Canada sends one of its biggest teams to the Beijing 2022 Olympics. And most women ever go to a Winter Games. Of the 215 Canadian athletes, 106 participate in women’s events.
It’s a mix of veterans who will recognize Canadian fans – 45 are already Olympic medal winners – and many emerging players who want to break through on the world’s biggest sports stage.
Gracenote, a data analytics company, predicts the Canadian team will win 23 medals – six gold, six silver and 11 bronze. That projection places Canada fourth in the medal table, a drop from third overall in 2018 Pyeongchang when the team achieved the best result ever with 29 medals.
No matter how the medal table shakes as soon as the action begins, there will be no shortage of Canadian hope and talent to watch, especially in the freestyle skiing and snowboarding mountain range 200 km northwest of Beijing and the speed skating, curling and hockey rink in the capital.
There is a 13 hour time difference for Toronto sports fans to wrestle with, so it will take a bit of doing to catch them all. Here are 22 Canadian names to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.
Michael Kingsbury
Deux-Montagnes, Que.
Moguls ski
Kingsbury is the most dominant moguls skier in history, having won everything there is to win, including two Olympic medals (gold in 2018 and silver in 2014), world championships, nine consecutive Crystal Globes and 100 World Cup podiums. A team veteran at 29, “the King” is far from finished – he was favored to win Olympic gold in Beijing.
Marie-Philip Poulin
Beauceville, Que.
Women’s Hockey Team Captain
“Captain Clutch,” a three-time Games medalist (gold in 2010, 2014 and silver in 2018) leads a team that wants to reclaim their Olympic championship title. The 23 players, 13 veterans and 10 first-timers, come from seven provinces. They fought through the downfall of the CWHL and COVID, depriving them of competitive opportunities, but they still won the 2021 World Championships, with Poulin (30) scoring the overtime goal to beat their American rivals.
Laurent Dubreuil
Levis, Que.
Long distance speed skating
The 29-year-old sprinter did not miss the podium in any of his eight 500-meter World Cup races in the run-up to these Games. In December, he became the first Canadian to go below the 34-second mark when he claimed the national record with a time of 33.77 seconds – the second fastest time yet recorded for the distance – which earned him a medal made favorite.
Kim Boutin
Sherbrooke, Que.
Shortcut speed skating
She was the only Canadian to win three medals at the 2018 Games and was Canada’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony. There were also challenges, as she received death threats from supporters of a South Korean skater who was disqualified in the rough races. She set the world record in the 500 meters after the Games and is a multiple medal favorite at 27.
Mark McMorris
Regina, Sask.
Slopestyle and big aerial snowboarding
The rural runner has Olympic bronze medals of 2014 and 2018, but he is still looking for the gold he really wants. The 28-year-old has been one of the top snowboarders in the world for a decade, but this is the first time he will go to an Olympics at the height of his strengths rather than be hampered by a quick return to injury.
John Morris and Rachel Homan
Ottawa, Ont.
Curls, mixed doubles
He is the only Canadian man to have won two Olympic gold medals in curling. In 2018 he won the debut of mixed doubles with Kaitlyn Lawes and in 2010 Vancouver he was part of the men’s gold team. Now, at 43, he is looking back to defend his mixed doubles medal, this time with Rachel Homan (33). She represented Canada in the women’s team event in 2018 and led her career to sixth overall.
Valerie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann
Saguenay, Que / Ottawa / Ottawa
Cross-country Speed Skating Spanjag
Maltais (31), Blondin (31) and Weidemann (26) are not only the top team in the world, they rebuilt the event to suit their differences, especially Weidemann’s height and distance specialty. As a team, they are looking for the top step of the podium. In addition, Blondin was favored in mass startup, the event that led to sadness for her in 2018 when she fell in the semifinals. And Weidemann is top-ranked and a medal favorite in the women’s 3,000 and 5,000-meter distance events.
