By The Numbers: Team Canada ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games
The Games begin on August 28 in France's capital.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games are just two weeks away, beginning on August 28 with the opening ceremony at Place de la Concorde.
The Canadian delegation will feature 126 athletes across 18 sports and 11 days of competition. Many of them have competed at the Paralympics before, including a large contingent of Paralympic medallists.
Here are some of the key facts and figures about Team Canada.
336 people make up Team Canada’s delegation
In addition to the 126 athletes, Team Canada will including coaches, National Sport Organization support staff, Canadian Paralympic Committee staff, and competition partners for athletes that require them.
The complete delegation heading to Paris reaches a total of 336 people.
9 provinces are represented
Ontario is where the largest number of Team Canada athletes call home, with 45 coming from the province. Quebec and British Columbia have 21 athletes each heading to Paris, followed closely by Alberta (18) and Saskatchewan (10). There are two Manitobans on the team, while from the east coast there are five athletes from New Brunswick, and one from each of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador. There are no Nova Scotians on the team, or anyone from the territories.
In addition, two athletes from overseas will represent Canada, both in Para dressage. Roberta Sheffield is from Great Britain but switched to representing Canada in 2013, while Austen Burns was born in Vancouver but resides in Northern Ireland.
39 athletes will be making their Paralympic debuts
Of Canada’s 126 athletes heading to Paris 2024, 39 of them will be making their Paralympic debuts. Para table tennis player Peter Isherwood is the oldest debutant at 47, while the youngest is 16-year-old Reid Maxwell.
Eighty-seven Canadian athletes have competed at the Paralympics before, including Para cyclist Mel Pemble, who is making her Summer Paralympic debut after previously racing in several Para alpine skiing events at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Paralympics.
51 years (exactly!) separate Canada’s oldest and youngest athletes
Canada’s youngest athlete at Paris 2024 will be 16-year-old Para swimmer Reid Maxwell, while the oldest is 67-year-old wheelchair fencer Ruth Sylvie Morel. Maxwell is heading to his first Paralympic Games, while Morel is going to her fourth.
Interestingly, the pair share a birthday, and it will take place during the Games — on September 2 — when Maxwell will turn 17 and Morel turns 68.
9 athletes will be heading to their fifth or sixth Paralympics
Four Canadian athletes will be competing at their sixth Paralympic Games — Pat Anderson (wheelchair basketball), Brent Lakatos (Para athletics), Cindy Ouellet (four in wheelchair basketball and one in Para nordic skiing), and Mike Whitehead (wheelchair rugby).
Five others are heading to their fifth Paralympics — Amy Burk (goalball), Bo Hedges (wheelchair basketball), Trevor Hirschfield (wheelchair rugby), Travis Murao (wheelchair rugby), and Katarina Roxon (Para swimming).
26 Paralympic medallists will be competing, including 10 champions
Of Canada’s delegation, 26 athletes have won medals at prior editions of the Paralympic Games, including 14 who left Tokyo 2020 with some hardware.
Ten of those 26 athletes have won gold medals before, including Para swimmers Aurelie Rivard, Katarina Roxon, and Danielle Dorris, Para athletics athletes Nate Riech, Greg Stewart, and Brent Lakatos, and wheelchair basketball teammates Pat Anderson, Bo Hedges, Chad Jassman, and Tyler Miller.
24 years between Paralympic appearances for Lance Cryderman
A Sydney 2000 Paralympian, Lance Cryderman retired from competitive boccia for more than 15 years before returning in 2017, and will return to the Paralympics for the first time in over two decades this summer.
Last year, he won the silver medal at the Parapan Am Games in the BC1 category, and is ranked 12th in the world heading into Paris 2024.
18 sports will feature Canadian athletes
Members of Team Canada will compete in 18 sports in Paris, including several team sports — men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball, women’s goalball, women’s sitting volleyball, wheelchair rugby, and the Para equestrian team event.
Canadian athletes will also compete in Para swimming, Para athletics, Para canoe, individual Para equestrian events, Para triathlon, wheelchair fencing, Para archery, Para badminton, Para judo, Para rowing, Para table tennis, and wheelchair tennis.
Click here for all of True North’s Paris 2024 coverage, including every Paralympic team announcement.
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