Four skateboarders named to Team Canada for Paris 2024 Olympics
14-year-old Pan Am champion Fay De Fazio Ebert is among the quartet heading to Paris.
Four skateboarders will represent Canada at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer, after officially being named to Team Canada by Canada Skateboard and the Canadian Olympic Committee on Wednesday.
The athletes qualified for Paris 2024 based on their performances across World Skate events over the past two years, as well as the Olympic Qualifier Series which finished in Budapest, Hungary this past weekend.
The youngest member of Team Canada this summer will likely be 14-year-old Fay De Fazio Ebert, who will make her Olympic debut less than a year after winning the women’s park gold medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. De Fazio Ebert’s gold medal at Santiago 2023 was Canada’s first in skateboarding at the Pan Am Games as the sport made its Pan Am debut, two years after its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
She already has five years of competitive experience in the sport, and will be looking to win Canada’s first Olympic medal in skateboarding as well.
“It makes a big impact having so many outstanding Canadian skateboarders headed to Paris 2024,” said De Fazio Ebert. “We lack high-level skateboarding training facilities in the country. Yet, to see us as a team, as individuals, push through and skateboard our best on this international scene is amazing.”
Matt Berger is the only member of the Canadian delegation who went to Tokyo 2020, where he finished 20th in the men’s street event. That same year Berger finished sixth at the World Skateboard Championships, his best-ever result, and earlier this year finished seventh in the World Skate Dubai Street Men’s Final.
Ryan Decenzo, who will turn 38 a few days before the Olympics begin, has been a mainstay on the national team for a long time, and will make his Olympic debut in Paris. The former X Games champion missed out on qualification for the Tokyo Games, but finished fourth in the street event at skateboarding’s Pan Am Games debut last year.
Now he is going to the Olympic Games for the first time.
“To represent Canada for skateboarding in Paris is an honour,” said Decenzo. “It’s something we have all been working hard toward. It was not an easy process, but we are happy to be here today. We will give it our all and hopefully, make Canada proud.
Nineteen-year-old Cordano Russell will be making his major games debut at Paris 2024, and is the highest-ranked Canadian in the men’s street rankings. Russell finished fourth at the 2023 World Skate Street World Championships, and chose to defer his scholarship to the University of San Diego to focus on qualifying for his first Olympic Games.
Micky Papa, who placed tenth in the street event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, is Team Canada’s alternate athlete for Paris 2024, in case of injury.
The men’s street skateboarding event will take place on July 27 at La Concorde 3, while the women’s park event will take place on August 6 at La Concorde 4.
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