315 Canadian athletes competed in 31 sports in the 2024 Summer Olympics

The Olympic Games are possibly the most widely known international sporting event in the world. Featuring 329 events in 32 sports and hosting over ten thousand athletes, the 2024 Olympics were held in Paris, France, from July 26 to August 11th, 2024. 

Canada has participated in almost every Olympics since 1900, and this year was no exception. The Canadian Olympic Committee sent a team of 316 athletes (one of which withdrew shortly after) and 22 alternates coming from nine provinces and territories to compete across 31 sports. Most of Team Canada’s athletes were featured in the opening ceremony wearing all red uniforms, waving the Canadian flag along the Seine. But although many enjoyed the opening ceremony, the fun began on July 27, 2024. 

28-year-old Christa Deguchi, originally from Nagano, Japan, managed to secure Canada’s first gold medal of the season on July 29, only 3 days after the Olympics were declared open. Deguchi, who holds many gold, silver, and bronze medals in several international judo championships, and who came to these Olympics as the number one in the world in the women’s 57 kg event, beat South Korean judoka Huh Mi-mi in the finals of said event and became the first ever Canadian athlete to win gold in judo at the Olympics. 

Swimming superstar Summer McIntosh secured Canada’s second gold medal that same day. Originally from Ontario and only 17 years old, McIntosh is already a three-time Olympic champion and holds the world record in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley. In the Paris Olympics, she obtained the gold medal in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley on July 29, then went on to obtain two more gold medals in the Women’s 200m Butterfly and 200m Individual Medley on August 1 and 3, respectively. McIntosh also brings home a silver medal for her performance in the Women’s 400m Freestyle event on July 27.

The following day, July 28, 29-year old foil fencer Eleanor Harvey won Canada’s first ever medal, bronze, in an Olympic fencing event after her win over Italian fencer Alice Volpi. This is Harvey’s third Olympics, and her best placement so far. However, Harvey also reached the highest finish for a Canadian fencer in the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she placed 7th. 

Huskie pride incoming; on July 29, USask Kinesiology student Rylan Wiens, along with Nathan Zsombor-Murray, earned the bronze medal in the Men’s 10m Synchronized Platform diving event. This is Wiens and Zsombor-Murray’s first Olympics competing as a pair, but together they have also won bronze and silver medals in other major international championships, including the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. 

On July 30, Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team obtained a silver medal after their 21-12 victory over Australia in the semi-finals and 12-19 loss to New Zealand in the finals. Part of the team is 20-year old Carissa Norsten, a Saskatchewan native who was named Rookie of the Year in the women’s 2023-24 World Rugby Sevens Series. 

Ilya Kharun, a 19-year old swimmer from Montréal, secured a bronze medal in the Men’s 200m Butterfly event on July 31, 2024, and another bronze medal in the Men’s 100m Butterfly event on August 3, 2024. With his international debut being only a short two years ago, Kharun set two World Junior and three National records. He currently holds the National record for the Men’s 200m Butterfly, which he set at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Sophiane Métot earned Canada a bronze medal in the Women’s Gymnastics Trampoline event on August 2, 2024. The 26-year old has also won several bronze and gold medals in both the World and Pan American Championships on her own and as part of a team, from 2016 to present. 

On the same day, Gabriela Dabrowski and Félix Auger-Aliassime won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles tennis event. Individually, the pair have an extensive record: 32-year-old Dabrowski holds 16 career titles in doubles and 2 in mixed doubles. She is also a three-time Grand Slam champion having won the Australian, French, and US Open tournaments in doubles and mixed doubles events. At 23 years old, Auger-Aliassime has already won multiple titles, including two US Open tournaments in the Boys’ singles and doubles events and both a Junior and adult Davis Cup, both firsts in Canadian history, and is currently ranked nineteenth in the world. 

Also on August 2nd, Kylie Masse won a bronze medal in the Women’s 200m Backstroke event. This is Masse’s third Olympics, and she’s the first Canadian swimmer to be on the podium in three consecutive Olympics. Masse also holds several medals from multiple World Aquatics Championships, Commonwealth Games, Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, and more, where in multiple occasions she managed to set national records and improve upon them. 

Team Canada’s women’s rowing team secured a silver medal in the Women’s Eight event on August 3, finishing behind Romania by almost 4 seconds. This is only the sixth time in Olympic history that the Canadian women’s rowing team obtains a medal. 

Also on August 3rd, swimmer Josh Liendo won the silver medal in the Men’s 100m Butterfly. The 22-year-old from Ontario has competed in multiple championships, where he won medals in men’s butterfly, medley relay, freestyle, and other events. Qualifying to the 2020 Summer Olympics by breaking the national record in the men’s 100m butterfly event, this is Liendo’s second Olympics – although he did also compete in the 2018 Youth Summer Olympics. Liendo holds the National record for men’s 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly.

Hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg, from British Columbia, made history in the 2024 Summer Olympics, which were also his first Olympics. 22-year-old Katzberg had an opening shot so impressive (84.12 meters) that he was the only competing hammer thrower to achieve a distance over 80 meters. He won the first hammer throw medal for Canada since 1912, and won the first gold medal for a Canadian in a throwing event since 1904. It was this same shot that earned Katzberg the gold medal in Men’s Hammer Throw on August 4. 

