Canada Games competitors who became Olympic medallists for Team Canada 

The 2025 Canada Summer Games will soon be underway in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Taking place August 8-25, it’s an opportunity for young athletes from across the country to connect in the spirit of sport, friendship, and adventure. The most easterly city in North America last hosted the Canada Summer Games in 1977. 

More than 3000 athletes representing all 10 provinces and three territories will compete in a total of 244 events across 17 sports. The first week of competition will include baseball (men), basketball, beach volleyball, box lacrosse (women), canoe/kayak, road cycling, rugby sevens, sailing, soccer (men), softball (women), swimming, open water swimming, and tennis. The second week features artistic swimming, athletics, baseball (women), box lacrosse (men), mountain bike, diving, golf, soccer (women), softball (men), volleyball, and wrestling. 

Many athletes who have gone on to become Olympians with Team Canada had their first exposure to multi-sport competition at the Canada Games. 

Of the more than 300 athletes who were part of Team Canada last summer at Paris 2024, 103 are alumni of the Canada Games. That even included a few who had competed at the Canada Games in 2022, just two years before they made their Olympic debuts. 

You can check out the entire list of past Canada Games athletes who competed at Paris 2024, courtesy of the Canada Games Council. But here are a few fun facts about those Canada Games alumni at Paris 2024: 

25 – Disciplines in which Canada Games alumni competed

17 – Track and field athletes

16 – Paris 2024 Olympic medallists 

14 – Swimmers 

9 – Paddlers (among a canoe/kayak sprint team of 13)

6 – Volleyball players (half of the men’s team)

5 – Wrestlers (all but one team member)

5 – Artistic swimmers (among a team of eight)

5 – Artistic gymnasts (including four of the five members of the men’s team)

4 – 3×3 basketball players (the entire team) 

2 – Holmgren siblings in mountain bike 

So, who were the Paris 2024 medallists who cut their teeth at the Canada Games? 

Two members of the golden men’s 4x100m relay team are Canada Games alumni. Canada’s most decorated male Olympian, Andre De Grasse, was a triple gold medallist at the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Just one year into his sprinting career, he swept the men’s 100m and 200m events and won 4x100m relay gold with Team Ontario. In Winnipeg in 2017, Jerome Blake won 200m gold and 100m silver for Team BC. 

It was also in 2017 that future Olympic silver medallist Marco Arop won gold in his signature event, the men’s 800m, for Team Alberta. The first Canadian woman to win an Olympic pole vault medal, Alysha Newman, was just 15 when she competed in the event at the 2009 Canada Games in PEI. Her goal then, just seven months after she started pole vaulting, was to be on the 2016 Olympic team—a goal which she achieved. 

A decade before she became an Olympic champion, a 16-year-old Katie Vincent won five gold medals at the 2013 Canada Games. At the time, women’s canoe events were not yet part of the Olympic program, but in her biographical notes, Vincent was quite prognosticate: “WHEN women’s canoe is accepted into the Olympics, you can expect to see me there with a maple leaf on my back and a smile on my face.” 

Her bronze medal-winning partner in the women’s C-2 500m, Sloan MacKenzie, was on the Olympic podium just two years after she stood atop the Canada Games podium. MacKenzie won four gold medals for Team Nova Scotia in Niagara in 2022. Who did she note as her role model? None other than Katie Vincent. 

Three members of the silver medal-winning women’s eight rowing crew came through the Canada Games. Abby Dent and Avalon Wasteneys both competed in Winnipeg in 2017. Dent won a bronze medal for the host province, Team Manitoba, while Wasteneys won three gold medals for Team BC. Maya Meschkuleit’s stated goal for the 2022 Canada Games was “have fun!” but she ended up with two gold and one silver with Team Ontario. 

Carissa Norsten competed for Team Saskatchewan in rugby sevens just two years before she helped Team Canada win silver at Paris 2024. One of her Olympic teammates, Alysha Corrigan, competed in a completely different sport at the Canada Games, suiting up for Team PEI in ringette during the 2015 Canada Winter Games. 

Before she became a backstroke specialist with five Olympic medals, Kylie Masse raced in an incredible 11 swimming events for Team Ontario at the 2013 Canada Games. Josh Liendo was just 14 when he entered 10 events at the 2017 Canada Games. He came away with eight medals, including a gold and two silver in his specialty stroke, butterfly. 

Fifteen years before she won Olympic bronze in mixed doubles tennis alongside Félix Auger-Aliassime, Gaby Dabrowski won bronze in women’s singles at the 2009 Canada Games. 

Rylan Wiens was a standout on the diving platform well before he and Nathan Zsombor-Murray became Canada’s first ever Olympic medallists in men’s 10m synchro. Wiens won 10m bronze for Team Saskatchewan at the 2017 Canada Games. 

Another Olympic bronze medallist, Sophiane Méthot, bounced to trampoline gold for Team Quebec at the 2015 Canada Winter Games.  

Of course, Team Canada fans are also looking ahead to the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February. And though only a few athletes have already been nominated to the team, there is also Canada Games experience among them. 

Brett Gallant won bronze in men’s curling with Team PEI at the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse. He was just 17 at the time. His future wife and Olympic mixed doubles teammate, Jocelyn Peterman, made two appearances at the Canada Games. First, she won silver with Team Alberta in women’s curling at the 2011 Canada Winter Games and two years later was on the province’s softball team at the 2013 Canada Summer Games.

Back in 2003, a 15-year-old Sidney Crosby was the headliner in Bathurst-Campbellton, New Brunswick, suiting up for Team Nova Scotia in men’s hockey. Eight years later, another kid from Cole Harbour, Nathan MacKinnon, was sporting Team Nova Scotia colours. Sam Reinhart struck gold with Team BC at those same 2011 Canada Winter Games.  

Check out the 2025 Canada Summer Games and you never know what Team Canada Olympians of tomorrow you might get the chance to see. If you’re in the St. John’s area, you can still get tickets. If you’re on the mainland, don’t fret, as CBC Sports will have extensive live stream coverage.