Marco Arop of Edmonton, Alberta won the silver medal on Saturday in the men’s 800 metres at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. For Arop, the silver medal was redemption, as he was unable to make the Olympic final in the men’s 800 metres at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
Arop posted a second place time of 1:41.20. He missed out on a gold medal by the slimmest of margins. Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya won the gold medal with a time of 1:41.19. Djamel Sedjati of Algeria won the bronze medal with a time of 1:41.50. Arop earned a medal by 0.47 seconds. Bryce Hoppel of the United States finished in fourth place with a time of 1:41.67.
Arop’s time of 1:41.20 was also a Canadian record. He beat his previous time of 1:42.85 when he won the silver medal at the 2023 Diamond League Final in Eugene, Oregon. In that race, the only runner to be faster than Arop was also Wanyonyi, who had a winning time of 1:42.80.
In all, there were four Canadian records set at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Audrey Leduc of Gatineau, Quebec set the Canadian record in the women’s 100 metres with a time of 10.95 seconds. Alysha Newman of London, Ontario set the Canadian record when she won the bronze medal in the women’s pole vault with a throw of 4.85 metres, and Sade McCreath of Ajax, Ontario, Jacqueline Madogo of Ottawa, Ontario, Marie-Eloise Leclair of Montreal, Quebec and Leduc set a Canadian record with a time of 42.50 in the women’s 4×100 metres.
