2023 Highlights: Canada's sporting moments of the year
With an ice hockey world title and records broken in many sports, Canada has had an exciting year of sport. Here are some highlights.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. With 2023 coming to a close, Olympics.com reflected on some of Team Canada’s top sporting moments of the year.
From a three-goal third period at the Ice Hockey World Championship finals to the record for the most gold medals by a Canadian at a single Pan American Games, it’s been a good year to sing 'O Canada' time and time again.
Maggie Mac Neil's continental records
Olympic swimming champion Maggie Mac Neil brought the heat to the pool in Santiago at the 2023 Pan American Games and broke records left, right and centre.
At her first continental championships, the 23-year-old showed up as one of the biggest names of the Games with her face plastered across stadiums, subway stations, merchandise, official vehicles and more. The pressure was on, but she more than lived up to the hype, taking five gold, one silver and one bronze medal, and breaking the record for the most gold medals won by a Canadian athlete at one Pan Am Games.
The Canadian swimmer also broke the Games record in the 100m freestyle — on first try of racing that event internationally. Meanwhile, her 100m butterfly victory solidified her dominance in the event, adding to her list of golds that already included the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Worlds and NCAAs.
Maggie Mac Neil is a name to remember for Paris 2024.
Maggie Mac Neil set a record for the most gold medals won by a Canadian at a Pan American Games with five wins at Santiago 2023.
Ice hockey world gold
Avenging their runner-up finish in 2022, Canada regained their crown at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship the following year by beating Germany 5-2.
The Germans took an early lead in the Championship final in Finland, scoring their first goal just eight minutes in. The lead bounced back and forth, and tensions were high going into the third period with the teams tied at 2-2.
It was then that Canada brought the fire and scored three times in the final period. The team's 28th gold will be added to the trophy case to go with the 16 silver and seven bronze medals they won earlier.
B-Boy Phil Wizard's Olympic quota
The 2023 Pan American Games saw B-Boy Phil Wizard become Canada’s first ever breaker to obtain an Olympic quota for his nation — and he did it by a landslide.
Breaking made its continental debut at Santiago 2023, which also served as a qualifier event for the sport’s debut at the Olympic Games in 2024.
Phil Wizard cruised through each round, facing off against the biggest names in the sport and beating each one of them out with his style and flawless power moves. Speaking to Olympics.com after his performance, the B-Boy revealed that his younger self never would have believed what he accomplished on the day.
B-Boy Phil Wizard, seen here competing at the One World Final, won the first ever breaking competition at a Pan American Games.
Gabriela Dabrowski's US Open title
Gabriela Dabrowski’s US Open title is one that will go down in Canada’s tennis history books. The 31-year-old became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam women’s doubles title, and she did so in straight sets with partner Erin Routliffe. Although Routliffe competes for New Zealand, she grew up in Ontario and trained at the National Tennis Centre in Montreal.
It was a big win for Canada, and one that Dabrowski called the “highlight of her career”. The Ottawa native has two Grand Slam titles in mixed doubles under her belt, from the Australian Open in 2018 and the French Open in 2017, but this year she became the first Canadian to win in women’s doubles.
Dabrowski now has her eyes on Paris, where she hopes to win an Olympic medal for Canada.
To add to Canada's tennis triumps, the country's women also won gold at the Billie Jean King Cup for the first time and upset title favourites Czechia in the semi-finals.
Canada won the Billie Jean Cup in a final against Italy.
Ellie Black's decade of success
Three-time Olympian and Canadian sweetheart Ellie Black competed at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 10 years after her championship debut and made the uneven bar event finals - something she has never done before.
Black later said that the event was “special” as there are only a handful of gymnasts who are able to keep their bodies and minds at the highest level of gymnastics for such an extended period of time.
During the bar event finals, she competed “The Black” - a skill named after her and inducted into the code of points in 2022. The skill, which includes a single bar release connected to a high-to-low-bar release, holds a G-value, one of the highest in the code.
Ellie Black made the uneven bars final at an Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 10 years after making her debut on this stage.
