The Canadian Olympic Committee named its team for the coming Paris Summer Games on Tuesday, a delegation including 338 athletes.
Canada’s team boasts 142 returning Olympians, 38 who already own medals, including two of the country’s most decorated Olympians of all time. Swimmer Penny Oleksiak, who has seven to her name, and sprinter Andre De Grasse, who owns six, are each making a third Olympic appearance.
The Games begin on July 26 – with some preliminary competitions on July 24 – and continue through Aug. 11. They will feature 329 events across 32 sports, many contested at venues held alongside famous Paris landmarks, from the River Seine to the Eiffel Tower and Roland Garros. The athletes will return to normalcy, after the Tokyo Games in 2021 was a year delayed by the pandemic, then held without fans and under strict restrictions.
“The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have been long anticipated, both by athletes and fans,” said Bruny Surin, Olympic champion and Team Canada’s Paris 2024 chef de mission. “The atmosphere promises to be unique and festive.”
Canada’s team is slightly smaller than the group that competed in Tokyo, which had 370 athletes, including eight squads qualifying in team sports. Canada is sending six teams to Paris. Those include the defending women’s soccer champions, a women’s basketball team and the first men’s basketball squad to play at a Summer Games since 2000 – a group boasting 11 NBA players, from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to Jamal Murray.
Some experts have estimated Canada could collect approximately 20 medals in Paris, projected on the strength of Canadians who have thrived on the world stage in recent years, including 800-metre runner Marco Arop, judoka Christa Deguchi and 17-year-old swimming sensation Summer McIntosh.
Canada earned 24 medals in Tokyo, its most at a non-boycotted Summer Games. That was 11th among all countries competing, and included seven golds, seven silvers and 10 bronzes.
Of the 338-strong delegation, 22 are alternates who will travel to Paris ready to step in at a moment’s notice. The Canadian athletes hail from nine different provinces – all but Newfoundland and Labrador – the most from Ontario (141), Quebec (58) and British Columbia (45).
Canada will compete in 3×3 basketball, BMX freestyle, and surfing for the first time at an Olympics – all sports that made their Olympic debuts at Tokyo 2020. In Paris, Breaking will debut, featuring gold-medal contender Philip Kim of Canada.
Team Canada has full teams in men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics for the first time since Athens 2004. Canada is sending full teams in all three equestrian events for the first time since London 2012.
Dressage rider Jill Irving (61) is the oldest Olympian on Canada’s team; while 14-year-old park skateboarder Fay DeFazio Ebert is the youngest.
The athlete with the most Olympic appearances to their credit is table tennis player Mo Zhang, as Paris 2024 will be her fifth straight Games.
Other notables Canadians will recognize include pro-tennis stars Félix Auger-Aliassime, Bianca Andreescu, Milos Raonic and Leylah Fernandez; plus golfers Brooke Henderson, Corey Conners and Nick Taylor.
The COC will have a Canada Olympic House for the first time since the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, a home away from home for Team Canada athletes and their families, as well as for fans.
“These Games mark a return to the full scale of the Games we haven’t had the opportunity to experience in a long time,” said Eric Myles, the COC’s chief sport officer. “From packed stadiums and having families and friends on hand, to being able to welcome the world to Canada Olympic House, Paris 2024 will be a moment to cherish for us all.”