Canada's 2024 Olympics Qualification Discussion Road to Paris 2024

[Josh 8,115]

On 7/8/2024 at 5:46 PM, Josh said:

Just started the Canadian Olympic qualification overview earlier today. Should be out on this thread anywhere from Thursday to Saturday, potentially earlier/later though (really depends on how fast I can get it done)
 

Medal overview should be out by at least July 21, but again could be out earlier/later (at the very least July 23)

Got distracted 

I was bored so I did more work on it today. Given that I only have a few sports left to write about it should be out sometime Saturday (probably not during tomorrow’s Wimbledon matches or the Copa America 3rd place game)

[Josh 8,115]

Canadian Olympic Qualification Period Overview

 

Over two years ago the Olympic qualification period started for Paris 2024. Canada won its first quota on November 1, 2022, when our women’s artistic gymnastics team won a surprise bronze medal at the World Championships to qualify for the Olympics. Now, on July 5, 2024 following the reallocation of athletics quotas to Scott, Current, and Thorne, the qualification period is over, which means it’s full steam ahead in the few weeks leading up to the Olympics. 
 

Canada will be sending a strong contingent of 318 athletes to Paris, 123 men and 195 women, consisting of many medal chances. Fencing, shooting, and cycling/wrestling were nice surprises, and diving, surfing, rowing, boxing were disappointments. Our Paris total surpasses our Rio total, but we’re well down on the 381 we qualified to Tokyo. Very disappointing number IMO considering I feel like we’ve got stronger in sport within the last couple of years, not to mention the fact that Russia has been banned from the majority of sports as well. 

 

Just a side note, I’m still young and my vocabulary isn’t the most advanced (half of the time I’m using the word “though” instead of alternatives ) so apologies for that. 

 

From a Canadian perspective we’ve experienced it all. The highs, the lows, the disappointments, the surprises, and of course the incredible performances by our athletes. Coming back from down 12 against Spain at the FIBA Basketball World Cup to FINALLY qualify our men’s basketball team, to the heartbreak of falling just short of qualifying in women’s volleyball at VNL in a head to head match with Netherlands (a month later, and I still can’t get over it), to Summer McIntosh’s 3 world records in a span of two years. I could go on and on…

 

Anyways, here’s the overview of every sport at the Olympics from a Canadian qualification perspective. 

 

Archery - Canada qualified one male and one female athlete, as expected. But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t experienced any disappointment in archery, as we blew two solid chances to qualify a men’s team, first at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier (where Duenas put his arrow into the 7s in the shoot-off and was struggling all match long) and second at the Final World Olympic Qualifier, after coming off a bronze at the World Cup in Yecheon just a couple of weeks earlier. 
 

Artistic Swimming - Qualifying a team here was unexpected, especially considering we had to beat the likes of Ukraine and Greece at the World Championships to do it. Back in October at the Pan Am Games, I had doubts that we’d even qualify in this sport. I suspect a lot of the credit has to go to Anna Voloshyna, who Artistic Swimming Canada hired as the new head coach of the team back in January 2024, she’s doing wonders with this team. 

 

Athletics - 51 is a solid number, but there’s been many injuries and late comebacks that have impacted our team size/strength. Also didn’t help that our National Championships was held on a shit track, and with poor weather overall. 

 

Injured

Khamica Bingham (Women’s 100m)
Julie Ann-Staehli (Women’s 5000m)

Justyn Knight (Men’s 5000m)

Trevor Hofbauer (Men’s Marathon)

 

Failed to Qualify

Natasha Wodak (Women’s Marathon)

Sage Walker (Women’s 400m Hurdles)

Aurora Rynda (Women’s 800m)

Django Lovett (Men’s High Jump)

Brooke Overholt (Women’s 400m Hurdles)

Gabriela De Bues Stafford (Women’s 5000m)

Jillian Weir (Women’s Hammer Throw)

Julia Tunks (Women’s Discus Throw)

Ben Priesner (Men’s Marathon)

Myles Misener Daley (Men’s 400m)
Will Floyd (Men’s 400m)

Michael Roth (Men’s 400m)

Kaila Butler (Women’s Hammer Throw)

Malik Metiever (Men’s 400m Hurdles)

Elizabeth Gleadle (Women’s Javelin Throw)

 

Retired

Brandon McBride (men’s 800m

 

Badminton - Besides rowing, this was one of our most disappointing qualification numbers. We only managed to qualify athletes in men’s singles, women’s singles, and men’s doubles, despite clearly being the dominant Pan American nation for the past few years. While it’s partially due to the Americans competing in a few more tournaments, our mixed doubles/women’s doubles pairings had a chance to overtake their counterparts with the gold medal at the Pan American Championships, but both bombed out in the semifinals. Nobody’s fault but themselves.