Justin Kripps
Summerland, BC
Bobslee
In 2018, Pyeongchang, he led Canada to an Olympic gold medal in the two-man event, in an incredible draw for gold after four runs on the track. The 35-year-old Kripps, who is now entering his fourth Olympics, is second in the world rankings in the two- and four-man events, just behind Francesco Friedrich of Germany – the pilot with whom he last looked for gold.
Max Parrot
Bromont, Que.
Slopestyle and big aerial snowboarding
The 27-year-old won silver in slopestyle at the last Games and is among several Canadians in the team looking for gold. His legendary quest for success, which led him to cut in his neighborhood to buy his first snowboard as a child, led him through a cancer diagnosis in December 2018. Only two months after finishing chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he won gold in big air at the X Games in Norway.
Cynthia Appiah
Toronto, Ont.
Bobslee
The last Olympics were a sad one for her; she was named a replacement after pushing Canada’s leading two-woman sled to several World Cup medals. She returned with a vengeance by becoming a top pilot in time to determine her own course to Beijing. As a black athlete in winter sports, the 31-year-old hopes to help inspire others. Her best medal shot comes in the brand new women’s monobob event.
Charles Hamelin
Sainte-Julie, Que.
He is the first Canadian short track speed skater to compete in five Olympic Games and the five medals he has already won bind him to most medals won by a male Winter athlete. He says he will retire after these Games, so this is his last chance to take first place in the record books. At 37, he is the reigning world champion in 1,500 meters and a key member of the 5,000-meter relay.
Cassie and Darcy Sharpe
Comox, BC
Halfpipe Skiing / Slope Style and Aerial Snowboarding
At the 2018 Olympics, she tackled a master class and won Olympic gold in half-pipe skiing, while he just missed out on catching those Games with his sister in his events, slope style and big-air snowboarding, due to an injury. This time, Cassie, 29, and Darcy, 25, were tied up in Beijing – and after both left knee surgeries, no less.
Rachel Karker
Erin, Ont.
Halfpipe Ski
She has not missed a World Cup podium in almost three years. The last time she was fourth was March 2019. The 24-year-old’s first World Cup podium ever came to China in 2018 and she will rely on those fond memories and her great tricks and incredible consistency to build a strong Olympic field. to pack which includes the rarely beaten teenager, Eileen Gu, who competes for China.
Marion Thenault
Sherbrooke, Que.
Aerials ski
She was a gymnast about to retire from sports when she was discovered and recruited for aerial skiing by the talent identification program, RBC Training Ground. The high-flying 21-year-old, who is studying aeronautical engineering, hopes to take the chance and reach the medal podium in her first Olympics, as Kelsey Mitchell, another training ground, did in cycling at the Tokyo Summer Games.
Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier
Toronto / Unionville, Ont.
Ice Dance
They have been skating together for more than a decade and the 30-year-olds reached a career high last year by climbing the podium for the first time at the world championships. They won a bronze medal and it was their first competition in more than 13 months due to the COVID pandemic. They will try to deliver in Beijing again.
Jennifer Jones
Winnipeg, Man.
Women’s team curls
At 47, she is the oldest member of Canada’s team at these Games, and the hope of showing age is undoubtedly no obstacle to winning. She is already a gold medalist from Sochi 2014 where she led her career to a perfect 11-0 record to win Canada’s first women’s curling gold since Nagano 1998. Hers was the first women’s curling team to be unbeaten in the Olympic competition and, more recently, win their 2018 world championships.
Brooke D’Hondt
Calgary, Alta.
Halfpipe snowboarding
At just 16, she is the youngest member of Team Canada in Beijing. But she’s no stranger to the spotlight because she made her debut at X Games, the second biggest event in the sport, when she was 14 years old. She says she draws inspiration from American Chloe Kim who at 17 became the youngest woman to win an Olympic gold in snowboarding in this event at the 2018 Games.
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