Thomas Skrlj/COC, FIBA, Rowing Canada
The weekend will be full of emotions as qualifications for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be at stake in different sports.
In Toronto, Canadian swimmers are in action at the Olympic Swimming Trials, chasing a spot to represent Team Canada this summer. Abroad, Canadian 3×3 basketball teams have one last chance to secure their Olympic qualification in Debrecen, Hungary. The Final Olympic Rowing Qualification Regatta, in Lucerne, Switzerland, is also the last opportunity for Canada to qualify additional boats for Paris.
Skateboarding, sport climbing, breaking and freestyle BMX have combined forces to create an Olympic Qualification Series that will leave its mark. The first stage is underway in Shanghai, China. The World Judo Championships begin Sunday, as athletes attempt to improve their world rankings with the Olympic qualifying period ending at the end of June.
Here’s what you don’t want to miss:
Swimming
The Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials, presented by Bell, began Monday at the Pan American Sports Center in Toronto.
After three evenings of finals, World Champions Summer McIntosh, Maggie Mac Neil and Kylie Masse obtained their ticket to the Paris 2024 Games, as did World Championship medalists Ingrid Wilm and Mary-Sophie Harvey. In the men’s events, Tristan Jankovics, Blake Tierney and Javier Acevedo qualified for the Olympic team. Several others are in excellent position to be named to the team as relay swimmers.
On Thursday, McIntosh will be in the final of the women’s 400m medley, an event in which she holds the world record and has been crowned world champion twice. This fourth day of competition also marks the first final for Joshua Liendo, who will aim to lower the national record in the men’s 100m freestyle. Swimmers in this event will also want to deliver fast performances in order to be considered for the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team. In the women’s 200m backstroke, reigning Olympic silver medalist Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm will be among the swimmers in action.
The women’s 100m freestyle will take place on Friday. McIntosh, Harvey, Mac Neil, in addition to Penny Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck, Katerine Savard and Rebecca Smith are among the swimmers who will try to obtain a qualification for the individual event or a place on the women’s 4 × 100 m freestyle relay for which country is qualified. In the women’s 200m breaststroke, Sydney Pickrem, two-time World Championship medalist, and Kelsey Wog will be among the candidates for qualification in the women’s 200m breaststroke, while in the men’s 200m butterfly, Ilya Kharun, fourth in the event at the 2023 World Aquatics World Championships, will also try to get his ticket to Paris 2024.
McIntosh will be in the pool again on Saturday for the women’s 200m butterfly, another event in which she was crowned world champion in 2022 and 2023. In the men’s 200m medley, another world champion, Finlay Knox, will attempt to compete. ensure his Olympic qualification. Winner of the 400m medley at these Trials on Tuesday, Jankovics will attempt to add another event to his Olympic program. Liendo and Yuri Kisil are among the swimmers who could swim under the Olympic qualifying time in the men’s 50 freestyle.
On Sunday, the women’s 50m freestyle will be another opportunity for Ruck to qualify for Paris 2024. In the men’s 100m butterfly, Liendo, silver medalist in the event at the 2023 Worlds, will be there, as will Kharun and Knox. McIntosh, Pickrem and Harvey will be among the swimmers to watch in the women’s 200m medley. Pickrem won the silver medal in the event at the World Aquatics Championships last February.
The qualifying heats begin at 9:30 a.m. ET daily and the finals kick off at 6 p.m. each evening.
The competition to determine the swimmers who will represent Canada at Paris 2024 will culminate with the official announcement of the Olympic swimming team on Sunday evening.
Basketball 3×3
The Canadian women’s 3×3 basketball team has one last chance for their ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this weekend, as the final FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament takes place in Debrecen, Hungary .
The team of Paige Crozon, Kacie Bosch, Katherine Plouffe, Michelle Plouffe and alternate Cassandra Brown plays in Group B. They opened the tournament with a 21-11 victory over Chile, followed by a win of 19-16 against Lithuania. They will finish the round robin against the Czech Republic on Saturday.
The Canadian team, which has several successes to its credit, narrowly missed Olympic qualification at the Universal Tournament in Utsunomiya, Japan, in early May, losing 19-16 in the final to the Australian team.
In Utsunomiya, there was only one qualification spot at stake. In Debrecen, 16 teams will compete for the final three Olympic qualification quotas.
READ: Team Canada’s women’s 3×3 basketball team journeys to Paris with a focus on passion
The Canadians have a remarkable record; they are two-time FIBA Women’s 3×3 Series champions after winning the title in 2022 and 2023, 2022 AmeriCup champions and 2022 World Cup silver medalists. The team enters the tournament ranked second in the FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualification Rankings.