 

Basketball - If there was a sport that could be described as a rollercoaster of emotions this would be the sport. Or at least one of two. (more on that later)

 

Canada’s men’s team faced Spain in the second round of the FIBA Men’s World Cup for a spot at the Olympics for the first time since 2000, and were down by 12 heading into the 4th quarter. SGA and Brooks said no problem, combining for 24 out of Canada’s 27 points (SGA 13, Brooks 11) to secure Canada the W. After many close misses in previous qualifying tournaments, it was great to see them finally get the job done. 
 

As for the team announcement, pretty much exactly as expected. Kerr mugged off Wiggins by not allowing him to go to the Canada Basketball Olympic Training Camp, while Edey decided to focus on the NBA Summer League after getting drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies a couple of months ago. Sharpe is injured. 

 

Canada’s women’s team largely struggled at the FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournament, yet still managed to qualify for the Olympics. First, they had a chance to keep their Olympic dreams into their own hands, needing a win against Japan in their final match, but dropped it by a score of 86-82. That meant they had to rely on Spain defeating Hungary, and down by 21 with a little under 7 minutes to go in the 3rd period things were looking bleak. But against the odds, they came back and won. I was lost for words, I couldn’t believe what just happened. 
 

Would’ve liked to see youngster Toby Fournier on the roster instead of Sami Hill, but given her lack of international experience I can see why they left her off. Other than that, the exact roster that I envisioned. 
 

Canada’s women’s 3x3 team had two chances to qualify for the Olympics. First at the Universality Olympic Qualification Tournament 2, then the Olympic Qualification Tournament. Given their dominance on the Women’s Series, I didn’t have any doubt that they’d eventually book their ticket. They dropped the Olympic ticket match to Australia at their first opportunity, and Spain at their second opportunity. That’s when I started to get worried honestly (even though we were taking on Hungary, who are a quality team but notches below all three teams), because even though those are both medal contending teams I didn’t think it would have to come down to a last match. In the end, we ended up demolishing Hungary as expected, which was a major sense of relief. 

Boxing - Thibeault and Sanfords both got their ticket to Paris through the Pan American Games. Sanford’s performance in particular stood out to me, he didn’t have the easiest of draws as a mediocre boxer in the draw and very surprisingly dispatched all of his opponents. Another thing, Wright got robbed in her quarterfinal bout against Bravo, but given it was in Chile obviously the refs are going to be biased towards her. Cavanaugh, one of our best chances at a medal retired at the start of the year, due to her hating the sport and Barriere switched temporarily from pro to amateur for the First World Qualifier. Delgado lost her quota bout on a split decision to Cirkovic, and Barriere lost his quota bout in a close loss to Moindze. He withdrew from the Second World Qualifier to focus on pro boxing again. At the Second World Qualifier, Wright fought in the quota bout against a very winnable opponent in Bravo but got swept. 

Breaking - We qualified Philip Kim and no one else, as expected. I don’t really care about this “sport” though. 

Canoeing - Team of 15, which is more or less what I expected from the team. Nothing else to say here. 

Cycling - Team of 22, really satisfied with the number. Men’s and women’s team sprints had to work for their spot at the last Nations Cup, and we also won an unexpected quota in men’s BMX freestyle which will signify our Olympic debut in the sport which is nice. Obviously I had hope for Ryan Tougas at the World Championships, but he crashed in the semifinals and the Chilean won the quota instead. Same for a 3rd men’s and women’s quota in road cycling, and a 2nd men’s and women’s quota in men’s mountain biking. 

Diving - What a disaster. Not only do we fail to grab a women’s 3m synchro springboard quota, but we also fail to qualify a 2nd athlete individually. Vallee and Ware were world medalists individually in 2022/2023, and were just a few points shy of a synchro quota in 2022 but other than the Pan Am Games have struggled a lot since then. 

Equestrian - We qualified teams in eventing, jumping, and dressage as expected through the Pan American Games. What’s confusing though, is that none of our Canadian #1’s have been selected for the Olympic team. 

Football - Women’s team qualifying was never in doubt really, yet I was still somewhat concerned because of Jamaica’s brilliant performance at last years World Cup combined with Canada’s horrific tournament. 

Fencing -  We have 15 athletes qualified, entries in all individual events, and in three team events. Largest team in quite a while I’d say? Overall, super happy with how fencing has gone. 

Golf - We qualified 2 men and 2 women as usual. Nothing else to say here. Shame we couldn’t qualify 4 male golfers (a lot of them are decently ranked), but with the qualification system it was always going to be hard. 

