RECAP: Canada captured its first gold medal of the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games

Saturday was highlighted by a historic performance in taekwondo, as Canada captured its first gold medal of the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU Games. Action also continued across swimming, badminton, and table tennis, with more Canadians qualifying for finals and turning in strong results heading into a busy Sunday.

Badminton

Canada’s badminton team defeated Australia 3-0 in their 9–16 placement match on Saturday, setting up a Sunday morning matchup against host Germany at 9 a.m. A win would send the Canadians to the ninth-place match scheduled for 4 p.m. local time.

Table Tennis

Mixed doubles and men’s and women’s singles group play opened Saturday for Canada. In women’s singles, Ivy Liao had a dominant 3-0 victory over Zemfira Mikayilova of Azerbaijan, while Crystal Liu posted a 3-0 win against Victoria Sofia Castro Salas of Costa Rica. Nicole Cai dropped her match 3-1 to Bolor-erdene Batmunkh of Mongolia, and Gina Fu fell 3-0 to Agathe Avezou of France. On the men’s side, Terence Yeung posted a 3-0 win over Amin Orujzada of Azerbaijan. In mixed doubles, Yeung and Liu earned a 3-1 win over Azerbaijan, while Kevin Guo and Liao lost 3-0 to a team competing under the Individual Neutral Athletes banner. Action continues Sunday, with Guo and Liao both competing in singles at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., respectively.

Taekwondo

Canada’s taekwondo team kicked off Kyorugi competition with a historic performance from Nithan Brindamohan (Vaughan, Ont. / Toronto Metropolitan University), who captured the country’s first gold medal of the Games in the men’s 54kg division. Brindamohan won four consecutive matches—each by a 2-1 score—including a gold-medal victory over Youngsuk Ethan Gun of the United States. His win marks Canada’s second medal of the Games, following Friday’s bronze in the men’s poomsae team event. Earlier in the day, his sister Sarangi Brindamohan (Vaughan, Ont. / University of Toronto) opened Canada’s Kyorugi schedule with a 2-1 win over Daniela Sambrano Pineda of Colombia, before falling in the round of 16 to Thailand’s Patcharankan Poolkerd.

Swimming

Two Canadians reached finals on Saturday at SSE Berlin, led by Shona Branton (Port Lambton, Ont. / Western), who placed sixth in the women’s 50m breaststroke with a time of 31.18—just half a second off the podium. Julie Brousseau (Ottawa, Ont. / Florida) also raced for a medal, finishing eighth in the women’s 800m freestyle. Three more Canadians advanced to Sunday finals: Ben Loewen (Toronto, Ont. / Toronto) and Patrick Hussey (Montreal, Que. / UNC) in the men’s 200m butterfly, and Ashley McMillan (Penticton, B.C. / USC) in the women’s 100m backstroke. Delia Lloyd (Toronto, Ont. / Ohio State) placed 12th in the 100m back semifinal, missing the final by one second.