21 cyclists named to Team Canada for Paris 2024 Olympics
Tokyo 2020 champion Kelsey Mitchell leads the team into Paris.
Twenty-one cyclists were named to Canada’s Olympic team ahead of Paris 2024 on Tuesday. The team is a mix of Olympic veterans and rookies, featuring eight athletes with previous Olympic experience and 13 newcomers.
Mountain bike, track, and BMX athletes were selected based on their performances at UCI World Cups and World Championships in 2023 and 2024, while road cyclists were chosen based on their results on the world stage over the past two years and their suitability to the Olympic course in Paris.
Molly Simpson will be Canada’s lone athlete in BMX racing, with the 21-year-old set to make her Olympic debut in Paris. She won a silver medal in the sport at the 2023 Pan American Games, a year after winning a bronze medal at the 2022 UCI U23 World Championships. She reached the top four at back-to-back World Cup races in early 2024, building on four top five finishes in 2023.
“I have dreamed of going to the Olympics since I was a little girl and now here I am preparing for my first ones!” said Simpson in a press release. “Words can’t describe how excited and how happy I am to represent Canada at the highest level of my sport; it’s truly an incredible feeling.
“I am really looking forward to the experience and the atmosphere of the whole event, it’s going to be amazing! The process to get here over the past few years has been filled with some high highs and some extreme lows but I am feeling very grateful for this opportunity. Thank you so much to everyone involved.”
The quotas for BMX Freestyle will be announced on June 26, when Canada is expected to receive a men’s quota spot. The selected athlete will be named at a later date, according to a press release from the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Sibling duo Isabella and Gunnar Holmgren will be representing Canada in the mountain bike events, and will both make their Olympic debuts. Isabella is the youngest member of the Canadian cycling team at 19 years old, while Gunnar recently turned 25.
Isabella is a two-time world junior champion, winning gold medals in mountain bike and cyclocross in 2023. In 2024 she has won a pair of UCI U23 World Cup gold medals in mountain bike. Gunnar won Canada’s first gold medal of Santiago 2023, and secured his spot on Team Canada for Paris 2024 with his eighth-place finish at the UCI Elite World Cup in Czechia in late May
“I’m very proud to soon become an Olympian, and being selected alongside my sister makes it even more special,” said Gunnar in a press release. “I’m building to my peak form over the next six weeks and I’m excited to get out there and honor the maple leaf.”
In road cycling, Canada will be represented by Olivia Baril, Derek Gee, Alison Jackson and Michael Woods.
Woods is going to his third Olympics in a row, and at Tokyo 2020 earned Canada’s second-best result in the men’s road race with a fifth-place finish in a thrilling race. The 37-year-old earned his first career Tour de France stage victory in 2023, and will be hoping to add an Olympic medal to the collection that also includes a bronze from the 2018 UCI World Championships.
He will be joined in the men’s road race by Gee, who is making his second Olympic appearance. Gee, a former track cyclist, is coming off winning a stage of le Critérium du Dauphiné, his first international victory. At the 2023 Giro d’Italia he was a runner up in four stages of the event.
“I’m unbelievably excited to represent Canada for my second Olympic Games in Paris this summer,” said Gee in a press release. “Tokyo 2020 was an experience of a lifetime and was a real privilege to race with the maple leaf on my back on the world’s biggest stage. Having spent some time in France already this year and seeing the build up, I can’t wait to experience the atmosphere in Paris this summer. I think it’s truly going to be unparalleled, especially at the cycling events.”
Jackson will make her second Olympic appearance in Paris, a few months after she won a stage of the Vuelta España Femenina earlier this year. Baril, who will be making her Olympic debut, stepped on the podium during a stage of the 2024 Vuelta España Femenina this year, and was a silver medallist in the road race and the time trial at the 2023 Canadian Championships.
Canada is one of only three nations to qualify in every track cycling event, and will be sending a full team of 14 athletes to Paris.
The team is headlined by Tokyo 2020 sprint champion Kelsey Mitchell and keirin bronze medallist Lauriane Genest, who will also compete in the team sprint with Sarah Orban in Paris.
“I am so excited to be heading to my second Olympic Games!” said Mitchell in a press release. "The Tokyo Olympics was such an amazing experience and I will forever cherish those memories and the journey to becoming an Olympic champion. And three years later, we are back to try and do it again.
“The journey to my second Olympics in Paris has been full of ups and downs. I grew a lot as a person and an athlete and I am excited to see where I am at when I get on the line. I am also looking forward to seeing my younger teammates experience their first Olympics and I know they will show up ready to represent Canada and themselves to the best of their ability. It is going to be an Olympics to remember!”
Tyler Rorke and James Hedgcock will make their Olympic debuts in Paris, joined by Tokyo 2020 Olympian Nick Wammes in the men’s team sprint. The trio won the gold medal in men’s team sprint at Santiago 2023, and earned their spot on the Olympic team after winning bronze at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Ontario earlier this year.
Milton’s own Michael Foley will be leading the men’s team pursuit squad into Paris, with fellow Tokyo 2020 Olympian Ariane Bonhomme considered the veteran of the women’s team.
Dylan Bibic will also be a name to watch in the endurance medal events, winning Canada’s first world championship title in a men’s endurance event, the scratch race, in 2022. He won three gold medals during the 2024 UCI Track Nations Cup, including one in the omnium.
Canada has won 16 Olympic cycling medals, including the two track medals at Tokyo 2020. BMX is the only cycling discipline in which Canada has not yet won an Olympic medal.
Road cycling begins with the individual time trials on July 27, starting at Les Invalides and finishing at the Pont Alexandre III. The road races will take place on August 3 and 4, starting and finishing on Pont Léna in front of the Eiffel Tower, going through the French countryside, and looping back through the city.
Mountain bike races will take place on July 28 and 29 at the Elancourt Hill venue. BMX racing will take place August 1-2 at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium. Track events will be held from August 5 to 11 at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Vélodrome.
Full Olympic cycling team for Paris 2024:
BMX Racing:
Molly Simpson (Red Deer, Alta.)
Mountain Bike:
Isabella Holmgren (Orillia, Ont.)
Gunnar Holmgren (Orillia, Ont.)
Road:
Olivia Baril (Rouyn-Noranda, Que.)
Derek Gee (Ottawa, Ont.)
Alison Jackson (Vermilion, Alta.)
Michael Woods (Ottawa, Ont.)
Track (Endurance):
Erin Attwell (Victoria, B.C.)
Dylan Bibic (Mississauga, Ont.)
Ariane Bonhomme (Gatineau, Que.)
Maggie Coles-Lyster (Maple Ridge, B.C.)
Michael Foley (Milton, Ont.)
Mathias Guillemette (Trois-Rivieres, Que.)
Carson Mattern (Ancaster, Ont.)
Sarah Van Dam (Victoria, B.C.)
Track (Sprint):
Lauriane Genest (Levis, Que.)
James Hedgcock (Ancaster, Ont.)
Kelsey Mitchell (Sherwood Park, Alta.)
Sarah Orban (Calgary, Alta.)
Tyler Rorke (Baden, Ont.)
Nick Wammes (Bothwell, Ont.)
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