Gymnastics - It required a LOT of luck (lots of falls), but our women’s team booked their ticket to Paris during their first opportunity at the 2022 World Championships, which was a huge surprise. Men’s team qualifying the year after was also cool to see, their last appearance at the Olympics was back in Beijing 2008.

Judo - We qualified 3 men, and 4 women, which is an increase by 1 on our total. More or less, most of the judoka that qualified were expected to make it to the Olympics. There was one surprise however, Portuondo Isasi came out of nowhere in 2024 to grab a team invitational quota, mainly due to her  unexpected silver medal at the Pan American Championships. 

Modern Pentathlon - That reminds me… Kelly Fitzsimmons was 27 POINTS ahead of 3rd ranked North American Davis for an Olympic quota entering the laser run. YES, 27!! I knew shooting wasn’t her forte based off of qualification, but with a lead that big I thought no way would she blow it. I thought wrong, her performance pissed me off. She was around 25 seconds slower than she was during the qualification round. I mean seriously, I could’ve done better than that. Wasn’t even expecting her to be in contention though. 

Rowing - No words. By far and away the most disappointing sport for Canada throughout the Olympic qualification period (only women’s eight and women’s double sculls qualified), and it’s not even close. That’s what Rowing Canada gets for firing Michelle Darvill I guess 

 

First time in history that Canada will not be present in men’s rowing at the Olympics. 

 

Special shout-out (… not) to our men’s eight who blew their opportunity to qualify for the Olympics at the Final Qualification Regatta. They were 2.67 seconds ahead of Italy for the final Olympic quota with only 500m to go, but faded badly and missed out by 0.01 

 

Rugby Sevens - Women’s team demolished the field at the North American Olympic Qualifier to qualify as expected. Men’s team was so close to joining them, losing the final 14-12 to United States. That was their best chance to qualify, and they didn’t take it. As for the women’s team, De Goede is out injured for Canada, which is a huge hit to our medal chances, and De Couvreur isn’t on our squad either (not sure why)
Sailing - We qualified boats in men’s 49er, women’s 49er FX, women’s ICLA6, and women’s kite as expected. For the first time in HISTORY however, we failed to qualify in men’s ICLA7. Ruitenberg was just a few spots off at World Championships I’m pretty sure. 

Shooting - Another unexpected outcome in terms of quotas, wasn’t expecting 3 (maybe 1 at best). Actually, it was really lucky that we won the quota in men’s 50m rifle 3 positions at the Pan American Championships, as Ikeda was 1.8 points behind a provisional quota spot with only one shot left (for one of them at least, and in shooting that’s a LOT), and then the Argentinian blew it with a 6.0.

Skateboarding - We equaled our Tokyo total, with 4. All quotas were as expected, with 3 in men’s street and 1 in women’s park. 

Surfing - More disappointment. Sanoa Olin qualified for Canada’s Olympic debut in this sport, but Erin Brooks and Cody Young both won’t be surfing the Tahiti waves. Young after just barely missing out on a spot at Tokyo, got called up as an alternate, but withdrew because he didn’t make it in time. He fell just shy again, and is 2nd alternate. Brooks won silver the year before, and is widely regarded as the next big young surfing talent, and bombed out in an early repechage. She’s been crushing it on the WSL Challenger Series, which makes her failing to qualify for the Olympics even more disappointing (need to think of some new adjectives, I’ve been using this word way too much)

Sport Climbing - Well, as soon as the two Americans in men’s and women’s combined failed to qualify through the World Championships, I knew our chances to qualify here were little to none. Was hoping for Yip to make her 2nd Olympics, after being diagnosed with alopecia earlier this year, but she wasn’t even close to qualifying.

Swimming - 29 athletes is more or less what I expected from Canada. Was hoping for either LePage or Branton to get a spot in the women’s 100m breaststroke (as Wog doesn’t have the OQT) so that they could experience the biggest level of sport but not really surprised that Swimming Canada left both off. I was also hoping that MacNeil would decline her spot in the women’s 100 freestyle, so that Oleksiak could race it individually but oh well. 

Table Tennis - In the most improbable of circumstances, somehow we managed to qualify a men’s team in table tennis at the Pan American Championships through a games won tiebreaker. Mo Zhang also qualified as expected. Wish Ivy Liao could’ve qualified in women’s singles as well through the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, but it was always going to be a tossup given how even the field was. 

Taekwondo - Skylar Park qualified through the Olympic Rankings as expected. During the Pan American Qualification Tournament, there’s things that went in our favor and things that did not. Kafadar robbed the Colombian athlete, and the Argentinian athlete robbed Park. Keep in mind I don’t follow taekwondo, but I know a bit about the rules and the Argentinian should’ve been given a penalty. 

