Six bold Team Canada predictions ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics
Six predictions, six months out from Paris 2024 getting underway.
Friday marks exactly six months until the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics begin. Sixteen days of sport will feature 329 events across 32 different sports. A few weeks later the Paralympics will follow, with eleven days of action including 549 events in 22 sports.
Over the full month-and-a-half, billions of people will tune in to watch the world’s best athletes strive to defeat their opponents from across the globe, all in pursuit of those coveted gold medals. Canadians will be in the spotlight across many of those sports, including in the pool, on the soccer pitch, and at the athletics stadium — places where they had some of their biggest triumphs at Tokyo 2020, and are expected to again in 2024.
A lot can change in six months, but here are six bold predictions for Canadian athletes at Paris 2024 this summer. Feel free to leave your predictions in the comments as well!
Andre De Grasse becomes Canada’s most decorated Olympian
Already Canada’s most successful Olympian in the sport of athletics, sprinter Andre De Grasse has an opportunity in Paris to become Canada’s most decorated Olympian ever in terms of total medals won at the Games.
In two Olympic appearances thus far De Grasse has medalled in every single event he’s taken part in, including a gold medal in the 200m event at Tokyo 2020. He also earned a silver medal in the 4x100m relay and a bronze in the 100m — adding to the 200m silver and bronzes in the 100m and 4x100m from Rio 2016.
His total of six Olympic medals is second to only swimmer Penny Oleksiak’s seven for the most ever by a Canadian, and with Oleksiak’s participation at Paris 2024 uncertain as she deals with lingering injuries, De Grasse could pass her with two or more.
Swimmers Taylor Ruck and Kylie Masse are among the active athletes chasing top spot as well, with four each.
Canadians win both hammer throw events
Over the past few years, Canada has emerged as a powerhouse in the sport of hammer throw, thanks to the rise of two young athletes in particular — Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg.
Rogers, 24, is the reigning world champion in the women’s event, improving on her silver medal at the 2022 world championships to take gold in Budapest last year — doing so with a distance of 77.22 metres. Rogers is also the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, and holds the Canadian record with a distance of 78.62m. She competed at the Olympics in Tokyo, finishing 5th.
Katzberg, 21, is also the reigning world champion, as Canada completed an unexpected sweep of the hammer throw events. He won with a distance of 81.25m, which is still the Canadian men’s record and would have been good for fourth in Tokyo. Katzberg also took gold at the 2023 Pan American Games with a distance of 80.96m, and was the silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
At Paris 2024 they will both undoubtedly be among the favourites to win it all.
Nate Riech defends 1500m crown and beats his own Paralympic record
One of the most dominant Canadian performances of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics was Nate Riech’s T38 1500m gold medal in athletics.
Riech, competing at the Games for the first time, was the best in a field of athletes in which six of the eight finalists broke the previous Paralympic record of 4:13.81 set at Rio 2016. Knocking about 15 seconds off the record and the only athlete under four minutes, Riech won gold with a time of 3:58.92 to continue his dominance on the world stage.
Riech is also the champion from the 2019 and 2023 world championships, and the 2019 Parapan American Games. He will be the favourite heading into Paris, and rightly so.
The world record, which belongs to Riech and has remained at 3:47.89 since earlier in 2021, could be in play as well. He admitted on episode 11 of the True North Podcast that the race in Tokyo didn’t go to plan at all, and also that he was celebrating on the last lap and perhaps didn’t run as hard as he could have.
He said he wants to set the world record at the Paralympics, but won’t be particularly disappointed if he doesn’t. What he does want is another gold medal for his growing collection.
Summer McIntosh wins 4+ medals in the pool
Summer McIntosh, still just 17 years old, is not only heading to her second Olympics already, but expected to be one of the brightest stars in Paris.
She burst onto the scene as a 14-year-old at Tokyo 2020, finishing fourth in the 400m freestyle (with a national record she has since broken again) and 4x200m freestyle, 9th in the 200m freestyle, and 11th in the 800m freestyle. It was a valuable experience, and at the time people were already looking ahead to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 as the chance for her true breakout.
She seemed to set Canadian and world junior records every time she got into the pool in 2023, setting two senior world records as well — in the 400m freestyle and 400m individual medley at the 2023 Canadian national trials. The 400 free record has since been broken by Ariarne Titmus, but McIntosh will be keen to get it back against the Australian and American legend Katie Ledecky, in what is one of the most anticipated races of the Games.
McIntosh’s Olympic schedule has not been confirmed, but she is expected to take part in several individual races, as well as the relays. If she swims at the level she is capable of, she could equal or break Penny Oleksiak’s Canadian record of four medals at a single Summer Olympics.
If she wins two gold medals, she would be the first Canadian to do so in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1912.
Men’s basketball team reaches the podium for first time since 1936
Prior to 2024, Canada had only qualified for one Olympic Games in men’s basketball in the 21st century — the Sydney 2000 games. Led by the great Steve Nash, Canada made it to the quarterfinals, where they would lose to France and pick up a final ranking of seventh.
The only time Canada has reached the Olympic podium in men’s basketball was all the way back in 1936. Since then they have qualified just eight more times, never finishing higher than fourth, which they did in Montreal in 1976, and at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles that were boycotted by over a dozen countries.
Canada qualified for Paris 2024 with a third-place finish at the FIBA World Cup last summer, where they defeated the United States in the bronze medal game. A core of NBA stars including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, and Kelly Olynyk, among others led the way as Canada booked their ticket to France. Jamal Murray was also committed to playing, but pulled out due to fatigue after winning the NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets.
With a pool of players that have committed to participating that includes NBA stars such as those listed above, something that they haven’t had in past Olympic cycles, Canada will feel as though they have the potential to reach the latter stages of the competition, and potentially the podium.
Alison Levine reaches the top of the podium in boccia
Alison Levine has long been considered one of the best boccia players in the world, but for much of her career had never won a gold medal at a major multi-sport games. That changed at the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, as Levine came away with gold in both the BC4 women’s individual event, and the BC4 pairs event before being named Canada’s closing ceremony flag bearer.
Levine is currently ranked second in the world, and beat world number one Leidy Chica Chica of Colombia in the Parapan Am final. Canada are ranked first in BC4 Pairs, which Levine won with Iulian Ciobanu.
She will have two opportunities to compete, after qualifying for both the singles and pairs events. If she can head into the Games in good form and break the streak of preliminary round exits from Rio and Tokyo, she has the talent to top the podium at least once in Paris.
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