8 Canadian athletes to watch on the road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics
Some athletes to keep an eye over the next four years.
With the Paris 2024 Olympics now behind us, the attention for many athletes will soon turn toward the Los Angeles 2028 Games, if it hasn’t already.
Below are eight athletes who could be Team Canada stars four years from now under the bright lights of Hollywood, but also in the years between in their various world championships, leagues and circuits.
For the purpose of keeping this list fresh, athletes who have already won an Olympic medal have been excluded — so no Paris 2024 stars like Summer McIntosh or Ethan Katzberg, to name a few, who are expected to be podium contenders for a long time.
Feel free to comment others that you’re keeping an eye on as well — the future is once again looking incredibly bright for many Canadian athletes. There will undoubtedly be many who aren’t on the radar currently who emerge in the years to come as well.
Dylan Bibic, Track Cycling
Bibic, 21, became Canada’s first world champion in a men’s track cycling endurance event in 2022, winning the scratch race gold. At the 2023 world championships he took silver in the elimination race, and on the 2024 UCI Track Nations Cup circuit won three gold medals — including a gold medal in the elimination race and a fourth place finish in the omnium at the Milton, Ontario stop of the tour.
In his Olympic debut in Paris, Bibic was battling an illness and wasn’t able to live up to his high expectations, but battled through it to at the very least finish his races — coming 19th in the overall standings. His talent is undeniable, and he could have a huge Olympic cycle in the leadup to LA 2028.
Audrey Leduc, Athletics
2024 was a breakout year for Audrey Leduc, who has quickly emerged as one of Canada’s top sprinters and rewritten the national record books.
The 25-year-old from Gatineau, Quebec broke the Canadian women’s 100m and 200m records earlier in 2024, before being named to her first Olympic team for the Paris Games. She broke her 100m record again in the first round at the Olympics, running 10.95 to win her heat, but was eliminated in the semifinals. She was also eliminated in the semis of the 200m event, but anchored Canada’s women’s 4x100m relay into the final where they would finish sixth.
Alongside Sade McCreath, Jacqueline Madogo and Marie-Éloïse Leclair, Leduc set a new Canadian national record of 42.50 seconds in the first round of the relay in Paris, with Leduc flying down the back stretch to charge past several opponents for her third record of the year.
She has announced herself on the world stage now, so the next step is to push for even greater international success over the next four years.
Félix Dolci, Gymnastics
Canada’s men’s artistic gymnastics team has taken a huge step forward over the past few years and at the heart of that success has been 22-year-old Félix Dolci.
Dolci won five medals at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, including golds in the individual all-around and floor exercise events, adding a silver in the team event and bronzes in the rings and vault. He also won silver medals in the team and floor events at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and reached three finals at the 2023 World Championships.
In his Olympic debut at Paris 2024, Dolci and Canada qualified for the team final for the first time ever, and he also qualified for the individual all-around final, where he finished 20th.
He isn’t shy about his ambitions to be one of the top gymnasts in the world and compete for Olympic medals, and with four more years under his belt has the potential to do just that in Los Angeles, both individually and in the team events.
Olivia Smith, Soccer
One of Canada’s rising soccer stars is 20-year-old Olivia Smith, who is expected to be a regular fixture for the women’s national team for years to come.
Smith made her national team debut as a 15-year-old in 2019, but played exclusively for the youth national teams in the following years until she was a surprise inclusion on Canada’s 2023 Women’s World Cup squad. She made an appearance off the bench in Canada’s third group stage match after impressing in the pre-tournament camp to win her spot.
Since the World Cup, Smith has continued to emerge as a player with boatloads of potential, including scoring twice in Canada’s run to the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup semifinals before being named the tournament’s Best Young Player.
After scoring for fun in Portugal with Sporting CP in her first professional season, she made a big move to English side Liverpool in July for a club-record fee of £210,000, where she will compete in one of the top leagues in the world.
Smith has the potential to be a key player for many years to come for the Canadian national team, especially by the time the 2027 World Cup and 2028 Olympics come around.
Zach Edey, Basketball
Skipping the Paris 2024 Olympics to focus on preparing for his upcoming rookie season in the NBA, Zach Edey’s physical presence on the court was noticeably missing from Team Canada.
The 7-foot-4 centre, selected ninth overall in this year’s NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies, is the twice-reigning Naismith College Player of the Year — one of just three men ever to win the award multiple times, and one of just five men born outside of the United States to win it. He is tied with Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and Boban Marjanović of the Houston Rockets as the tallest active NBA players.
Edey was part of Canada’s roster for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, the only college player on the roster as the team qualified for Olympics with a bronze-medal-winning performance, including upsetting the United States in the third-place game. He will be a key part of the team going forward as well, and by the 2028 Olympics could have four years of valuable NBA experience under his belt with a Grizzlies team that made the playoffs in three of the last four years but had a poor 2023-24 campaign.
Fay De Fazio Ebert, Skateboarding
Fourteen-year-old skateboarder Fay De Fazio Ebert was the youngest member of Team Canada at the Paris 2024 Olympics, competing in the women’s park event. She finished 20th in the qualifying round with a score of 51.82, missing out on the final, but it was more valuable experience for a young athlete with a ton of potential.
Ebert has had success internationally already, most notably at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games where she won the gold medal and beat two-time Olympic finalist Bryce Wettstein of the United States among others.
Over the next four years, Ebert could potentially defend her Pan Am crown at the 2027 Games in in Lima, Peru, before competing in California in 2028 — where the sport was invented.
Christopher Morales Williams, Athletics
Twenty-year-old runner Christopher Morales Williams had an outstanding 2024 season, culminating in a trip to the Paris 2024 Olympics in his signature 400m event.
Morales Williams won both the indoor and outdoor NCAA national 400m titles this year while competing in his sophomore season at the University of Georgia, and set a new Canadian record at the Outdoor Southeastern Conference Championships in May with a time of 44.05 seconds. He decided to forego the rest of his NCAA eligibility after the season, turning professional and signing with Adidas in July — the same day he made his Diamond League debut in Monaco.
In Paris, he finished second to London 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James in the first round, qualifying for the semifinals. He finished eighth in his semifinal heat and missed the final, but it was important experience for Morales Williams as he transitions from the amateur to the professional ranks for the next Olympic cycle — after which he has the potential to reach the podium in Los Angeles.
Erin Brooks, Surfing
Seventeen-year-old surfer Erin Brooks won a lengthy fight for Canadian citizenship earlier this year with the hopes of qualifying to represent Team Canada in surfing at Paris 2024.
She wasn’t allowed to compete for Canada at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games while she was waiting for her citizenship, missing one of her opportunities to qualify, and wasn’t able to book her ticket in her final opportunity at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games either.
She has been spoken about as someone with Olympic podium potential, though, and could be a factor in four years’ time along with fellow Canadian Sanoa Dempfle-Olin — who was the Pan Am Games silver medallist and finished tied for seventh in her Olympic debut this summer in Tahiti.
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