Boxer Wyatt Stanford brought a bronze medal home on August 4 after he was defeated by French boxer Sofiane Oumiha in the semifinal. Originally from Nova Scotia and having competed and placed in many international boxing championships, this is Stanford’s second Olympics, and his bronze medal is the first Olympic medal for Canada in boxing since 1996. 

25-year-old Camryn Rogers earned Canada a second gold medal in hammer throw on August 6, 2024, in her second ever Olympics. Rogers, whose professional career boasts several gold medals in hammer throw events of international track and field championships, and who was the first ever Canadian woman to make the Women’s Hammer Throw finals in the 2020 Summer Olympics, secured a gold medal for her showstopping 76.97 meter throw in the 2024 Summer Olympics, a distance that was over 2 meters longer than her throw in the qualification phase.  

On August 7, Alysha Newman obtained a bronze medal in Women’s Pole Vault. Newman’s performance in her third Olympics led her to reach the Olympic final for the first time in her athletic career. She’s competed in pole vault since she was an undergraduate student in the U.S., and holds many gold and bronze medals for her performances in the Commonwealth and Pan American Games, and the Pan American U20 Championships.

Maude Charron, a weightlifter and the co-flag bearer during the opening ceremony, secured a silver medal for Canada in weightlifting, in the Women’s 59 kg event. Charron holds several weightlifting records including two national records, and many career medals such as gold medals in the 2020 Olympics, where she was the second Canadian weightlifter to ever win a gold medal in the Olympics and the 2021 and 2023 Pan American Championships. 

Born into a big family of taekwondo athletes, 25-year-old Skylar Park has been competing in said sport since childhood and this is her second Olympics representing Canada. She holds many gold, silver, and bronze medals in the Pan American games, World Championships and Junior Championships, and Grand Prix, and on August 8, 2024, she won the bronze medal in the Women’s 57 kg Taekwondo event.

The following day was an exciting one; Sloan MacKenzie and Katie Vincent, two sprint canoeists, won the bronze medal in the Women’s C-2 500m event. The pair already holds a gold medal in the same event from the 2023 Pan American Games. MacKenzie also won two bronze and one gold medal in the 2022 and 2023 World Championships but these are her first Olympics.  Vincent also represented Canada in the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she won a bronze medal in the same event with another partner. Later on August 10, Vincent went on to win the gold medal in the Women’s C-1 200m canoeing event.

Additionally on August 9, a team of four athletes won the gold medal in the Men’s 4x100m Relay: Jerome Blake, a track and field athlete who specializes in sprint events; Aaron Brown, a sprinter specializing in the 100m and 200m events; Andre De Grasse, a sprinter and Brendon Rodney, another sprinter. 

These four athletes have a long list of accomplishments, both individually and as a team. As a team, they won the silver medal in the same event in the 2020 Summer Olympics, the gold medal in the 2022 World Championships, and the silver medal in the 2024 World Athletics Relays. Blake also holds a gold medal in the 2018 NACAC Championships for the same relay event, along with Brown. Brown holds a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay event from the 2016 Summer Olympics along with De Grasse and Rodney, as well as many other career titles. De Grasse also has an extensive list of career titles; most notably, he holds five Olympic medals besides the two mentioned; one gold from the 2020 Summer Olympics in the 200m event, one silver from the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 200m event (where he finished behind Usain Bolt), and three bronze medals, two from the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 100m event and 4x100m relay events, and one in the 100m relay event from the 2020 Summer Olympics. Lastly, Rodney was also part of the men’s relay team that placed third in the 2016 Summer Olympics (4x100m relay event). 

Also on August 9, Melissa Humaña-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson won the silver medal in Women’s Beach Volleyball. Together, they were the first Canadian team to reach the women’s volleyball semifinals at any Olympics, but they ultimately lost the final against the Brazilian Women’s beach volleyball team composed of Ana Patricia Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa. Individually, they have both won multiple gold, silver and bronze medals from Beach Volleyball World Championships, the FIVB Beach Volleyball Tour, and Pan American Games, among others.

Lastly, on August 10, Marco Arop, a track and field athlete competing in middle distance events, won the silver medal in the Men’s 800m. Arop, who was born in Sudan but has lived in Edmonton since childhood after a brief stop in Saskatoon, has been competing in 800m events since his college days in the U.S. This is his second Olympics, and he’s made the podium in the World Athletics Championships, Pan American Games and U20 Championships, and NACAC Championships. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, Arop finished a hundredth of a second behind Emmanuel Wanyonyi, from Kenya, and he set the Canadian national record and the North, Central American & Caribbean area record in the 800m event.

On the same day, Canada also made Olympic history with breakdancer Phillip Kim, known as Phil Wizard, winning the gold medal in the inaugural breakdancing sport, in the B-boys event. Kim, born in Toronto, also has won gold medals in the 2023 WDSF Pan American Breaking Championship, 2022 WDSF World Breaking Championship, and 2023 Pan American Games where he was the first ever B-Boy to win. 

This was Team Canada’s second most successful Olympics ever, with 50 athletes winning a total of 27 medals (9 gold, 7 silver, 11 bronze) across 15 sports. Regardless of medals obtained, Canadians thank all athletes for their unmatched dedication to their craft and for representing Canada at the Olympics, and congratulate everyone on their performances!