20 athletes to represent Canada in Para athletics at the Paris 2024 Paralympics
Five members of the team are Paralympic medallists.
Twenty athletes were named to Canada’s Para athletics team for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Thursday.
Of the twenty athletes, five are Paralympic medallists and eleven will be making their debut on the biggest stage. Two of the athletes, Greg Stewart and Nate Riech, are defending Paralympic champions from Tokyo 2020.
Stewart won gold in the men’s F46 shot put event, setting a Paralympic record with his title-winning throw of 16.75m. He retired in 2022 but returned in 2023 in the leadup to these Paralympics. A silver medal from Stewart at the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships earned Canada a quota spot for the Paralympics, and then he booked his spot on the team with his performance at the Track & Field Trials in Montreal.
“There are going to be a lot of new teammates and I’m really excited to see a really strong women’s side, in particular,” Stewart said in a press release. “Also, to compete with a bunch of my friends – I’m really excited. Paris is going to be a hoot, for sure.”
Riech set a Paralympic record of his own in Tokyo, winning the men's T38 1500 metres event and breaking the Games record by about 15 seconds.
He is the current world record holder in the event as well, and a two-time world champion, winning gold at the 2019 and 2023 World Para Athletics Championships.
One of Canada’s stars of Tokyo 2020 was Brent Lakatos, who won four silver medals and ended up being Canada’s closing ceremony flag bearer. Lakatos has eleven Paralympic medals in five previous trips to the Paralympic Games going back to Athens 2004 — one gold, eight silver, and two bronze. His lone gold medal was in the men’s T53 100m event at the Rio 2016 Games.
Marissa Papaconstantinou will compete at her third Paralympics this summer, three years after winning a bronze medal in the women’s T64 100m event in Tokyo. She matched that result at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris last year, also adding a bronze in the 200m event at that event.
Zach Gingras is the other Paralympic medallist on the team, having won bronze in the men’s T38 400 metres in Tokyo. Gingras won a silver medal in the event at the 2023 worlds, and will look to improve to gold this summer at his second Paralympic Games.
Four other athletes with previous Paralympic experience will represent Canada in Paris — Austin Smeenk, Renee Foessel, Guillaume Ouellet, and Charlotte Bolton.
Smeenk has had a record-breaking season, setting a new mark three separate times in the men’s T34 400m event, as well as a new world record in the men’s T34 800m. He won a pair of medals — 100m silver and 400m bronze — at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, where he was one of Canada’s co-captains along with Foessel. These will be his third Paralympic Games.
Foessel and Ouellet are also going to their third Paralympics. Foessel won silver in the women’s F38 discus at the 2023 worlds, as well as a bronze in the event at the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile later that year. Ouellet won bronze in the men’s T34 1500m at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships.
“Coming out of the world championships last year, and a podium performance, I would really like to go in and achieve the same,” Foessel said in a press release. “A gold medal would be optimal, but I’m really excited to get there and get in the ring and do the best I can.”
Bolton is heading to her second Paralympic Games, less than a year after the 21-year-old won the bronze medal in the women’s F41 discus at the 2023 Parapan American Games.
Of Canada’s Paralympic debutants, seven have won medals at major international competitions before.
Four of them enter Paris 2024 after winning medals at the Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Games — Anthony Bouchard (men’s T52 100m gold), Sheriauna Haase (bronze in both the women’s T47 100m and 200m), Jesse Zesseu (men’s F37 discus silver and F37 long jump bronze), and Keegan Gaunt (women’s T13 1500m bronze).
Three others won medals at either the 2023 or 2024 World Para Athletics Championships — Bianca Borgella (women’s T13 200m silver and T13 100m bronze in 2023), Noah Vucsics (men’s T20 long jump silver in 2023), and Cody Fournie (men’s T51 100m silver in 2024).
Ashlyn Renneberg, Julia Hanes, Katie Pegg, and Amanda Rummery complete the Canadian Para athletics team in their Paralympic debuts.
At Tokyo 2020 Canada came away with eight Para athletics medals – two gold, four silver, and two bronze. The total of eight medals matched their tally from five years earlier at Rio 2016.
Para athletics events in Paris will take place from August 30 to September 8 at Stade de France, with the marathon events taking place on the final day of competition in the streets of the French capital.
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