Vikase (ICF)/AP Photo-Lee Jin-man/The Canadian Press/James Worsfold
It’s a busy weekend for Team Canada athletes and fans. The Canadian women’s soccer team will begin its dual match with Jamaica for a spot in Paris 2024. Team Canada heads to Belgium for the World Championships, a chance for Olympic qualification.
Canada’s top athletes compete in the World Triathlon Championships final in Pontevedra, Spain, while the Canadian women’s volleyball team continues to compete in Ningbo, China as it attempts to qualify for the Olympic volleyball tournament for the first time since Atlanta 1996.
Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:
soccer
Over the next few days, the Olympic women’s soccer champion will look to take advantage of his chance to defend his gold medal in a two-match series against Jamaica.
The teams will play Friday night at 8:00 PM ET in Kingston, Jamaica and then again on Tuesday, September 26 at 7:00 PM ET in Toronto. The team that scores the most goals combined between the two matches will secure its ticket to Paris 2024.
READ: Team Canada ready for all-or-nothing Olympic qualifiers in women’s soccer
Canada enters the series having defeated Jamaica in all nine previous matches. However, Canada is coming off a disappointing performance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup where they did not advance from the group stage after finishing in seventh place. Jamaica, on the other hand, exceeded expectations at the World Cup, finishing 43rd and qualifying for the round of 16 after battling to draw with top rivals France and Brazil.
Team Canada’s lineup for the Olympic qualifiers includes 14 players who won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020.
broke down
Momentum is building behind the sport of break, which is set to make its Olympic debut in Paris 2024. Competition at the 2023 WDSF World Break Championships takes place in Leuven, Belgium, on Saturday and Sunday.
Competitors from 62 countries will compete for the title of World Champion and a qualifying spot for the Paris 2024 Games. Each country can send two boys and two girls to the worlds.
Canada will be represented by Philip Kim (B-Boy Feel Wizard) and Samuel Cyr (B-Boy Mass) on the men’s side. On the women’s side, Tiffany Leung (B-Girl Tiff) and Emma Misak (B-Girl Emma) will represent Team Canada.
is reading: Phil Wizard talks about breaking as an art, culture and sport
Canada’s best hope rests with Phil Wizard, the current world champion, to make Canada’s way to Paris in this new sport. Kim, Leung and Misak will represent Canada at the 2023 Santiago Games.
Triathlon
The World Triathlon Championships finals are being held in Pontevedra, Spain, this weekend. Team Canada is represented on the men’s side by Tyler Mislavchuk, Charles Paquet and Brock Howell, while on the women’s side Dominika Jamnicki will wear the maple leaf.
Mislawchuk had a strong season, finishing 13th at the Olympic test event in Paris in August, ninth at the World Triathlon Championships sprint and relay in Hamburg, Germany in July, and 15th at the World Triathlon Series event on home soil in Montreal in June.
Jamnicky placed 29th at the Paris test event and is also scheduled to compete in the upcoming Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.
The competition is the culmination of the World Triathlon Series, the culmination of a season in which athletes have accumulated valuable ranking points towards Olympic qualification.
volleyball
The Canadian women’s volleyball team continues its Olympic qualifying campaign in the Chinese city of Ningbo, which concludes on Sunday. The Canadians are trying to qualify for the women’s Olympic volleyball tournament for the first time since Atlanta 1996.
Canada has a 2-2 record in the tournament so far. The Canadians are currently ranked 11th in the world, and have recorded victories over the Netherlands, ranked ninth, and China, ranked sixth. This last match was very tough, coming down to five sets.
The two defeats came to the Dominican Republic and Serbia, which ranked tenth and third, respectively, in the world.
Canada is scheduled to play three more matches in this tournament: against Ukraine on Friday, Mexico on Saturday, and the Czech Republic on Sunday, which are countries ranked 20th, 24th and 16th, respectively, in the world.
Three Olympic qualifying tournaments are held simultaneously in three different countries. The top two teams from each tournament, playing in a home-and-away league system, will qualify for the Olympics.
Canoe/Kayak Slalom
The ICF World Slalom Championships kicked off on Tuesday in Lee Valley, England, and runs until Sunday. Seven Canadian athletes are taking part in a bid to seize the first opportunity to secure their place at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Three women are flying the Canadian flag: Tokyo 2020 Olympian Florence Maheu, Louise Betteridge, and Leah Baldoni. The three Canadians participated in qualifying for the women’s kayak event on Thursday, but were unable to secure a spot in the semifinals. On Wednesday, Betteridge was the only Canadian competing in the women’s sculls event, where she also saw her qualifying run come to an end.
On the men’s side, Alex Baldoni, Trevor Boyd and Mile Rivard competed in K-1, with Boyd advancing to the semifinals on Saturday. On Wednesday, Baldoni and Daniel Barry competed in the canoe slalom, but their journey ended in the qualifying round.
These World Championships are the first opportunity to qualify for Paris 2024. Since a country can only qualify one athlete in each event, the top 15 countries in the women’s and men’s K-1 events and the top 12 countries in each C-1 event will qualify. Earn a place In the Olympic qualifying quota.
Canadian rowers will have another opportunity to qualify for Paris 2024 through the continental qualifiers in Rio de Janeiro at a later date.
On Sunday, the seven Canadians will compete in Lee Valley in kayaking, a new sport that will make its debut at the Olympic Games in Paris next summer.
