Six athletes nominated to Team Canada for Paris 2024 race walk, 10,000m and marathon events
Tokyo 2020 medallists Moh Ahmed and Evan Dunfee among those selected.
Six long-distance athletes were nominated to Team Canada for the Paris 2024 Olympics by Athletics Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee on Tuesday, ahead of the 10,000 metres, race walk, and marathon events this summer.
The team is headlined by Tokyo 2020 Olympic medallists Mohammed Ahmed and Evan Dunfee, who won silver and bronze medals in the 5,000m and 50km race walk, respectively.
Ahmed, who is going to his fourth Olympics, met the Olympic entry standard time in the 10,000m at an event in California in March, running the second-fastest time of his career in 26:53.01. The 33-year-old from St. Catharines, Ontario has also met the qualifying standard in the 5,000m event, in which he won Canada’s first Olympic medal in a long distance track event three years ago in Tokyo.
“It’s definitely a great honour and privilege to get the nomination to be able to wear the maple leaf,” Ahmed said in a press release. “A fourth Olympic Games means I’m experienced and I hope to put it to good use in Paris. My goal is the exact same as it has been for many of my previous major championships – to stand on top of the podium or as close to it as possible.”
Dunfee is going to his third Olympics after winning bronze in the 50km race walk at Tokyo 2020, an event which is no longer on the Olympic programme. He achieved the Olympic entry standard for the men’s 20km event while finishing fourth at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, and will compete in that as well as the debut of the marathon race walk mixed relay.
In that relay he will compete alongside Olivia Lundman, who trains with and is coached by Dunfee in British Columbia. The 21-year-old will be making her Olympic debut in Paris, after qualifying with Dunfee at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in April, where the pair set a Canadian record of 3:07:10.
“For me personally [the additional qualification] is definitely a cherry on top, but to be able to help play a role in Olivia qualifying as my teammate for the Olympics is so important to me,” said Dunfee in a press release. “How often does a coach get to have that direct of an impact on their athlete’s performance? It was really, really special. And now I’m looking forward to getting to prepare for an Olympics with my own training, but also helping someone else prepare for the Olympics will be really, really cool.”
“It is an honour to have the chance to represent my country at the greatest sporting competition in the world. I cannot express the overwhelming gratitude I have for my coach and teammate Evan, my physio and national team staff, my family, friends, and every community member that has supported me along the way,” added Lundman. “I am so excited to see what Evan and I can achieve in Paris and I hope that along the way we can encourage and inspire youth across the country to chase their dreams.
“Not too long ago, I was in their shoes, aspiring to be like the athletes I looked up to on the National Team. Now, here I am living out my dreams and competing alongside some of the same athletes that were my role models as a kid.”
The other three Canadians named to the Olympic team on Tuesday are all for the men’s and women’s marathon events.
Paris 2024 will be Cameron Levins’ third Olympic appearance, after competing in the men’s 5000m and 10,000m at London 2012, before taking part in the men’s marathon at Tokyo 2020. Levins qualified for Paris 2024 with a fifth place finish at the 2023 Tokyo Marathon, where he lowered the Canadian marathon record to 2:05:36. Levins placed fourth at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, Canada’s best-ever world championship result in the event.
Joining him in the men’s marathon will be Rory Linkletter, who qualified for Olympic nomination at the Seville Marathon in Spain in February. He finished in a personal best 2:08:01, nine seconds under the men’s Olympic entry standard, becoming Canada’s second-fastest marathoner ever behind Levins. Paris 2024 will be Linkletter’s Olympic debut, after finishing 18th at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, and 20th the year prior.
“Just to be on this stage in an event like the marathon and be in a position to compete, it obviously means I did something special to get here,” said Linkletter in a press release. “I will just keep doing what I’ve always done, just with a little bit more focus because of the excitement around the Games.”
Malindi Elmore will compete for Canada in the women’s marathon, and will take part on the Olympic stage for the third time in her career. The 44-year-old from Kelowna, British Columbia first competed at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in the women’s 1500m event and retired in 2012, but in 2019 switched to the marathon and has qualified for two consecutive Olympics in the event.
Elmore ran a personal best time of 2:23:30 at the Berlin Marathon in September 2023 to qualify for Paris, and finished ninth at Tokyo 2020 in a time of 2:30:59 — Canada’s second-best Olympic result ever in the women’s marathon.
The remaining athletes who will be nominated in the track and field events will be selected and announced in early July following Athletics Canada’s Track and Field Trials. Prior to being officially named to Team Canada, all athletes must compete at an applicable Canadian Championships event.
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