2 Weeks In Paris
We are so proud of all our Funkita athletes who have now returned home after two weeks on the biggest sporting stage of all!
Of course we have to start with the week that turned Summer McIntosh into a global superstar. Summer has worn Funkitas since she first dived into competitive swimming when she was a 10 year-old watching the best of Canada competing for a spot on the 2016 team. It inspired her to train for her own shot at success. Eight years later, Summer is the toast of the sporting world with 3 gold medals and a silver medal. Her swims included:
Gold
400m Individual Medley (4:27.71)
200m Individual Medley (2:06.56)
200m Butterfly (2:03.03)
Silver
400m Freestyle (3:58.37)
Canada also secured 4th in both the 200m Freestyle Relay and 100m Medley Relay. Summer went on to celebrate with flag bearer duties for Canada at the closing ceremony and now gets to celebrate her 18th birthday at home with family, friends and 3 gold medals!
For Australia’s Iona Anderson it was a huge debut putting together 3 impressive swims in her 100m Backstroke with a 58.98 in the final securing her 5th place. She went on to swim the heats of both the Mixed Medley Relay and the Medley Relay where the Australians won a silver medal. Iona summed up her experience for us,
"Overall, I was happy with how I performed. I was thrilled to have made a final on my debut. The atmosphere was incredible and it was a privilege to be able to have the opportunity to race the best in the world. It was all about learning and enjoying the process of it all which is exactly what I took away from the experience so I can’t ask for much more than that. To come away with 5th place in a final is great and my two medals from relay heat swims was unexpected and finished my meet on a high."
Our Irish F-Teamers did an incredible job, in a campaign that made Ireland proud. Ellen Walshe had a busy program, she came 22ndin her 100m Butterfly, was 8th in the final of the 400m Individual Medley (4:40.70) and finished 13th in the 200m Individual Medley (2:11.35). Grace Davison swam in the 100m Freestyle and Medley Relays with the Medley Relay team setting an Irish record to place 11th.
Finishing just ahead of the Irish team in the Freestyle Relay was Poland with F-Team athlete Julia Maik. Their time of 3:40.67 secured a 13th place finish for the Polish team.
For our F-Team divers, it was an incredible fifth finals appearance for diving legend Melissa Wu in the Games since she first dived for Australia in 2008. After a year struggling back into the sport it was an amazing send off for Melissa to even be competing, and to finish with a finals appearance with fellow Aussie diver Ellie Cole. Ellie finished 7th and Melissa 11th in the final. Alysha Koloi finished 13th overall in the 3m springboard which she was proud of in her first Games appearance.
In the open water swimming in the extremely challenging conditions in the Siene, Betti Fabian from Hungary finished 5th and Team GB Leah Crisp finished 20th. As many spectators witnessed the current in the Siene was incredibly strong which Leah highlighted in her post-event summary,
“Swimming in a current like that was unlike anything I’ve done before and have learnt so much from the experience.”
Triathlete Ainsley Thorpe survived the treacherous waters of the Siene and slippery stones on the bike course to finish 44thin the Women’s Triathlon, despite a nasty crash on the bike leg.
We are extremely proud of all our athletes and the inspiration they have provided all the up-and-coming athletes out there with their eyes on Los Angeles and Brisbane.