Future bright for 'golden age' of Canadian swimmers as focus shifts to Los Angeles 2028

When the Canadian swimmers gathered in Caen ahead of the Olympics, they soaked in the history around them in the French port city, and talked about making some history of their own.

And leave a mark they did, as Canada finished with eight medals in the pool. It was the best result in a non-boycotted Olympic Games since 1976.

Seventeen-year-old sensation Summer McIntosh, responsible for half of those medals, became the first Canadian to earn three golds at one Olympic Games — etching her name in history.

Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo became the first Canadian men to get on the podium since 2012, with Kharun earning two bronze and Liendo a silver.

Kylie Masse, a role model for so many swimmers on this team and a key part of the program's breakthrough in Rio in 2016, also won her fifth-career Olympic medal. A bronze in the 200-metre backstroke made Masse the first Canadian swimmer to medal in three consecutive Games.

WATCH | Masse earns 5th career Olympic medal:

They make up what Swimming Canada national team coach and high performance director, John Atkinson, calls a "golden age" in the pool.

Atkinson sees a bright future as the program looks ahead to Los Angeles 2028, when the Olympics will return to North America and swimmers will compete under the bright lights of SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL's LA Chargers and LA Rams. More than 35,000 people will be able to pack into that arena to watch Olympic swimming.

"You look at the age of [McIntosh], 17. She'll be 21 in LA," Atkinson told CBC's Asha Tomlinson on the pool deck on Saturday, the final day of swimming competition.

"[Liendo], he'll be 25 in LA. [Kharun] will be 23. They're the medallists and there's a lot of other younger athletes who are all going to still be