The Canadian men’s team of Jérôme Desrosiers, Bikramjit Gill, Alex Johnson and Kamar McKnight plays in Group C. After opening the tournament with an 18-14 victory over Spain, the Canadians lost their second game 21- 18 against Egypt. They will face France in their final round robin match on Saturday.
Rowing
The Final Olympic Rowing Qualification Regatta takes place this weekend in Lucerne, Switzerland. Two Canadian boats will be in action in the hope of securing their ticket to Paris 2024, namely the men’s eight and the women’s quadruple. Two Olympic quota places are available in each event.
READ: A legend of two crews of eight: Team Canada rowers talk uniqueness, Olympic heritage and fun
The men’s eight team includes Jakub Buczek, Joel Cullen, Ryan Clegg, Terek Been, Curtis Ames, Gavin Stone, Will Crothers, John Walkey and coxswain Laura Court. The women’s quadruple is made up of Shannon Kennedy, Marilou Duvernay Tardif, Carling Zeeman and Katie Clark.
The Canadian team has already qualified boats in the women’s eight and lightweight double sculls events in preparation for Paris 2024.
Olympic qualifying series
The Olympic Qualifying Series is underway in Shanghai, China. This event combines skateboarding, sport climbing, breaking and freestyle BMX events, making for a fun weekend! Olympic quota places will be awarded after the second and final stage of the Olympic Qualification Series which will take place in Budapest from June 20 to 23.
In skateboarding, Fay De Fazio Ebert, champion of the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games at the age of 14, qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s park event. Samantha Secours will represent Canada in the women’s street event. On the men’s side, Matt Berger and Ryan Decenzo qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s street event, while Micky Papa and Cordano Russell were eliminated in the preliminaries.
Canada’s first two Olympic athletes in sport climbing in the sport’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Sean McColl and Alannah Yip, will continue the qualification process for their second Games. Yip, who won a bronze medal at Santiago 2023, will compete in the women’s bouldering and difficulty event. McColl will take part in the men’s bouldering and difficulty event, as will Oscar Baudrand.
In breaking, Tiffany Leung, aka B-Girl Tiff, and Emma Misak, aka B-Girl Emma, will compete for qualification for Paris 2024. Team Canada has already qualified one dancer for Paris 2024, Philip Kim (B-Boy Phil Wizard), who qualified by winning gold at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games where Leung finished fourth.
The IJF World Championships begin Sunday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and run through May 24. Eleven Canadian judokas will attempt to amass points in the IJF World Rankings before the Olympic qualification period closes on June 23.
Even though they are at the top of the world hierarchy, the competition in the women’s 57 kg category on Monday will be of crucial importance for Christa Deguchi and Jessica Klimkait. Indeed, the two Canadians are currently respectively first and second in the world, however only one Canadian judoka will be able to take part in the Olympic tournament in this weight category. Whoever finishes with the highest ranking will earn two points towards Judo Canada’s selection criteria, which will also take into consideration the world ranking at the end of the qualification period, in addition to results at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships.
Deguchi will aim to defend her world champion title acquired last year. It was then a second career world title for Deguchi who in 2019 became the first Canadian to be crowned world judo champion. For her part, Klimkait won the World Championships in 2021, securing her qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where she won a bronze medal. She also won a bronze medal at the 2023 Worlds.
Bronze medalist from the last Olympic Games, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard currently occupies first place in the world rankings in the women’s 63 kg category, the tournament of which will take place on Tuesday. She stood on the second step of the podium at the 2022 Worlds.
On Thursday, Shady El Nahas and Kyle Reyes will both take part in the tournament in the men’s under 100 kg category. El Nahas took fifth place at the 2023 World Championships, a rank he also obtained at the 2021 World Championships as well as at Tokyo 2020 a few months later. Reyes, meanwhile, is the 2022 World Championships silver medalist and finished seventh at last year’s Worlds.
Deguchi’s sister, Kelly (52 kg), will be the first Canadian to step onto the tatamis on Sunday, while Ana Laura Portuondo Isasi (over 78 kg) will have to wait until Thursday before taking the stage.
On the men’s side, Julien Frascadore (66 kg) will be in action on Monday, as will Arthur Margelidon (73 kg), while François Gauthier-Drapeau (81 kg) and Louis Krieber Gagnon (90 kg) will take part in their tournament respectively on Tuesday and Wednesday.
2024-05-16 18:26:31
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