10 (and then some) memorable Team Canada athletics moments from Paris 2024
Whether it was on the track or on the field, Team Canada had a Games to remember in athletics at Paris 2024.
Now, with the competition over at the Stade de France, let’s look back at 10 Olympic performances that will be remembered for years to come.
De Grasse saves the best for last
Most Canadians of a certain age can tell you where they were when Donovan Bailey won 100m gold at Atlanta 1996. For newer generations, many of those indelible moments on the track have been authored by Andre De Grasse.
But it looked as though it wasn’t to be at Paris 2024. De Grasse was eliminated from the 100m and 200m at the semifinal stage, and revealed he was battling a lingering hamstring issue.
That’s when his long-time teammates—Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake—lifted him up. Racing out of Lane 9 in the 4x100m relay final, the brotherhood benefited from those bonds and blasted their way to the gold medal.
So, remember where you were when De Grasse crossed that finish line. Folks might ask you about it some day.
READ: Olympic gold medal ‘icing on the cake’ for magical men’s 4x100m relay team
Katzberg lays down the hammer
There’s a decent chance that, coming into these Games, you may not have known Ethan Katzberg‘s name.
You certainly know it now.
The 22-year-old crushed the competition in the men’s hammer throw final on Day 4, claiming Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in a throwing event in 120 years. Yes, 120 years.
READ: A jaw-dropping, golden Olympic debut for Ethan Katzberg
Could Katzberg’s bit of Canadian history also stand the test of time? Well, about that…
Rogers also lays down the hammer
In the unlikely event that Katzberg wanted to gloat about being Canada’s only gold medallist in Olympic hammer throw, well, he only had two days in which to do it.
That’s because on Day 6, Camryn Rogers stepped up to say “anything you can do, I can do better”. Actually, she stepped up to also throw the hammer a very long way.
Rogers, like Katzberg, came into Paris 2024 as a world champion. And she too left Paris as an Olympic gold medallist. Along the way, she got to make her own bit of history, as Canada’s first gold medallist in a women’s athletics event in 96 years.
READ: Camryn Rogers: Rock-solid and golden at Paris 2024
Is there some sociological explanation as to why, after all this time, Canada’s awash with strong people adept at throwing heavy objects a long distance? Maybe, but that’s well beyond the scope of what we’re doing here. Anyway…
Some silverware for Arop
Team Canada always seems to provide some late drama at the Olympics, and Paris was no different.
On Day 15, Canadians exploded for three medals, one of which was a silver in the men’s 800m for Marco Arop — Canada’s first Olympic medal in that event in 60 years.
It was a fantastic run—Arop set a new North American record of 1:41.20 and finished just 0.01 seconds short of gold. Our brains aren’t wired to comprehend just how small a sliver of time that is.
Even so, Arop was all smiles after the race. “I couldn’t be happier with the way I performed,” he said.
If he’s happy, we’re happy.
Newman vaults into the record books
Some athletes come to the Olympics to soak up the atmosphere. Some come to put on the performance of their lives and win a medal.
Alysha Newman must have wondered, why not both?
In the women’s pole vault final, Newman amped up and entertained the massive crowd at Stade de France. (It was especially well received given the extended delay due to an equipment malfunction.)
READ: Alysha Newman soars to bronze, a Canadian record and a place in the history books
She also cleared a height of 4.85m, breaking her own Canadian record and winning an Olympic bronze. In the process, she became Canada’s first-ever medallist in women’s pole vault, and the country’s first Olympic pole vault medallist in 112 years.
Yep, another incredibly long medal drought that dissipated in Paris. Were there any others? Funny you should ask…
Ahmed comes as close as can be
It was also 112 years ago, back at Stockholm 1912, that Joe Keeper finished fourth in the men’s 10,000m.
This seemed like another record that could fall at these Games. Moh Ahmed was heading into his fourth Olympic Games, looking to build on his sixth-place finish in the event at Tokyo 2020.
In the 10,000m final in Paris, he ran a great race. He set a season-best mark of 26:43.79. He was in medal position heading into the home stretch, primed to win his first Olympic medal in the event (he’d won silver in the 5000m in Tokyo).
But an incredible final burst from Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi saw him leapfrog into second place, behind Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei (who set a new Olympic record in the process).
Ahmed finished fourth, just 0.33 seconds off of the podium (again, too quick for our brains to comprehend). The Canadian threw an arm around Cheptegei past the finish line… celebration? Exhaustion? An exhilarating race, either way.
Sutherland makes a statement in her debut
As fans, we can sometimes be blinded by the glimmer of Olympic medals and momentarily forget what we’re watching. Fourth, 14th, 40th—wherever these athletes finish, they’re at the tippy-top of what they do on a planet of eight billion people.
With that in mind, let’s take a moment to consider the case of Savannah Sutherland.
She came into Paris as a 20-year-old, then turned 21 partway through. Canada sent 48 athletics competitors to Paris, and Sutherland was the youngest of them to compete in a final.
In fact, she competed in two of them. She earned seventh place in the women’s 400m hurdles, then ran Canada’s fastest leg in the 4x400m relay final (the team finished sixth).
Technically that’s two moments, which undermines the structure of this “top 10” list somewhat. But now that we’ve broken the rules…
Canada’s women right on track
Speaking of that women’s 4x400m final, we’re not just going to mention Sutherland. Shout out to the whole team at these Games—Zoe Sherar, Lauren Gale, Kyra Constantine, Aiyanna Stiverne. We see you!
We also see the crew who set a new Canadian record in the women’s 4x100m relay—Audrey Leduc, Jacqueline Madogo, Marie-Éloïse Leclair, Sade McCreath. You got that 42.50 in the first round. Right on!
And we certainly didn’t miss Leduc breaking her own Canadian record in the 100m heats with a time of 10.94.
That was how many moments? Does it count as a separate moment for each participant? We’re unclear, but legally speaking, this is still a top 10 list.
Dunfee walks the line
Imagine working for years to become a top performer at the incredibly gruelling 50km race walk.
You make the Olympics. You finish fourth. You come back to the Olympics. You win a bronze medal. You wonder whether, next time out, you might reach even higher.
Then the 50km race walk vanishes from the Olympic program.
If you can imagine all that, then you’re in a very similar boat to Evan Dunfee. Difference is, he’s lived it.
But, undeterred, the 33-year-old made his way to Paris 2024 and competed in the 20km race walk. He’d finished 10th in Tokyo, and came within striking distance of the podium in Paris, finishing fifth.
He also competed in the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay, the event that replaced the 50km race walk. He did so alongside 21-year-old Olivia Lundman, whom he also coaches.
Not the podium he may have imagined, but still pretty cool.
Warner goes out on his terms
Memorable moments aren’t always the glorious ones.
Damian Warner, in his fourth Olympics, couldn’t get any higher on the podium than he did in Tokyo. There, he’d won an historic gold medal in decathlon, set an Olympic record and served as Canada’s flag bearer at the Closing Ceremony.
His experience in Paris was an altogether different one.
He was looking good through the first day, and sat second overall after seven events. Then came the pole vault. Warner missed all three attempts at 4.60m and fell to 18th place.
While he could have completed the final two events, he made the crushing decision to withdraw. He explained, “that gives me the best opportunity to grow because I don’t want that feeling to happen again.”
We’ll never match the athletic prowess of Warner or any of the other incredible competitors on this list. But the determined desire to learn from mistakes and keep getting better, no matter what?
That’s something we can all relate to. That moment of spirited self-reflection—that’s something we can all share.