Triathlete Paula Findlay was not the first Canadian athlete to suffer a devastating disappointment at an Olympic Games. She is not even the first to do it in London. Canada has a long history of tragic or unexpected misses at the international event.

Adam van Koeverden

“I did everything I could ... I have no explanation for this. All I have is an apology. I’m sorry,” said van Koeverden after a disappointing eighth-place finish in the K1 1,000 four years ago in Beijing. He was able to claim a silver medal in the K1 500 that same year.

In London 2012, van Koeverden is only competing in one event, the K1 1,000. He races Monday.

Tom Longboat

An Onondaga Indian from the Six Nations reserve near Brantford, Longboat was considered one of the runners of his time.

In 1907, Longboat won the Boston Marathon (24.5 miles originally) in the record time of 2:24:24. At the 1908 London Olympics he was the favourite for the marathon at the new distance of 26 miles, 385 yards — the distance today’s marathoners run. But the legendary runner disappointed a young nation at the Games that year, collapsing after 20 miles along with another runner under circumstances that remain unexplained today. There were unproven rumours of drug use.

Despite the loss, Longboat went on to win major races in Canada, the United States and Europe, dominating the field until 1912.

Perdita Felicien

In what was described as one of the most shocking sports moments of 2004, Felicien tripped over the first hurdle in the final at the Games in Athens, stumbling into the path of Russian Irina Shevchenko.

“I hit the first hurdle! I don’t know what to make of it. I don’t know what happened. There should have been an indication. But there was nothing. Just BOOM! And I’m on the ground. It’s over,” said Felicien who was also injured in the fall.

The 2003 world champion has continued to compete and has 10 Canadian championships to her name. Felicien failed to qualify for London.

Nathalie Lambert

Short-track speed skater entered the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer as a two-time defending world champion and serious contender for three gold medals.

But Lambert’s disappointment began with her first race in the 500 metres. She fell after jostling with American skater Cathy Turner. She didn’t blame Turner, but the referees for not enforcing the rules.

“If you start thinking about it, it’s still frustrating,” said the Montrealer a few months after the Games. Other wins didn’t make up for the injustice that was done in the Games she said. “It’s years and years of training.”

Lambert still left the Games with two silver medals.

Jeremy Wotherspoon

This long-track speed skating titan knows Olympic disappointment well. Wotherspoon was the heavy pre-Games favourite at the Nagano Games in 1998 but had to settle for silver in the 500.

Four years later in Salt Lake City he fell after taking only a few steps in the same event. He managed ninth at the Turin Games. He faced his final disappoint in 2010 at the Vancouver Olympics with a ninth-place finish.

His silver from Nagano was his only Olympic medal, but Wotherspoon also had 67 World Cup victories, four world sprint titles, 11 World Cup titles and numerous world records.

Anne Montminy

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An Olympic disappointment doesn’t mean an athlete will never see a medal. The Montreal diver failed twice to make the final at Summer Games, first in 1992 in Barcelona and again in 1996 in Atlanta, when she was among the top medal hopes.

“I’ve screwed this up so often, I didn’t want to screw it up again,” said Montminy after finally winning a bronze in the women’s 10-metre platform event and silver in 10-metre synchro diving at the 2000 Sydney Games.

“I know I can perform when no one’s watching; I wanted to perform when the whole world was watching,” she said at the time.