Tennis - Auger-Aliassime, Dabrowski, Andresscu, and Fernandez all qualified as expected. Raonic is the only unexpected name, but given he’s been injured a lot the last few years I knew it was a possibility that he could use his PR. There was a bit of a letdown though, Marino was one of the highest ranked players by a mile at the Pan American Games and yet went out in the semifinals. Then there’s Shapo, who chose to focus on the tour and preparing for the hard court season. 

Triathlon - No full team unlike in Tokyo. Jamnicky was in a quota position for quite a while but got bumped out a few events before the end of the qualification period. Her bad/mediocre results really didn’t help her. 
Weightlifting - Charron booked her ticket to Paris to absolutely no one’s surprise. Even though Santavy did as well, I thought it would’ve been easier for him to qualify. I thought he would’ve been in a higher position in the Olympic Rankings and not had to rely on any potential reallocations. 

Wrestling - 6 qualified was well above my expectations. Only real regret I have is Morais missing out on a quota at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, losing by fall after leading 9-4 (?) in the quarterfinals but given that she qualified later on at the World Olympic Qualifier it’s not that important. 

Volleyball - Go back two years, and you’ll hear me saying “we have chance at a quota in women’s volleyball”. Despite not qualifying, oh did the girls prove me wrong. I started following our women’s volleyball team back in 2022, during the start of the World Championships. That tournament they upset a couple of their opponents, and it made me believe that yes, they do have the potential to make it to Paris. Even though they just barely missed out on two separate occasions, first at the Olympic Qualifier (if they had taken one more set against Dominican Republic, they would’ve qualified), and second in that direct head to head match against Netherlands at VNL (could’ve been avoided had they won against Serbia),  I’m so proud of the team for how well they fought. They’ve been on a meteoric rise ever since then, and I’m hoping it can translate into Olympic qualification for LA 2028. This team failing to qualify still stings though, even a little over a month later. 
 

As far as the men’s volleyball team goes, it was also a mental roller coaster. Back in late 2022 we hired Tuomas Sammelvuo as our head coach. Sammelvuo only had a few weeks with the team before the start of VNL (due to club season volleyball), where we were absolutely dreadful going 3-9. I first started to see some major signs of improvement within the team at the Continental Championships, where we beat Cuba in a 5 set thriller in the semifinals and lost to United States in 3 very tight sets in the final. Coming into the Olympic Qualifier, I thought a top 3 finish was possible, and maybe an outside chance at a quota, but I didn’t think it would actually happen. After beating Argentina in 4, Netherlands in 5, and a loss to Poland in 5, you would think that they’re well on their way to Olympic qualification having gotten all of their “hard” matches out of the way, but WRONG!! Belgium was also having themselves a great tournament, I would say the tournament of their lives, and it was likely going to come down to the head to head between the two. That match came, and what a time to have your worst game. Canada’s performance was so pathetic, especially given the stakes, that I stopped watching during the 4th set. I was pissed. Fun (or not so fun…) fact, I still have nightmares about that match against Belgium. That’s how horribly it went. All Belgium had to do was win against Bulgaria and they were in. I knew it was over. However, I still had to hold on to that little bit of faith. I of course had to watch the match on VBTV, while also constantly refreshing scores on Flashscore, and when Belgium went 2-1 up (after being 1-0 down) my spirits deflated. Bulgaria ended up taking set 4, and started off set 5 8-4 up. That’s when I started to believe. 8-8. After Bulgaria blew their second multi point lead at 12-9, and third at 13-11, I started to get worried again. But MP arrived for Bulgaria, and Penchev blocked Reggers to seal the deal. I was so fucking stoked that I was fist pumping for a good 10 minutes, and yelled “LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO” a few times as well  (I think I might have woke up my dad)

 

Eshenko and Schnitzer are the most notable absences on the Olympic roster due to injury. Eshenko had a great VNL up until that point, such a shame. Of course, there’s also names that could’ve made an impact but have retired from the national team, such as Perrin and Sclater (Sammelvuo I love you man, but come on)

 

@orangeman

 

Waterpolo - Lastly, waterpolo. During last years World Championships, when US (who have been dominant in women’s waterpolo for quite a while now) failed to qualify for the Olympics, I knew it would come down to this years World Championships. The team that I thought we’d be facing off against for the quota Greece, qualified at Europeans. It ended up coming down to Hungary, Italy, Canada for 2 Olympic spots at this years World Championships, and I had little hope. As soon as we lost to Italy for 7th, I went straight to bed thinking it was a waste of my time, but then in a sudden turn of events South Africa ended up declining their continental quota and Canada ended up qualifying. 

