De Grasse, Warner look to defend Olympic titles as Athletics Canada unveils Paris squad
CBC
Andre De Grasse and Damian Warner are set to defend their Olympic titles at this summer's Paris Games as part of Canada's athletics team.
The team was announced Tuesday by Athletics Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
De Grasse will look to build on his six Olympic medals, including his gold in the men's 200 metres at the Tokyo Games.
The sprinter from Markham, Ont., has also qualified in the men's 100 metres and 4x100 metre relay.
"I'll just use my experience to my advantage. I know what to expect. I know what I have to do," De Grasse said in a release. "Every Olympic Games are different, but from my first one, then a pandemic in my second one, I'm just going to go out there, remain focused, and remember all the things that got me there."
WATCH | Athletics North — Recapping 100m at Canadian Olympic trials:
Warner, the Tokyo gold medallist from London, Ont., forms a formidable one-two punch with world champion Pierce LePage of Whitby, Ont., in the decathlon.
"We have such a strong team," Warner said. "To me, one of the coolest things is that we have athletes in so many different sports. The team is awesome. It's so well-rounded and I'm excited to get out there and represent alongside them."
Other athletes with podium chances include world champion hammer throwers Camryn Rogers of Richmond, B.C., and Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C., Tokyo 5,000-metre silver medallist Mo Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., 800-metre world champion Marco Arop of Edmonton and shot-putter Sarah Mitton of Brooklyn, N.S., who won gold at the 2024 indoor world championships.
Leduc has had an outstanding 2024 season, setting Canadian records in both the women's 100 metres and 200 metres, as well as being part of the women's 4x100 metre relay team that qualified Canada for the Paris Games.
"I did not see this coming. I was hoping to qualify for the relay and the 100 metres via the World Ranking, but I didn't expect the 200 metres too," Leduc said. "I've done the Quebec Games and the Canada Games, and the Olympic Games is just the big thing, every four years. I'm just excited to get there, represent Canada as best I can, and run fast."
Track and field will take place Aug. 2-10. The men's 20-kilometre race walk will take place Aug. 1 and the marathon race walk mixed relay will take place on Aug. 7. The men's marathon is scheduled for Aug. 10 and the women's marathon on Aug. 11.
Canada's Kevin Drury battled his way to a gold medal that left him in tears at a World Cup ski cross event on Friday in Val Thorens, France.
Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a "monumental betrayal" after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.