Canada earns Olympic bronze medal in men’s synchro 10-metre platform

Canada has its third medal at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Nathan Zsomber-Murray and Rylan Wiens earned bronze for the country in the men’s synchro 10-metre platform diving event on Monday.

Canada now has two bronze medals and one silver with most events still to come on Day 3.

It was Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the men’s synchro 10-m platform event.

“It’s surreal. It still doesn’t feel real,” Zomber-Murray told CBC Olympics. “I was pretty excited when I saw the scoreboard. After 16 years of non-stop hard work, it’s just overwhelming.

Canada and Mexico were in a dramatic battle for bronze heading into the sixth and final dive. The Mexican pair of Kevin Berlin Reyes and Randal Willars Valdez came up just short, finishing with 418.65 points to the Canadians’ 422.13.

China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao won gold with 490.35 points, while Thomas Daley and Noah Williams of Great Britain took silver with 463.44.

“We work together as a team so amazingly. We’ve envisioned this since we started doing synchro three years ago,” Wiens told CBC Olympics. “To have it all come (together) here, it’s truly amazing. Words can’t describe the feeling.”

Zsomber-Murray, from Pointe-Claire, Que., and Wiens, from Saskatoon, are members of Canada’s diving team for the second Olympics in a row.

In 2022, they became the first Canadians to win a world championship medal in the men’s 10-m synchro when they took bronze.

They went on to win silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games, and the 2024 World Aquatics Diving World Cup in Berlin. 

“I don’t tear up very often, but I started to well up a little before we stepped on (the podium),” Wiens told CBC Olympics. “Looking up to my parents in the stands and my very first coach behind me, being able to share this moment with all my family who made it here, it truly was a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”