Canada are back on the podium after a historic run at the Rio 2016 Women's Olympic Football Tournament. Canada, which features UP women's soccer alums Christine Sinclair and Sophie Schmidt, won five of six matches to claim their second consecutive bronze medal, culminating their run with a 2-1 victory over host Brazil on Friday.

Seventeen-year old Deanne Rose opened the scoring against Brazil, and the captain Sinclair scored the eventual winner in the second half. The goal is Sinclair's 165th scored in international competition, which ranks second all-time.

For Team Canada, this marks the first back-to-back medal performance at the Summer Olympic Games since 1908. From more than 100 years of Summer Olympics, only Team Canada's men's lacrosse had previously won back-to-back medals back in 1904 and 1908. With bronze at London 2012 and Rio 2016, Canada Soccer's Women's National Team are the first women's team sport to win back-to-back Summer Olympic medals.

Sinclair began the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics in style with a goal and an assist during Canada's 2-0 win over Australia. Sinclair first assisted on Team Canada's first goal, which came just 20 seconds into the match and is the fastest goal in Olympic history. And then in the second half, Sinclair found the back of an empty net, after the Australian keeper came off her line, to secure the two-goal win.
 
The Canadians played with 10 players for most of the match after a red card was shown to Shelina Zadorsky, but they held on to earn three points in group play. Schmidt subbed on for Canada in the 69th minute.

Schmidt then joined Sinclair in the starting XI as Canada faced Zimbabwe over the weekend, a game which the Canadians won 3-1. Sinclair scored her 164th career international goal during the win. Team Canada then claimed the top spot in their group with a huge 2-1 win over Germany.
 
This is the second straight Summer Olympics that the University of Portland is represented by three Pilot alums on the pitch as Megan Rapinoe (USA) was also in Rio. Rapinoe and the Americans opened Olympic group play with a 2-0 win over New Zealand. Rapinoe, who has been recovering from an injury, was not used in the match, and the Americans followed their opening win with a big 1-0 win over France on Aug. 6. Rapinoe finally saw action against Colombia and Sweden, but the American's stay in Rio unexpectedly came to an end when Sweden topped USA 4-3 in PK's during a quarterfinal match.
 
For Sinclair and Schmidt, their trip to Rio marks their third straight appearance in the Olympics. Rapinoe, who has spent most of the year recovering from an ACL injury, will be making her second consecutive Olympic appearance.
 
At the 2012 Olympics in London, Rapinoe registered three goals and three assists to help the Americans win the gold medal. Sinclair, who had a hat trick against the U.S. in London, and Schmidt helped the Canadians claim the bronze, which was the country's first Olympic medal in women's soccer.
 
Recent UP graduate Josh Ilustre also competed in Rio, running the 800 meters for Guam.
 
More Links
- Canada Soccer Recap: Canada 2, Brazil 1 (Aug. 19)  I  Photos
- US Soccer Recap: Sweden 1, USA 1 (Sweden advances 4-3 on PK's)  (Aug. 12)  I  Photos
- US Soccer Recap: USA 2, Colombia 2  (Aug. 9) I  Photos
- FIFA Recap: Canada 2, Germany 1 (Aug. 9)  I  Photos
- US Soccer Recap: USA 1, France 0 (Aug. 6)  I  Photos
- FIFA Recap: Canada 3, Zimbabwe 1 (Aug. 6)  I  Photos
- US Soccer Recap: USA 2, New Zealand 0 (Aug. 3) I  Photos
- FIFA Recap: Canada 2, Australia 0 (Aug 3.)  I  Photos
- TV/Live Stream Schedule
- Olympic Soccer Homepage
- USSoccer.com
- CanadaSoccer.com