Third time was a charm for West Vancouver's Georgia Simmerling, who hit the podium today in Rio competing in her third different sport in three different Olympic Games.
Simmerling joined Allison Beveridge, Jasmin Glaesser and Kirsti Lay to blast past New Zealand in the bronze medal race in women's track cycling team pursuit. Simmerling, who previously competed in alpine skiing in 2010 and ski cross in 2014, had never before raced a bicycle on a velodrome track before she gave it a whirl in June of 2014. It didn't take her long to get the hang of it and she made her debut on the World Cup circuit in January of 2016. Now she's an Olympic medallist.
"Did that just happen?" Simmerling posted on her Twitter account moments after the race. The big chunk of bronze hanging around her neck confirms that yes indeed, that did just happen.
Canada's time of 4:14.627 in the bronze race topped New Zealand by nearly four seconds and set a new Canadian record.
