Commonwealth Games 2022: How to watch Team Canada - preview, schedule & stars

A host of Canadian talent will be looking to impress as Birmingham welcomes the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games. Here is your guide on who to look out for from Team Canada and when you can catch them in action.

6 minBy Jo Gunston

Team Canada Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2014

(2014 Getty Images)

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games are here.

The quadrennial multi-sport extravaganza, held this year in England's West Midlands, is set to run from 28 July to 8 August and will involve 72 nations and territories competing in 19 different sports.

A 43-strong squad has been named by Athletics Canada and Commonwealth Sport Canada in what will be the nation's 22nd appearance at the 'Friendly Games', having competed at every edition since its inception in 1930.

Canada is expected to compete in all sports except cricket, netball and powerlifting.

Fourth in the medal table last time out at Gold Coast 2018 – behind Australia, England and India, respectively – Canada won 82 medals, 15 of them gold.

A few medal opportunities have receded after the withdrawal of star names like 4x100m world champions Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown and Jerome Blake who beat the USA to gold on their host's track last weekend, but there are still some Canadian stars expected to achieve big things at Birmingham 2022.

READ: Commonwealth Games 2022: Preview, schedule, how to watch the stars in action

(2022 Getty Images)

Summer McIntosh

Fifteen-year-old swimmer, Summer McIntosh, is already an Olympian having been the youngest member of Team Canada at Tokyo 2020 (in 2021).

The teenager was also nearly an Olympic medallist too, as she was part of the 4x200m relay that came fourth in Japan.

The Toronto native is, however, a world gold medallist having won the 200m butterfly and 400m medley titles at the World Championship in Budapest, Hungary, last month.

She also bagged silver and bronze in 400m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay, respectively, so who knows what she can achieve at her debut Commonwealth Games.

McIntosh is confirmed for the 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly, both the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the women's 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays so hopefully she's recovered from her World Championship exploits in order to make a splash on the international scene once again.

Summer McIntosh: Schedule for Commonwealth Games 2022

Friday 29 July – women's 400m individual medley heats and final
Saturday 30 July – women's 4x100m freestyle relay final
Sunday 31 July – women's 4x200m freestyle relay final
Monday 1 August – women's 200m individual medley heats and final
Tuesday 2 August – women's 200m butterfly heats and final
Wednesday 3 August - women's 400m freestyle heats and final

WATCH: Sport Guide – Swimming explained

(2021 Getty Images)

Maude Charron

Named co-flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games – alongside wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy – weightlifter Madue Charron will waft the Maple Leaf with pride in front of 30,000 people at the Alexander Stadium on Thursday 28 July.

Charron won the Olympic title in the 64kg division at Tokyo 2020, with a 105kg snatch and 131kg clean and jerk, for a winning total of 236kg.

The 29-year-old from Quebec is also the defending Commonwealth Games champion after winning the 63kg weight class at Gold Coast 2018 in a Games' record of 122kg in the clean and jerk.

Maude Charron: Schedule for Commonwealth Games 2022

Monday 1 August – women's 64kg

Canada 3x3 basketball

Canada have sent both a women's and a men's team to compete in 3x3 basketball in Birmingham, the first time the discipline has been played at a Commonwealth Games. Previous Games included regular basketball in which Canada men were silver medallists at Gold Coast 2018.

The men's side this time out will be lead by 3x3 veteran Alex Johnson, Bikramjit Gill, debutant Adam Paige and Jordan Jensen-Whyte with whom Johnson played in the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2021.

The women's side of Taya Hanson, Rosalie Mercille, Sarah Te-Biasu, and Tara Wallack are fresh off a gold medal at the inaugural GLOBL JAM, an international U23 tournament in Toronto earlier this month.

Wheelchair 3x3 basketball will also take place at the Smithfield site in Birmingham in which Tara Llanes, Tamara Steeves, Kady Dandeneau and Elodie Tessier will stake their claim for a medal in the women's event, and Vincent Dallaire, Garrett Ostepchuk, Colin Higgins and Robert Hedges will do the same in the men's edition.

Canada 3x3 basketball: Schedule for Commonwealth Games 2022

Friday 29 July – men's pool round v Kenya + v Scotland; men's wheelchair pool round v Australia
Saturday 30 July – women's pool round v British Virgin Islands + v New Zealand;
women's wheelchair pool round v Kenya, men's wheelchair pool round v Northern Ireland
Sunday 31 July – men's pool round v Sri Lanka + women's pool round v England;
women's wheelchair pool round v England
Monday 1 August – men's and women's quarter finals and semi finals + wheelchair basketball semi finals
Tuesday 2 August – men's, women's, wheelchair medal matches

(2012 Getty Images)

Joshua Cassidy

Co-flag bearer for Canada at the Opening Ceremony of Birmingham 2022 alongside weightlifter Maude Charron, wheelchair racer Joshua Cassidy described the honour on social media as, "Something you dream about as an athlete, such a privilege… but something you never anticipate. This is a huge surprise and so special".

The three-time Paralympian and 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist has also won the Los Angeles and Boston marathons, and will compete in the men's T54 1500m and the marathon in the same class in Birmingham.

No doubt the 37-year-old's nine younger siblings will be cheering him on.

Joshua Cassidy: Schedule for Commonwealth Games 2022

Saturday 30 July – men's T54 marathon
Wednesday 3 August – men's T54 1500m heats
Friday 5 August – men's T54 1500m final

(2021 Getty Images)

Kelsey Mitchell

Track cyclist Kelsey Mitchell will be looking to add Commonwealth Games gold to her Olympic women's sprint title, won at Tokyo 2020.

Mitchell only started cycling at the age of 23 after she participated in an athlete funding and talent ID scheme, so the Alberta native has gone from beginner to Olympic champion in five years. She also claimed bronze at the World Championship in Roubaix, France in her uber-successful 2021.

Kelsey Mitchell: Schedule for Commonwealth Games 2022

Saturday 30 July – women's track cycling sprint

Ana Godinez Gonzalez

Canadian under-23 wrestling world champion Ana Godinez Gonzalez will look for individual gold in the women's 62kg at Birmingham 2022, but there's also a tradition she'll be looking to carry on.

For more than 50 years, India or Canada has topped wrestling's medal table at the Commonwealth Games, and Gonzalez won't want to be part of the team that breaks that success now.

The Mexico-born athlete will compete in the women's freestyle wrestling 62kg division.