Team Canada welcomes 29 swimmers for Paris 2024
Team Canada at Paris 2024 will include 29 swimmers, who have been officially nominated following the conclusion of the Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials, Presented by Bell, on Sunday night at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.
The contingent includes 13 returning Olympians and six Olympic medallists as well as 15 medallists from the World Aquatics Championships and 13 medallists from the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games. Sixteen athletes will be making their Olympic debuts.
To be nominated in an individual event, swimmers needed to achieve the Olympic Qualifying Time in that event and finish top two at the Trials. But Canada has qualified entries in all seven relay events, so there are several athletes who will be fulfilling their Olympic dreams as members of those squads.
Summer McIntosh is likely to be Canada’s busiest swimmer this summer in Paris after qualifying in five individual events and putting herself into consideration for multiple relays. At 17, she has won more gold medals – four – than any Canadian swimmer ever at the World Aquatics Championships, becoming a back-to-back world champion in the women’s 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley in 2022 and 2023.
Since McIntosh made her Olympic debut three years ago at just 14-years-old, she has become a global superstar in her sport. At the Trials, she shattered her own world record in the 400m IM, taking 1.5 seconds off the mark she set last year. She is now almost two seconds faster than any other woman in the event.
“I’m pretty happy to be able to qualify in my top five events, so going into Paris I’m super excited,” McIntosh said just moments after winning her final event, the 200m IM. “I think it’s going to be an amazing meet, and not just for me but for all of Team Canada. I was just watching Josh [Liendo, who swam a Canadian record in the 100m butterfly] and it gave me a lot of motivation.”
Maggie Mac Neil will have the chance to defend her Olympic title in the women’s 100m butterfly. She has been a consistent podium challenger since swimming to the world title in the event in 2019. Mac Neil took silver at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
Joining her in the event will be Mary-Sophie Harvey, who has been a stalwart of Canada’s successful relay squads in recent years but will now get to compete in her first individual Olympic events.
Showing off the vintage form that won her four Olympic medals, Kylie Masse continues to be Canada’s woman to beat in the backstroke. She qualified in the women’s 100m and 200m events with some of the fastest times in the world this year during the Trials. She’ll be joined in the 100m backstroke by Ingrid Wilm, who will make her Olympic debut as the 2024 World bronze medallist in the event.
“I’m motivated by my teammates, my national team teammates, my coaches. I’m motivated by my competitors in Canada and around the world,” said Masse. “I think every day brings a different motivation, sometimes it’s just motivation to get through the week and other times it’s a bigger motivation. Like anything in life, I think it’s just about continuing to show up and be disciplined in what I do, be disciplined in the skills that I’m working on and trying to perfect every detail.”
“There’s a couple of us now that will have been on a couple of Olympic teams, so to be there with people that have done it before and to be there with fresh excited new faces is also a blessing,” she added. “I hope to just be there for everyone in whatever way I can support them and help their Olympic journey to achieve great performances.”
Canada’s all-time most decorated Olympian, Penny Oleksiak, is headed to her third Olympic Games after a couple tough years that have seen her deal with multiple injuries, including knee surgery just four months before the Trials. She hasn’t competed in a major international meet since the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. Now 23, Oleksiak has grown so much from the 16-year-old who became the first Canadian athlete to ever win four medals at one Olympic Games during Rio 2016.
Sydney Pickrem, who won medals in both the 200m IM and 200m breaststroke at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, will also be making her third Olympic appearance. She gave McIntosh a challenge in the 200m IM final on Sunday at the Trials.
While it was members of the women’s team that won Team Canada’s six Olympic swimming medals at each of Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, the Canadian men have come on strong the last couple of years and are ready to take the next step onto the Olympic podium.
Josh Liendo won bronze medals in the men’s 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. He then upgraded himself to silver in the 100m butterfly at the 2023 Worlds. On the last day of the Trials, Liendo lowered his own national record in the 100m butterfly by a quarter of a second. His time of 50.06 is the fastest in the world this year. That came a day after he broke his own Canadian record in the 50m freestyle.
“Last time around in the Olympics, my goal was to try to get into the final, try to make a semi. Now, I’m obviously challenging to be in that final. Once you’re in the final, everyone’s going for a podium, so that’s kind of my mindset right now, I want to be at the top with the best guys,” Liendo said after securing his Olympic spot in the 100m freestyle.
Finlay Knox had a big breakthrough this past February when he became world champion in the men’s 200m IM. He was the first Canadian man in 17 years to win a gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships. Both men were part of a fast 100m freestyle final at the Trials, which has boosted hopes for a potential podium in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Liendo and Yuri Kisil, the runner-up in the 100m freestyle at Trials, contributed to a fourth-place finish in that event at Tokyo 2020. Kisil and Javier Acevedo are the only members of the men’s team who have two Olympic Games under their belts.
One young swimmer to keep an eye on this summer is 19-year-old Ilya Kharun. The Canadian record holder in the 200m butterfly was fourth at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships
Among the other first-time Olympic team members are Tristan Jankovics and Jeremy Bagshaw, at two very different places in their swimming careers. The 20-year-old Jankovics became the first Canadian to qualify for the men’s 400m IM since London 2012. Bagshaw, who missed the last two Olympic teams by the thinnest of margins, will be a member of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay just before he retires at the age of 32 to pursue his next career as a doctor.
While most of the team will compete in the pool events, Emma Finlin is Canada’s lone qualifier in open water swimming. She earned her spot in the women’s 10km marathon at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in February.
With 55 Olympic medals all-time, swimming is second only to athletics as Canada’s most successful summer Olympic sport.
Swimming pool events at Paris 2024 will take place July 27 to August 4 (Days 1-9) at the Paris La Défense Arena. The women’s 10km marathon will be held on August 8 (Day 13) in the Seine at the Pont Alexandre III venue.
Team Canada Swimmers at Paris 2024:
Javier Acevedo (Toronto, Ont.)
Sophie Angus (Weston, USA)
Alex Axon (Newmarket, Ont.)
Jeremy Bagshaw (Victoria, B.C.)
Julie Brousseau (Ottawa, Ont.)
Brooklyn Douthwright (Riverview, N.B.)
Emma Finlin (Edmonton, Alta.)
Mary-Sophie Harvey (Trois-Rivières, Que.)
Apollo Hess (Lethbridge, Alta.)
Patrick Hussey (Beaconsfield, Que.)
Tristan Jankovics (Puslinch, Ont.)
Ella Jansen (Burlington, Ont.)
Ilya Kharun (Montreal, Que.)
Yuri Kisil (Calgary, Alta.)
Finlay Knox (Okotoks, Alta.)
Josh Liendo (Toronto, Ont.)
Kylie Masse (Lasalle, Ont.)
Summer McIntosh (Toronto, Ont.)
Margaret (Maggie) Mac Neil (London, Ont.)
Emma O’Croinin (Edmonton, Alta.)
Penny Oleksiak (Toronto, Ont.)
Sydney Pickrem (Halifax, N.S.)
Regan Rathwell (Ashton, Ont.)
Taylor Ruck (Kelowna, B.C.)
Rebecca Smith (Red Deer, Alta.)
Blake Tierney (Saskatoon, Sask.)
Lorne Wigginton (Calgary, Alta.)
Ingrid Wilm (Calgary, Alta.)
Kelsey Wog (Winnipeg, Man.)