Canada's Hilary Caldwell celebrates bronze in the women's 200m backstroke finals during the 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Friday, August 12, 2016.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Hilary Caldwell glanced up at the leaderboard and "gave a bit of a scowl" Friday night as she saw her time in the 200-metre backstroke.
It was slower than she expected to swim at the Olympics, but she couldn't stay upset for long. Caldwell's time of 2 minutes 7.54 seconds was still good enough for a bronze medal, and helped prolong the remarkable winning streak Canada's women's swimmers are on this week in Rio de Janeiro.
The bronze medal for the White Rock, B.C., swimmer is Canada's sixth medal in the pool, a record haul for the swimming program that has come all from the women.
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"It's been so cool to see how great we've been swimming," Caldwell said. "We've got to be almost the same amount of medals as Australia, which is outrageous. … That shows we're one of the top female teams here, so I can't believe it. It's crazy. It's great."
American Maya Dirado took the gold in 2:05.99, while Hungary's Katinka Hosszu claimed silver in 2:06.05.
All three podium times were well back of the 2:04.06 world record held by American Missy Franklin, and were slower than the 2:05 Caldwell said she was aiming to swim.
"I did want the gold medal, and I think the 2:05 was in me. But it wasn't tonight," Caldwell said. "I wanted to be faster personally. But in the end, it's about the race and that's where we were all at tonight. I can't be too upset – I'm on the podium."
In addition to Caldwell's bronze, the Canadian women have won five other swimming medals: a pair of relay bronzes in the 4x100 freestyle and 4x200 freestyle; Kylie Masse's bronze in the 100-metre backstroke; and Penny Oleksiak's gold in the 100-metre freestyle and silver in the 100-metre butterfly.
Asked if Caldwell was happy to join the Canadian pool party being put on by the women, she agreed.
"I like that name for it. That's good. Yeah, I've seen six days of girls swimming absolutely lights out fast," Caldwell said. "I'm glad that I get to be a part of that."
With the women winning all the swimming hardware so far, the men's team is still looking to claim its first medal, and has a shot with two-time Olympic medalist Ryan Cochrane swimming in the 1,500-metre freestyle this weekend.