Canada is on pace for its best non-home Pan Am Games ever

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Canadian athletes keep piling up the medals at the Pan American Games in Chile. Yesterday's haul was 18, including eight gold, and today had already brought four more medals by our publish time — including a gold by shooter Tugrul Ozer in the men's 10m air pistol event.

That brought Canada's total for the Games to 80 medals — 29 gold, 24 silver and 27 bronze, good for second place in the standings behind the unreachable United States.

With 11 days of competition still left (counting today), Canada is on pace to break its record of 47 gold medals for a non-home Pan Am Games, set in 1995 in Argentina. The national record for any Pan Ams is 78 golds, set in 2015 in Toronto.

Yesterday marked the end of competition in swimming, diving, gymnastics and badminton, which all proved to be major sources of medals for Canada.

Swimming, as usual, was the focal point of the first few days of the Games. Maggie Mac Neil won her Canadian-record fifth gold of the meet yesterday as part of the women's 4x100m medley relay team. It was also Mac Neil's seventh medal of any kind at these Games — one short of the national record set by gymnast Willie Weiler in 1963.

Mac Neil, the reigning Olympic champion in the women's 100m butterfly, won gold in all three of her individual events and added two more gold, a silver and a bronze in relays. Also earning seven medals was Mary-Sophie Harvey, who collected three gold, two silver and two bronze to help Canada's swimmers finish with 25 medals, including 11 gold (second to the United States).

In diving, four-time world-championships medallist Pamela Ware was Canada's best performer. She won the country's only gold medals (in the 1m and 3m springboard events) and took silver in the 3m synchro with teammate Mia Vallée as Canada finished second to Mexico with eight medals.

Felix Dolci led the way for Canada's gymnasts, who captured 10 medals (third behind the U.S. and Brazil). After helping Canada qualify a men's team for the Olympics for the first time since 2008 at the world championships earlier this month, the 21-year-old Dolci became the first Canadian in 60 years to win the men's all-around title at the Pan Ams and added another gold in the floor exercise. Zachary Clay, who also helped with the Olympic qualification, won Canada's other gymnastics gold, in the pommel horse.

Canada cleaned up in badminton, winning four of the five gold medals. Josephine Wu accounted for two of them, in women's and mixed doubles.

What's next:

As we await the start of track and field on Sunday, the two most interesting sports for Canada leading into the weekend are boxing and beach volleyball. Both feature Canadian medal contenders that we're likely to see again at the Paris Olympics next summer.

The stakes are especially high in boxing, where the winners of today's semifinals in all 13 weight classes earn a spot in the Olympics. Those athletes will fight for gold tomorrow, while the losers of today's semis are each awarded a bronze.

This morning, Canada's Tammara Thibeault dominated her semifinal bout in the women's 75-kilogram division to book her second consecutive trip to the Olympics (she made it to the quarterfinals in Tokyo in 2021). Thibeault will square off for gold tomorrow against Panama's Atheyna Bylon, the same woman Thibeault beat for the middleweight title at last year's world championships.

Canada's Junior Petanqui missed his chance to qualify for the Olympics this afternoon, losing his men's 71kg semifinal, but he still walks away with a bronze.

Three other Canadians will step into the ring for semifinal matches today: Mckenzie Wright in the women's 50kg at 4:14 p.m. ET, Charlie Cavanagh in the women's 66kg at 5 p.m. ET and Wyatt Sanford in the men's 63.5kg at 6 p.m. ET.

In beach volleyball, Canada's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson play in the women's semifinals today at 4 p.m. ET. The medal matches are on Friday.

Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson are ranked fifth in the world after falling in the quarterfinals at the world championships last month. Humana-Paredes is the child of Chilean expats, so she's been playing in front of big groups of family and friends at the Pan Ams.

For an updated roundup of Canada's top performances today at the Pan Ams, go here.

How to watch:

Four different channels of live Pan Am Games action are available to stream all day, every day on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. You can find them here. 

Each weekday at 6 p.m. ET on those streaming platforms, CBC Sports' Anastasia Bucsis hosts a show featuring live events and highlights with a focus on Canadian athletes.

The CBC TV network will have additional coverage on Saturday and Sunday afternoons throughout the Games, hosted by Scott Russell and Andi Petrillo.

See the full streaming and broadcast schedules here.