As we reminisce on an incredible year in sport, which was highlighted by an incredible Olympic Games, it’s fun to remember that some of Team Canada’s biggest fans are other members of Team Canada!
So we asked some of Canada’s top winter athletes what their favourite moment was from Paris 2024.
Many of Team Canada’s winter athletes were as stunned as the rest of us by the “Summer of Summer,” as well as Canada’s emergence as a hammer throwing powerhouse. But some of these answers might also surprise you!
“Oh my gosh, obviously because it was the first time it was in the Olympics, but Phil Wizard winning the breakdancing was so much fun and so sick. Also the women’s [beach] volleyball– they were amazing.”
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a moment, but for me the sport that I thought was so interesting was surfing…because we’re not in a sport that is so driven by Mother Nature. We have an ice surface, it’s prepared, we’re in a building—not much can go wrong other than the ice fluctuation, and the timing between our partners, and just skating in general. Athletes like that, there’s a whole lot that’s not in their control. The wave is in the control of Mother Nature, and they have to battle it out.
It wasn’t even a sport I went looking for. I just said, ‘Let’s watch the Olympics!’ and it came on and I was so fascinated. I watched hours of the rounds because I was just like, ‘How do they mentally prepare for this?!’”
“I’m not even going to tell you that I’m not biased—I am 100% super biased to the throws. Watching Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers win the gold medals in the hammer was the peak highlight of my Olympic Games viewing experience. It was just like, ‘Finally, the throwers are the popular kids at the Olympics!’ Watching the men’s 4x100m was honestly such a great moment as well. But watching the best throws was just….chef’s kiss.”
“I got to watch a lot of the Olympics, because I was on a training camp in Utah, and so in between all of the training, we were just watching the Olympics.
I have a couple of favorite moments. The coach we had with us in Utah is a strength coach, and he coaches some of the track and field athletes. One of his athletes—Thomas Fafard—made it to the [5000m] final, and it was super exciting for him to be in the final.
I could tell that [Fafard] maybe didn’t run the race that he wanted to run, and it was one of my favorite moments, because maybe it wasn’t his PB, but I think he had everything to be proud of in that race. And I could put myself in that position.
I know how hard it is to find your A game at the Olympics. The Olympics are so different from whatever you see in the normal season. The food, the transportation, the accommodation, it’s all different. So, I was really impressed by his performance. He didn’t win a medal or anything, but I could put myself in that spot, and I could see how much that race was going to mean to him, after you realize all of the hard work you put in.
And then there were a couple athletes from my area performing. There was Derek [Gee] in cycling. There was also Sophia Jensen, who did the [sprint] canoe. I grew up racing bikes with Lois Betteridge, who’s a [slalom] paddler. So it’s cool to see all of them perform.
And it’s funny too, because most of them used to do cross-country skiing!”
“I think the easy answer is Summer [McIntosh] because she was just absolutely dominating those events. Every time I woke up and went to my phone, I was like, ‘Oh, there’s another one. There’s another one.’
I was also super proud of our hammer throwers, because I think it’s super cool for Canada. They’re calling us a hammer throwing nation—that is awesome.”
“Evan Dunfee has always been one of my favourites. He’s such a superstar and I just love his personality and how down to earth he is; he’s such an incredible human being and I really look up to him.
I was pretty devastated to see the results he had in his race [5th place, just five seconds off the podium in the 20km race walk], but I know that he put everything into that race, and he did everything that he could, so I was still incredibly proud of him. I messaged him after the race and he actually responded a couple hours later.”
“I’m going to say Summer. Summer McIntosh’s performances were super inspiring, especially as another young athlete, seeing how well she deals with all of the pressure and the hype. She looked unfazed, and her interviews were amazing. I was definitely very inspired by her.”
“I think for me, Melissa [Humana-Paredes] and Brandie [Wilkerson] winning a medal was such a big deal, mostly because we know them. They’re Toronto girls. We used to train with them for a long time at the sports centre here in Scarborough. And so they’re athletes that we’ve seen working at it and working at it and working at it for years and years and years and years and years, and they’re people that we know and call friends. So that was just really special, I think because of that relationship. To see them achieve what they set out to achieve was really amazing.”
“Summer McIntosh, seeing her win everything was pretty sick. I mean, that was as dominant as you can get from her. And then watching our hammer throwers win too was pretty awesome.”
