The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward – Darren Calabrese/COC – The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan
The holiday season is just around the corner, but Team Canada athletes will be competing at home and around the world in a range of sports, including ski jumping, short track speed skating, figure skating and wrestling.
Here are some things you won’t want to miss:
wrestling
One hundred and fifteen of Canada’s best wrestlers will compete in Edmonton this weekend for the 2023 Canadian Team Trials. Athletes who win their weight classes will earn their spots in qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Competition will include billiards and ladder components. The pool tournament for women’s wrestling and men’s freestyle wrestling will be held on December 15. Each pool winner will join three already seeded wrestlers (who have earned their spot in the 2023 Canadian Senior Wrestling Championships) in the ladder portion of the tournament on December 16. The pool and Greco-Roman staircase will be held on December 17.
Only one athlete from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has returned for another Olympics, Amar Desi, who competes in the men’s 125kg freestyle category.
There are likely to be several strong fights throughout the weekend, including the women’s 68kg event, which features current top seed Olivia Di Paco and former world champion Linda Moraes.
Much of the attention will be on the women’s 76kg division, as Justina Di Stasio seeks a top-four finish in her wrestling career. Di Stasio won World Championships gold, Pan Am Games gold, Commonwealth Games gold, and Pan Am Championships gold, but never secured an Olympic berth.
READ: Justina Di Stasio and Ana Godinez Gonzalez on why wrestling is for everyone and making each other better
Winners of this weekend’s trials will still need to qualify internationally within their weight classes to claim a ticket to Paris 2024.
It could be trials It was broadcast online.
Short track speed skating
The Canadian short track speed skating team will compete for the second straight weekend as the ISU World Cup circuit moves to Seoul, South Korea.
Gold medalist in the last three 500m World Cup races, Jordan-Pierre-Gilles is looking to continue his winning streak.
William Dandjeno, who has made three podium finishes on the track this season, is a rising star in the team. Among the veteran players, Stephen Dubois has also been on the podium three times this season and, after three of the six matches, is second in the overall men’s World Cup standings.
Pascal Dionne, Felix Roussel and Maxime Laon are the other three skaters on Team Canada. The men’s 5,000m relay has won medals at each of the three World Cups in the 2023-24 season, winning gold twice, including last weekend.
Danae Blais, Ricky Doak, Courtney Sarault, Florence Brunel, Claudia Gagnon and Renee Stenge are the Canadian representatives on the women’s side. Belize won her first two individual medals at the World Cup in Montreal, while Doak captured her first individual gold medal on the track.
Qualifiers for all events will be held on Friday. On Saturday, the 500-meter and 1,500-meter competitions will be held for both genders, in addition to the mixed relay. On Sunday, the second 500-meter and 1,000-meter races for men and women will be held, in addition to the finals of the men’s and women’s relay race.
Big flip flops
Whistler will welcome nearly 100 of the world’s best athletes to the second leg of the FIL World Cup this weekend. This will include 11 Canadians.
Trinity Ellis, who hails from nearby Pemberton, British Columbia, set a personal best at the World Cup after finishing 12th in the women’s singles at the season opener in Lake Placid. Devin Wardrop and Cole Szajanski want to get on the podium after finishing fourth in the men’s doubles event last season in Whistler.
Kaylee Allan, Kaitlyn Nash, Theo Downey, Betty Podolski, Ember Lee Susco, Midori Holland, Caroline Maxwell and Dylan Morse are also scheduled to compete.
The men’s singles and men’s and women’s doubles competitions will be held on Friday. The women’s singles and team relay will take center stage on Saturday.
Ski jumping
Ski jumpers from Canada’s women’s team head to the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Engelberg, Switzerland.
Many eyes will be on 19-year-old Alexandria Lutet, who has already opened the season strong, taking silver on the large hill and bronze on the natural hill in Lillehammer, Norway, in early December. It was a great start for the first ever Canadian world champion ski jumper.
Loutit is joined by her Beijing 2022 Olympic teammate, Abigail Strate, as well as Natalie Ehlers and Nicole Maurer. Strate finished 13th on the big hill and 20th in the regular hill event in Lillehammer.
The women’s qualifiers begin on Thursday, and the competition continues until Saturday.
Skiing
Tokyo, Japan will host the World Street Skating Championships, marking the first time the country has hosted a stop on the World Skating Tour.
Canadian racer Ryan DiCenzo hopes to improve his performance compared to last year’s worlds in Rome, Italy, where he finished seventh. Other Canadians to look out for include Tokyo 2020 Olympian Matt Berger, as well as Shay Sandiford and Samantha Secours.
The event has Olympic qualifying implications, as riders attempt to accumulate points for the Olympic World Skiing Rankings which will be used in January to determine who advances to the Olympic Qualifying Series.
