Canada at the Summer Olympics became the first Canadian Summer Olympian to win a medal in four straight Olympics. After George Hodgson won two gold medals in the 1912 Stockholm games, it would be 72 years before Alex Baumann became the second Canadian swimmer to win Olympic gold, when he won both individual medley events in world record time in the 1984 Los Angeles games. Victor Davis (1984), Anne Ottenbrite (1984), Mark Tewksbury (1992) and Penny Oleksiak (2016) are the only other Canadian swimmers to win gold medals. In 2004, Canada failed to win a medal of any colour in swimming for the first time
Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics its standings as the most successful nation in swimming. A stellar performance in the pool also made an Olympic history for Michael Phelps, who captured eight gold medals to break Mark Spitz's 1972 record, a total of seven, at a single Games. Despite the male swimmers failing to attain a single gold in swimming, Australia managed to repeat a second-place effort on its third consecutive Olympics with 20 medals (six golds, six silver, and eight bronze). Meanwhile, Great Britain finished third with a total of six medals by the benefit of a sterling long-distance freestyle double from Rebecca Adlington. A