Canada at the 2024 Olympic Summer Games

Opening Ceremonies

The 2024 Olympic Summer Games were the third Olympics to be held in Paris. The city previously hosted the Games in 1900 and 1924.

The Canadian flag bearers in the Opening Ceremonies were weightlifter Maude Charron and sprinter Andre De Grasse. Charron and De Grasse both won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Charron in the women’s 64-kg weight class and De Grasse in the men’s 200 m.

For the first time, the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games did not take place in a stadium. The Seine River, snaking through the heart of the city, served as the main venue, with the athletes from each country entering on tourist barges. Performances of various kinds were held throughout the city. The closing number of the ceremonies was delivered by Céline Dion. She gave her first performance in more than a year, singing Edith Piaf’s “Hymne á l’amour” from the balcony of the Eiffel Tower.

Christa Deguchi

After not qualifying to represent Canada at the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021, Canadian judoka Christa Deguchi considered retirement. But with the support of coaches, friends and family, she decided to return for another Olympic cycle. At the 2023 World Judo Championships, Deguchi won her second world championship. She then qualified for the Paris Games by being the top Canadian at the 2024 World Judo Championships, where she won silver.

At the Paris Olympics, Deguchi won the women’s 57 kg event by beating South Korea’s Huh Mi-mi in the final. In the process, she became the first Canadian to win Olympic gold in judo. It was also Canada’s first gold medal at the Paris Games.

Summer McIntosh

Leading up to the Games, there was a lot of hype surrounding Toronto’s Summer McIntosh. At the last two World Aquatics Championships, she had won a combined total of eight medals. In Paris, McIntosh won four medals: gold in the women’s 200 m butterfly (an Olympic record time of 2:03.03), gold in the women’s 200 m individual medley (an Olympic record time of 2:06.56) and gold in the women’s 400 m individual medley (4:27.71). She also won silver in the women’s 400 m freestyle (3:58.37). She later went on to win the 2024 Northern Star Award as Canada’s athlete of the year.

Hammer Throw

Before 2024, Canada had only won an Olympic medal in hammer throw twice. Con Walsh won bronze in 1908 and Duncan Gillis won silver in 1912. In 2024, two Canadians came away with gold. Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, BC, won the men’s event with an Olympic record throw of 84.12 m, while Camryn Rogers of Richmond, BC, won the women’s event with a throw of 76.97 m. Rogers became the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold in an individual track and field event since high jumper Ethel Catherwood in 1928. Katzberg and Summer McIntosh served as Canada’s flag bearers at the closing ceremonies.

Katie Vincent

At the Tokyo Games, Katie Vincent of Mississauga, Ontario won bronze in the women’s C2 500 m with Laurence Vincent Lapointe. After Vincent-Lapointe’s retirement, Vincent became the leader of the Canadian women’s canoeing team. In Paris, she won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s C1 200 m with a world record time of 44.12 seconds. By beating Nevin Harrison of the United States by one one-hundredth of a second, Vincent became Canada’s first female canoer to win Olympic gold. Vincent also won bronze in the women’s C2 500 m alongside Sloan MacKenzie of Halifax.

Men’s 4x100 m Relay Team

Expectations for Team Canada were low heading into the men’s 4x100 m relay. Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake had all failed to qualify for the finals in their individual events. But in the relay final on 9 August, the Canadians achieved a massive upset victory. With the heavily favoured American team disqualified for a botched exchange, De Grasse took the baton with Canada roughly in third place and ran an explosive final leg to secure the gold medal for Canada with a seasonal best time of 37.50. It was the first Olympic gold medal for Canada in the men’s 4x100 m relay since 1996. For De Grasse, it was his seventh Olympic medal, which tied him with Penny Oleksiak for the most Olympic medals won by a Canadian.

Phil Wizard

Breaking, or breakdancing, made its Olympic debut at the Paris Games, and it was a Canadian who struck gold in the men’s event. Toronto-born and Vancouver-raised Philip Kim (a.k.a. Phil Wizard) beat Dany Dann of France in the final. However, Kim will not have an opportunity to represent Canada in breaking at the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles. The event was dropped from the Olympic program, a decision reportedly made in advance of the Games.

Other Notable Events

Canada played in the gold medal game in women’s rugby sevens and women’s beach volleyball but lost to New Zealand and Brazil, respectively, and settled for silver. For the first time, a Canadian won an Olympic medal in fencing as Eleanor Harvey of Hamilton won bronze in the women’s individual foil event.

Marco Arop, a native of Khartoum, Sudan, who grew up in Edmonton after immigrating to Canada when he was three, won silver in the men’s 800 m in dramatic fashion. Arop was at the back of the pack after the first 300 m before surging to a Canadian record time of 1:41.20. Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya took the gold with a time of 1:41.19, only one one-hundredth of a second faster than Arop.

Wyatt Sanford of Kennetcook, Nova Scotia, won Canada’s first Olympic medal in boxing since 1996, taking won bronze in the men’s 63.5 kg weight class. Meanwhile, for only the second time, Canada won an Olympic medal in tennis. Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Félix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal won bronze in mixed doubles.

Controversies

Team Canada began the Paris Games under a cloud of controversy. The women’s soccer team was embroiled in scandal after they were found to have used a drone to spy on the New Zealand women’s soccer team during a practice on 22 July. Assistant coach Jasmine Mander, team analyst Joseph Lombardi and head coach Bev Priestman were all sent back to Canada for their involvement. Further investigation by TSN’s Rick Westhead revealed that both the men’s and women’s soccer team had made heavy use of drone spying since at least 2016. The incident and the subsequent revelations not only cast a pall over Canada’s Olympic presence in Paris but also over the Canadian women’s team’s gold medal victory at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Paris Olympics were generally praised for an innovative approach to venues. Iconic Paris landmarks were showcased by building temporary, open-air facilities next to them. But Olympic organizers were harshly criticized for holding the distance swimming events in the Seine River, where swimming had been banned since 1923 due to high levels of sewage. US$1.4 billion was spent to try to clean the river, but heavy rainfall on the eve of the Games overran a new filtration system and led to high levels of E. coli. As a result, the triathlon and distance swimming events were repeatedly postponed. There was talk of relocating the events to backup sites and even of making the triathlon a duathlon. After the events went ahead, Canadian triathlete Tyler Mislawchuk of Winnipeg went viral after he was shown vomiting numerous times after finishing in ninth place. However, by the time the races were held, the E. coli levels were reportedly “very good.” Mislawchuk, the first Canadian to crack the top 10 in Olympic triathlon since 2008, attributed his throwing up to giving it “everything I had… absolutely everything.”

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