Richard Weinberger (right) with gold medalist Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia and silver medalist Thomas Lurz of Germany (left) after receiving their medals on Friday. (photo courtesy of Canadian Olympic Committee)

Moose Jaw born Richard Weinberger made his way onto the podium on Friday at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.  The swimmer took bronze in the 10-kilometre open-water marathon, finishing with a time of one hour, 50 minutes and 0.30 seconds.

"Every thing is moving so quickly and I'm just so happy that I was able to compete for my country and do well," said Weinberger over the phone from London on Friday afternoon.

"So much work has been put into the swim, not from just me, but my coach, my family, my friends, who have all supported me, and even Swim Canada and Own The Podium, and along with my university, University of Victoria.  It's not just me, it was a team effort."

Weinberger led early in the race in London's Serpentine Lake, but fell to fourth by the midway point; he then battled his way back up into second place and eventually settled for the bronze medal.  He says pacing himself was the biggest test in the race, "The pace was quite quick throughout the whole race, so you have to be careful how you use your energy because you only have a small metre of fuel and it can run out quickly."

Weinberger says he had a good idea of what position he was in and knew it would be a fight to the end, "After passing the feeding pontoon on the fifth lap, four of us broke away -- world champion Spyridon Gianniotis, Thomas Larz, who's been world champion a number of times, and Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli, who beat me at the Olympic qualifier -- I knew it was going to come down to us four, and it turns out I got the bronze, so I'm extremely pleased."

The 22-year-old was born in Moose Jaw and says he moved at a young age, but has a few memories of the Friendly City, "I lived there for about four or five years.  It was pretty cold, but I remember the (Tunnels of Moose Jaw), my parents took me and that was pretty cool."

Weinberger says he started swimming while in Moose Jaw, but "sunk like a rock".  He started competitive swimming after moving out to BC and took up open-water swimming just four years ago.

Thanks to Weinberger, Canada pulled within one of their medal total from the 2008 Beijing Olympics with 17 medals now.  The Olympics wrap up on Sunday.

Marc Smith speaks with Olympic bronze medalist Richard Weinberger just a few hours after his medal winning swim.