken through the first four days in the pool at the Paris Games.