 

Handball and field hockey (we’ve regressed a lot in this sport since qualifying one almost two teams to Tokyo), and given we had no chance at all to qualify in either, didn’t feel the need to mention them. 

[Surlympics 352]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

Canadian Olympic Qualification Period Overview

 

Over two years ago the Olympic qualification period started for Paris 2024. Canada won its first quota on November 1, 2022, when our women’s artistic gymnastics team won a surprise bronze medal at the World Championships to qualify for the Olympics. Now, on July 5, 2024 following the reallocation of athletics quotas to Scott, Current, and Thorne, the qualification period is over, which means it’s full steam ahead in the few weeks leading up to the Olympics. 
 

Canada will be sending a strong contingent of 318 athletes to Paris, 123 men and 195 women, consisting of many medal chances. Fencing, shooting, and cycling/wrestling were nice surprises, and diving, surfing, rowing, boxing were disappointments. Our Paris total surpasses our Rio total, but we’re well down on the 381 we qualified to Tokyo. Very disappointing number IMO considering I feel like we’ve got stronger in sport within the last couple of years, not to mention the fact that Russia has been banned from the majority of sports as well. 

 

Just a side note, I’m still young and my vocabulary isn’t the most advanced (half of the time I’m using the word “though” instead of alternatives ) so apologies for that. 

 

From a Canadian perspective we’ve experienced it all. The highs, the lows, the disappointments, the surprises, and of course the incredible performances by our athletes. Coming back from down 12 against Spain at the FIBA Basketball World Cup to FINALLY qualify our men’s basketball team, to the heartbreak of falling just short of qualifying in women’s volleyball at VNL in a head to head match with Netherlands (a month later, and I still can’t get over it), to Summer McIntosh’s 3 world records in a span of two years. I could go on and on…

 

Anyways, here’s the overview of every sport at the Olympics from a Canadian qualification perspective. 

 

Archery - Canada qualified one male and one female athlete, as expected. But that doesn’t mean that we haven’t experienced any disappointment in archery, as we blew two solid chances to qualify a men’s team, first at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier (where Duenas put his arrow into the 7s in the shoot-off and was struggling all match long) and second at the Final World Olympic Qualifier, after coming off a bronze at the World Cup in Yecheon just a couple of weeks earlier. 
 

Artistic Swimming - Qualifying a team here was unexpected, especially considering we had to beat the likes of Ukraine and Greece at the World Championships to do it. Back in October at the Pan Am Games, I had doubts that we’d even qualify in this sport. I suspect a lot of the credit has to go to Anna Voloshyna, who Artistic Swimming Canada hired as the new head coach of the team back in January 2024, she’s doing wonders with this team. 

 

Athletics - 51 is a solid number, but there’s been many injuries and late comebacks that have impacted our team size/strength. Also didn’t help that our National Championships was held on a shit track, and with poor weather overall. 

 

Injured

Khamica Bingham (Women’s 100m)
Julie Ann-Staehli (Women’s 5000m)

Justyn Knight (Men’s 5000m)

Trevor Hofbauer (Men’s Marathon)

 

Failed to Qualify

Natasha Wodak (Women’s Marathon)

Sage Walker (Women’s 400m Hurdles)

Aurora Rynda (Women’s 800m)

Django Lovett (Men’s High Jump)

Brooke Overholt (Women’s 400m Hurdles)

Gabriela De Bues Stafford (Women’s 5000m)

Jillian Weir (Women’s Hammer Throw)

Julia Tunks (Women’s Discus Throw)

Ben Priesner (Men’s Marathon)

Myles Misener Daley (Men’s 400m)
Will Floyd (Men’s 400m)

Michael Roth (Men’s 400m)

Kaila Butler (Women’s Hammer Throw)

Malik Metiever (Men’s 400m Hurdles)

Elizabeth Gleadle (Women’s Javelin Throw)

 

Retired

Brandon McBride (men’s 800m

 

Badminton - Besides rowing, this was one of our most disappointing qualification numbers. We only managed to qualify athletes in men’s singles, women’s singles, and men’s doubles, despite clearly being the dominant Pan American nation for the past few years. While it’s partially due to the Americans competing in a few more tournaments, our mixed doubles/women’s doubles pairings had a chance to overtake their counterparts with the gold medal at the Pan American Championships, but both bombed out in the semifinals. Nobody’s fault but themselves.

