Maggie Mac Neil makes Pan Am Games history for Canada with 5th swimming gold in Chile

Maggie Mac Neil swam the butterfly portion of the women's 4x100-metre medley relay on Wednesday and helped Canada to victory for its 23rd medal in the pool at the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.

It was the fifth win of these Games for Mac Neil, who passed fellow swimmer Jessica Deglau (1999) and two others for most gold medals by a Canadian at a single Pan Am Games.

The 23-year-old from London, Ont., has also won gold in women's 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle along with relays in the 50 free and 100 free.

Table tennis player Lijuan Geng (1995) and gymnast Ernestine Russell-Carter (1959) also won four gold at a single Pan Am Games.

Mac Neil was also a member of the mixed relay teams that picked up silver and bronze. She and Mary-Sophie Harvey each earned seven medals in Santiago, which is the most by a Canadian woman at a Pan Am Games.

Marianne Limpert and Joanne Malar (1995), Ralph Hutton (1967) and Deglau won six.

In Wednesday's race, Danielle Hanus and Rachel Nicol put Canada in silver-medal position at the Aquatics Center following the backstroke and breaststroke. Enter Mac Neil, the reigning Olympic champion in the butterfly, with her team trailing the United States by 25-100ths of a second.

One hundred metres later, the Canadians had clocked a time of three minutes 4.94 seconds and led by 54-100ths as Harvey took over in the freestyle. With 50 metres left, Catie DeLoof cut into the deficit and Canada only led by 11-100ths, but Harvey held her off.

Mexico was awarded the bronze medal after a 4:04.73 performance, just 6-100ths ahead of Colombia.

Canadian swimmers amassed 25 medals in total in Santiago with 11 gold, the most at a Pan Ams held outside Canada.

Mac Neil didn't taper to peak for the Pan Ams. She raced in a World Cup in Athens, less than a week out from Santiago's opening ceremonies.

But she started strong on opening night when Mac Neil swam Canada's third leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay.

The reigning Olympic champion in the women's 100 butterfly then claimed gold in that distance Sunday in Pan Am Games record time.

Her hopes and expectations met in her signature event, Mac Neil then went to work in individual freestyle races, which are important to her because of relays.