Summer McIntosh and Ethan Katzberg named Canada's Paris 2024 Olympic closing ceremony flag bearers
Both became Olympic champions in Paris.
Swimmer Summer McIntosh and hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg will be Canada’s flag bearers for the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Sunday, the Canadian Olympic Committee has announced.
McIntosh, 17, won three gold medals and one silver in the pool at these Games, becoming the first Canadian Olympian ever to win three titles in the same year. Katzberg, 22, became Canada’s first Olympic hammer throw champion, and the youngest-ever winner of that event.
Combined, they won four of Canada’s nine gold medals and five of Team Canada’s 27 total medals as of Sunday morning, with a couple of events yet to be completed at the time of the announcement. Both of those collective numbers are Canadian records for a single non-boycotted Summer Olympics.
It was McIntosh who won Canada’s first medal of the Olympics, earning a silver on Day 1 in the women’s 400m freestyle. She added gold medals in the women’s 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly, and 200m individual medley — and set Olympic records in the 200m butterfly and 200m medley.
She has already established herself as one of the greatest Canadian swimmers, and Olympians, of all time — tying fellow swimmer Penny Oleksiak’s record for most medals won by a Canadian athlete at one Summer Olympics with four. She already sits three back of Oleksiak and sprinter Andre De Grasse for the most career medals won by a Canadian — records she could rewrite in Los Angeles in four years.
McIntosh flew back home to Toronto earlier in the week, but returned to Paris on an overnight flight to be back in the French capital to carry the flag into the closing ceremony.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to be the flag bearer representing so many tremendous athletes,” said McIntosh in a press release. “It is such an honour to hold the flag for Canada. It means the world and I will wave it with pride.”
Katzberg came into his Olympic debut with high expectations as well, entering Paris 2024 as the reigning world champion in men’s hammer throw. He leaves as Canada’s first Olympic gold medallist in any throwing event in 120 years, and the first Canadian ever to win this event. Two days after Katzberg’s win, Camryn Rogers won the women’s event, as Canada swept the hammer throw golds.
Katzberg’s first throw of the final flew 84.12 metres, just shy of the Olympic record that has stood since the 1980s. He was the only athlete to pass 80 metres, winning the event by 4.15 metres – the largest margin of victory in men’s hammer throw since the 1920 Games in Antwerp.
“I am extremely honoured to be selected as one of Canada’s flag bearers for the Closing Ceremony,” Katzberg said in a press release. “As a first time Olympian, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have surpassed all of my expectations. I will carry the flag proudly along with Summer, and I am extremely grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The Games will come to an end at Stade de France on Sunday, where Katzberg won his Olympic title. The closing ceremony goes at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT here in Canada, and can be watched on CBC’s television and digital channels, as well as TSN.
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These are a pair of phenomenal people, and truly awesome athletes! However, Ethan is more well spoken than Summer, as he is exceptional for his age group in this postmodern connotation. Eloquent speech elicitation is becoming a lost practice unfortunately! Albeit, this is a secondary issue here. Cheers to both and their magnificent accomplishments.