 

Basketball - If there was a sport that could be described as a rollercoaster of emotions this would be the sport. Or at least one of two. (more on that later)

 

Canada’s men’s team faced Spain in the second round of the FIBA Men’s World Cup for a spot at the Olympics for the first time since 2000, and were down by 12 heading into the 4th quarter. SGA and Brooks said no problem, combining for 24 out of Canada’s 27 points (SGA 13, Brooks 11) to secure Canada the W. After many close misses in previous qualifying tournaments, it was great to see them finally get the job done. 
 

As for the team announcement, pretty much exactly as expected. Kerr mugged off Wiggins by not allowing him to go to the Canada Basketball Olympic Training Camp, while Edey decided to focus on the NBA Summer League after getting drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies a couple of months ago. Sharpe is injured. 

 

Canada’s women’s team largely struggled at the FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournament, yet still managed to qualify for the Olympics. First, they had a chance to keep their Olympic dreams into their own hands, needing a win against Japan in their final match, but dropped it by a score of 86-82. That meant they had to rely on Spain defeating Hungary, and down by 21 with a little under 7 minutes to go in the 3rd period things were looking bleak. But against the odds, they came back and won. I was lost for words, I couldn’t believe what just happened. 
 

Would’ve liked to see youngster Toby Fournier on the roster instead of Sami Hill, but given her lack of international experience I can see why they left her off. Other than that, the exact roster that I envisioned. 
 

Canada’s women’s 3x3 team had two chances to qualify for the Olympics. First at the Universality Olympic Qualification Tournament 2, then the Olympic Qualification Tournament. Given their dominance on the Women’s Series, I didn’t have any doubt that they’d eventually book their ticket. They dropped the Olympic ticket match to Australia at their first opportunity, and Spain at their second opportunity. That’s when I started to get worried honestly (even though we were taking on Hungary, who are a quality team but notches below all three teams), because even though those are both medal contending teams I didn’t think it would have to come down to a last match. In the end, we ended up demolishing Hungary as expected, which was a major sense of relief. 

Boxing - Thibeault and Sanfords both got their ticket to Paris through the Pan American Games. Sanford’s performance in particular stood out to me, he didn’t have the easiest of draws as a mediocre boxer in the draw and very surprisingly dispatched all of his opponents. Another thing, Wright got robbed in her quarterfinal bout against Bravo, but given it was in Chile obviously the refs are going to be biased towards her. Cavanaugh, one of our best chances at a medal retired at the start of the year, due to her hating the sport and Barriere switched temporarily from pro to amateur for the First World Qualifier. Delgado lost her quota bout on a split decision to Cirkovic, and Barriere lost his quota bout in a close loss to Moindze. He withdrew from the Second World Qualifier to focus on pro boxing again. At the Second World Qualifier, Wright fought in the quota bout against a very winnable opponent in Bravo but got swept. 

Breaking - We qualified Philip Kim and no one else, as expected. I don’t really care about this “sport” though. 

Canoeing - Team of 15, which is more or less what I expected from the team. Nothing else to say here. 

Cycling - Team of 22, really satisfied with the number. Men’s and women’s team sprints had to work for their spot at the last Nations Cup, and we also won an unexpected quota in men’s BMX freestyle which will signify our Olympic debut in the sport which is nice. Obviously I had hope for Ryan Tougas at the World Championships, but he crashed in the semifinals and the Chilean won the quota instead. Same for a 3rd men’s and women’s quota in road cycling, and a 2nd men’s and women’s quota in men’s mountain biking. 

Diving - What a disaster. Not only do we fail to grab a women’s 3m synchro springboard quota, but we also fail to qualify a 2nd athlete individually. Vallee and Ware were world medalists individually in 2022/2023, and were just a few points shy of a synchro quota in 2022 but other than the Pan Am Games have struggled a lot since then. 

Equestrian - We qualified teams in eventing, jumping, and dressage as expected through the Pan American Games. What’s confusing though, is that none of our Canadian #1’s have been selected for the Olympic team. 

Football - Women’s team qualifying was never in doubt really, yet I was still somewhat concerned because of Jamaica’s brilliant performance at last years World Cup combined with Canada’s horrific tournament. 

Fencing -  We have 15 athletes qualified, entries in all individual events, and in three team events. Largest team in quite a while I’d say? Overall, super happy with how fencing has gone. 

Golf - We qualified 2 men and 2 women as usual. Nothing else to say here. Shame we couldn’t qualify 4 male golfers (a lot of them are decently ranked), but with the qualification system it was always going to be hard. 

Gymnastics - It required a LOT of luck (lots of falls), but our women’s team booked their ticket to Paris during their first opportunity at the 2022 World Championships, which was a huge surprise. Men’s team qualifying the year after was also cool to see, their last appearance at the Olympics was back in Beijing 2008.

