At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sinclair broke the record of most goals scored in the Olympics for women's soccer, claiming the golden boot of the competition from two goals against South Africa, one against Great Britain, and three against the United States. She scored a hat-trick in a 4–3 extra time loss in the semi-final match against the American squad. Canada was unhappy with the performance of referee Christina Pedersen, who made a series of controversial decisions in favour of the Americans. Sinclair was ultimately fined a reported $3,500 and banned four matches for post match comments, which accused Pedersen of bias and deciding the result of the match before it had kicked off.