We’re only a week away from the beginning of the athletics program on the 2024 Paris Olympics. Whereas many are acquainted with the large names on Group Canada, reminiscent of Marco Arop, Andre De Grasse and Sarah Mitton, a number of athletes making their debut may turn out to be family names by the top of the Video games.
In Rio 2016, De Grasse sprinted to superstardom in his Olympic debut, profitable medals for Canada within the males’s 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay. Eight years later, he’s Canada’s most embellished male Olympian (with six medals) and the flag bearer for the opening ceremony. Whereas De Grasse continues to shine, Group Canada’s subsequent observe and area star may emerge from any of the 50 different members. Listed here are 5 athletes poised to make an impression of their Olympic debut.
Jazz Shukla (Ladies’s 800m)
Shukla is an athlete with large expertise and potential, however has been restricted in her worldwide racing expertise. She’s dominated the North American circuit this season, profitable 5 of her seven races. Her quickest time of the season got here final month on the Canadian Olympic Trials, the place she ran a surprising 1:58.20 (solo), making her the second-fastest Canadian girl in historical past, simply behind Melissa Bishop-Nriagu’s Canadian document of 1:57.01.
Shukla made her world championship debut in Budapest final 12 months, the place she ran private greatest instances in each the heats and semi-finals, narrowly lacking out on the ultimate. This season, she has been racing with extra confidence, positioning herself effectively as a contender for a spot within the girls’s 800m remaining on Aug. 5. With reigning Olympic champion Athing Mu not qualifying for Group USA, the rostrum has opened up for the remainder of the ladies’s 800m area—and why not Shukla? Her 800m marketing campaign begins on Friday, Aug. 2.
Duan Asemota (Males’s 100m/ 4x100m relay)
Should you requested Asemota the place he’d be at this level final 12 months, he won’t have believed he’d be on the Paris Olympics within the males’s 100m. The Ajax, Ont. native stop his job earlier this 12 months to pursue his Olympic dash ambitions, and it has paid off. Asemota has lowered his 100m greatest by a tenth of a second to make the Canadian crew and has run sub-10.10 seconds in 5 of his ten races. Though he’ll have to be constant (and more than likely run a private greatest) to get himself into the lads’s 100m remaining, he has continued to shock the Canadian observe and area world thus far—may Asemota proceed to take action on the world’s greatest stage?
Like De Grasse, Asemota can also be a product of former Olympic sprinter and acclaimed coach Tony Sharpe. He’s at present coached by former 110m hurdles Olympic finalist Charles Allen. Asemota will make his Olympic debut on Saturday, Aug. 3, within the males’s 100m heats alongside his teammates De Grasse and Aaron Brown.
Ceili McCabe (Ladies’s 3,000m steeplechase)
McCabe is Canada’s prime feminine distance runner proper now. She has gone undefeated within the girls’s 3,000m steeplechase this 12 months, beating former world champion Norah Jeruto on the L.A. Grand Prix in Could with a brand new Canadian document time of 9:20.58. She placed on a present eventually 12 months’s Canadian XC Championships in Ottawa, profitable by almost a minute over a powerful girls’s area. In Budapest final 12 months, she missed the steeplechase remaining by one spot and stated she’s been utilizing that fireside as motivation to prep for Paris.
Solely 22, McCabe comes into Paris as a veteran, having competed for Group Canada at two main championships. McCabe is a gritty runner who tends to race with a chip on her shoulder and isn’t afraid to combine it up with the East Africans, who’ve dominated this occasion on the final two Olympic Video games (profitable 4 of the six medals). The three,000m steeplechase heats will happen on Sunday, Aug. 4.
Savannah Sutherland (Ladies’s 400m hurdles/4x400m relay)
Sutherland, the delight of Borden, Sask., has turn out to be a family identify in her hometown and with the College of Michigan within the NCAA, setting college and convention data. Quickly, Sutherland will put her potential on show for your complete nation within the girls’s 400m hurdles. In June, Sutherland broke the Canadian document within the one-lap hurdles occasion, beforehand held by Sage Walker (nee’ Watson), with a 53.25-second efficiency on the 2024 NCAA Championships.
The 20-year-old has not but raced in opposition to both Femke Bol or Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in her profession, however she may be capable to chase down one other nationwide document if both of them are in her semi-final. With gold and silver doubtless locked up by two of the best 400m hurdlers in historical past, the door is huge open for bronze. This being Sutherland’s first Olympics, she has nothing to lose and comes into the 400m hurdles area as an underdog, regardless of being the seventh-fastest girl on the planet this 12 months. Sutherland’s path to the 400m hurdles remaining begins within the heats on Sunday, Aug. 4.
Audrey Leduc (girls’s 100m/200m/4x100m relay)
Leduc’s 2024 season has been a dream come true. The Canadian U Sports activities Ladies’s Athlete of the Yr winner began 2024 with Olympic aspirations and has since set new Canadian data within the 100m and 200m on the way in which to her first Video games. She additionally helped Canada safe an Olympic berth within the 4x100m relay after Canada didn’t ship a crew to Tokyo 2020.
Most of Leduc’s greatest races this season have come in opposition to quicker competitors, and he or she has proven she will run with the world’s greatest over 100m and 200m. One factor that will likely be an asset for her in Paris, is her consistency. She has recorded sub-11.10 clockings within the girls’s 100m in 5 of her eight races and has been undefeated over 200m. Together with her lengthy stride, Leduc’s medal hopes fare higher over the 200m than the 100m, the place there’s much less depth. Like many different Canadian up-and-coming debutants (talked about on this article), Leduc is available in as an actual underdog with lots of potential to drag off one thing particular and proceed her storybook season.
Her Olympic marketing campaign will start within the girls’s 100m heats on Friday, Aug. 2.