Judo - We qualified 3 men, and 4 women, which is an increase by 1 on our total. More or less, most of the judoka that qualified were expected to make it to the Olympics. There was one surprise however, Portuondo Isasi came out of nowhere in 2024 to grab a team invitational quota, mainly due to her  unexpected silver medal at the Pan American Championships. 

Modern Pentathlon - That reminds me… Kelly Fitzsimmons was 27 POINTS ahead of 3rd ranked North American Davis for an Olympic quota entering the laser run. YES, 27!! I knew shooting wasn’t her forte based off of qualification, but with a lead that big I thought no way would she blow it. I thought wrong, her performance pissed me off. She was around 25 seconds slower than she was during the qualification round. I mean seriously, I could’ve done better than that. Wasn’t even expecting her to be in contention though. 

Rowing - No words. By far and away the most disappointing sport for Canada throughout the Olympic qualification period (only women’s eight and women’s double sculls qualified), and it’s not even close. That’s what Rowing Canada gets for firing Michelle Darvill I guess 

 

First time in history that Canada will not be present in men’s rowing at the Olympics. 

 

Special shout-out (… not) to our men’s eight who blew their opportunity to qualify for the Olympics at the Final Qualification Regatta. They were 2.67 seconds ahead of Italy for the final Olympic quota with only 500m to go, but faded badly and missed out by 0.01 

 

Rugby Sevens - Women’s team demolished the field at the North American Olympic Qualifier to qualify as expected. Men’s team was so close to joining them, losing the final 14-12 to United States. That was their best chance to qualify, and they didn’t take it. As for the women’s team, De Goede is out injured for Canada, which is a huge hit to our medal chances, and De Couvreur isn’t on our squad either (not sure why)
Sailing - We qualified boats in men’s 49er, women’s 49er FX, women’s ICLA6, and women’s kite as expected. For the first time in HISTORY however, we failed to qualify in men’s ICLA7. Ruitenberg was just a few spots off at World Championships I’m pretty sure. 

Shooting - Another unexpected outcome in terms of quotas, wasn’t expecting 3 (maybe 1 at best). Actually, it was really lucky that we won the quota in men’s 50m rifle 3 positions at the Pan American Championships, as Ikeda was 1.8 points behind a provisional quota spot with only one shot left (for one of them at least, and in shooting that’s a LOT), and then the Argentinian blew it with a 6.0.

Skateboarding - We equaled our Tokyo total, with 4. All quotas were as expected, with 3 in men’s street and 1 in women’s park. 

Surfing - More disappointment. Sanoa Olin qualified for Canada’s Olympic debut in this sport, but Erin Brooks and Cody Young both won’t be surfing the Tahiti waves. Young after just barely missing out on a spot at Tokyo, got called up as an alternate, but withdrew because he didn’t make it in time. He fell just shy again, and is 2nd alternate. Brooks won silver the year before, and is widely regarded as the next big young surfing talent, and bombed out in an early repechage. She’s been crushing it on the WSL Challenger Series, which makes her failing to qualify for the Olympics even more disappointing (need to think of some new adjectives, I’ve been using this word way too much)

Sport Climbing - Well, as soon as the two Americans in men’s and women’s combined failed to qualify through the World Championships, I knew our chances to qualify here were little to none. Was hoping for Yip to make her 2nd Olympics, after being diagnosed with alopecia earlier this year, but she wasn’t even close to qualifying.

Swimming - 29 athletes is more or less what I expected from Canada. Was hoping for either LePage or Branton to get a spot in the women’s 100m breaststroke (as Wog doesn’t have the OQT) so that they could experience the biggest level of sport but not really surprised that Swimming Canada left both off. I was also hoping that MacNeil would decline her spot in the women’s 100 freestyle, so that Oleksiak could race it individually but oh well. 

Table Tennis - In the most improbable of circumstances, somehow we managed to qualify a men’s team in table tennis at the Pan American Championships through a games won tiebreaker. Mo Zhang also qualified as expected. Wish Ivy Liao could’ve qualified in women’s singles as well through the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, but it was always going to be a tossup given how even the field was. 

Taekwondo - Skylar Park qualified through the Olympic Rankings as expected. During the Pan American Qualification Tournament, there’s things that went in our favor and things that did not. Kafadar robbed the Colombian athlete, and the Argentinian athlete robbed Park. Keep in mind I don’t follow taekwondo, but I know a bit about the rules and the Argentinian should’ve been given a penalty. 

