Five top Canadian sporting prospects to look out for in 2024
With gold medal hopes across a number of sports for Paris 2024, Canada has a number of stars worth watching. Here are some prospects to keep an eye on leading up to the Games.
With the Paris 2024 Olympics coming later this year, there are plenty of Canadian athletes who can get the whole country singing “O Canada” in 2024. From swimming stars Penny Oleksiak, and Maggie Mac Neil, to women's hammer throw world champion Camryn Rogers, track cycling gold medallist Kelsey Mitchell, and the reigning women's football team, Canada has some established big names across a number of sports.
Here are a number of other stars who showed promise in 2023, and are worth watching in the Olympic year.
Summer McIntosh - Swimming
2023 was a breakout year for Summer McIntosh, who was the youngest swimmer on Team Canada at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021. She left the swimming world championships with four medals: two gold and two bronze. With these results, McIntosh showed she is a swimmer to watch in the butterfly and individual medley events at Paris 2024.
Leylah Fernandez - Tennis
At just 21 years old, Leylah Fernandez played a key part in helping Canada win its first ever Billie Jean King Cup in 2023, beating Italy’s Jasmine Paoli in the finals. She also won the Hong Kong Open in October. Whether it’s in singles or doubles, Fernandez is on a great trajectory heading into 2024.
Brian Yang - Badminton
In 2019, Brian Yang became the youngest man in Canadian history to win the badminton national singles title. Since then, he’s been to the Olympics, been ranked in the top 25 in the world, and most recently, he won gold at the Pan American Games. Keep an eye on not just what he can do as a singles player, but also in men's doubles and mixed doubles.
Ethan Katzberg - Track and field athletics
The last five world championship titles in hammer throwing were won by Poland’s Pawel Fajdek. Ethan Katzberg broke Fajdek’s hold on the event, winning gold at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. He followed that up by breaking the Pan American Games record. At just 21, the British Columbia native is peaking at the right time with Paris 2024 nearing, and teammate Rogers tipped for gold in the women's event.
Mia Vallee - Diving
In 2023, Vallee made her mark in synchronised diving. With Pamela Ware, she won bronze at the World Aquatics diving World Cup. She then went to the Pan American Games, and came home with even more hardware. Ware and Vallee took silver in the 3m springboard, and Ware won gold in the 1m springboard.