Tennis - Auger-Aliassime, Dabrowski, Andresscu, and Fernandez all qualified as expected. Raonic is the only unexpected name, but given he’s been injured a lot the last few years I knew it was a possibility that he could use his PR. There was a bit of a letdown though, Marino was one of the highest ranked players by a mile at the Pan American Games and yet went out in the semifinals. Then there’s Shapo, who chose to focus on the tour and preparing for the hard court season. 

Triathlon - No full team unlike in Tokyo. Jamnicky was in a quota position for quite a while but got bumped out a few events before the end of the qualification period. Her bad/mediocre results really didn’t help her. 
Weightlifting - Charron booked her ticket to Paris to absolutely no one’s surprise. Even though Santavy did as well, I thought it would’ve been easier for him to qualify. I thought he would’ve been in a higher position in the Olympic Rankings and not had to rely on any potential reallocations. 

Wrestling - 6 qualified was well above my expectations. Only real regret I have is Morais missing out on a quota at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, losing by fall after leading 9-4 (?) in the quarterfinals but given that she qualified later on at the World Olympic Qualifier it’s not that important. 

Volleyball - Go back two years, and you’ll hear me saying “we have chance at a quota in women’s volleyball”. Despite not qualifying, oh did the girls prove me wrong. I started following our women’s volleyball team back in 2022, during the start of the World Championships. That tournament they upset a couple of their opponents, and it made me believe that yes, they do have the potential to make it to Paris. Even though they just barely missed out on two separate occasions, first at the Olympic Qualifier (if they had taken one more set against Dominican Republic, they would’ve qualified), and second in that direct head to head match against Netherlands at VNL (could’ve been avoided had they won against Serbia),  I’m so proud of the team for how well they fought. They’ve been on a meteoric rise ever since then, and I’m hoping it can translate into Olympic qualification for LA 2028. This team failing to qualify still stings though, even a little over a month later. 
 

As far as the men’s volleyball team goes, it was also a mental roller coaster. Back in late 2022 we hired Tuomas Sammelvuo as our head coach. Sammelvuo only had a few weeks with the team before the start of VNL (due to club season volleyball), where we were absolutely dreadful going 3-9. I first started to see some major signs of improvement within the team at the Continental Championships, where we beat Cuba in a 5 set thriller in the semifinals and lost to United States in 3 very tight sets in the final. Coming into the Olympic Qualifier, I thought a top 3 finish was possible, and maybe an outside chance at a quota, but I didn’t think it would actually happen. After beating Argentina in 4, Netherlands in 5, and a loss to Poland in 5, you would think that they’re well on their way to Olympic qualification having gotten all of their “hard” matches out of the way, but WRONG!! Belgium was also having themselves a great tournament, I would say the tournament of their lives, and it was likely going to come down to the head to head between the two. That match came, and what a time to have your worst game. Canada’s performance was so pathetic, especially given the stakes, that I stopped watching during the 4th set. I was pissed. Fun (or not so fun…) fact, I still have nightmares about that match against Belgium. That’s how horribly it went. All Belgium had to do was win against Bulgaria and they were in. I knew it was over. However, I still had to hold on to that little bit of faith. I of course had to watch the match on VBTV, while also constantly refreshing scores on Flashscore, and when Belgium went 2-1 up (after being 1-0 down) my spirits deflated. Bulgaria ended up taking set 4, and started off set 5 8-4 up. That’s when I started to believe. 8-8. After Bulgaria blew their second multi point lead at 12-9, and third at 13-11, I started to get worried again. But MP arrived for Bulgaria, and Penchev blocked Reggers to seal the deal. I was so fucking stoked that I was fist pumping for a good 10 minutes, and yelled “LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO” a few times as well  (I think I might have woke up my dad)

 

Eshenko and Schnitzer are the most notable absences on the Olympic roster due to injury. Eshenko had a great VNL up until that point, such a shame. Of course, there’s also names that could’ve made an impact but have retired from the national team, such as Perrin and Sclater (Sammelvuo I love you man, but come on)

 

@orangeman

 

Waterpolo - Lastly, waterpolo. During last years World Championships, when US (who have been dominant in women’s waterpolo for quite a while now) failed to qualify for the Olympics, I knew it would come down to this years World Championships. The team that I thought we’d be facing off against for the quota Greece, qualified at Europeans. It ended up coming down to Hungary, Italy, Canada for 2 Olympic spots at this years World Championships, and I had little hope. As soon as we lost to Italy for 7th, I went straight to bed thinking it was a waste of my time, but then in a sudden turn of events South Africa ended up declining their continental quota and Canada ended up qualifying. 

 

Handball and field hockey (we’ve regressed a lot in this sport since qualifying one almost two teams to Tokyo), and given we had no chance at all to qualify in either, didn’t feel the need to mention them. 

The fist pumping for ten minutes straight killed me haha