The Paris 2024 Olympic Games is here and Canada is looking to get off to a fast start on Day 1 in the pool Saturday. Swimming Canada issued the following on the eve of racing at the Paris La Defense Arena:
 
Canada has several strong performers taking to the block on the first day of the nine-day meet, including Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil in the 100-m butterfly, multi-event phenom Summer McIntosh in the 400-m freestyle, and the men’s and women’s 4x100-m freestyle relays.

The team is coming in off an outstanding staging camp in Caen, the historic Normandy town that welcomed them with open arms. The swimmers took advantage of beautiful training facilities and the opportunity to learn about Canadian history on the 80^th anniversary of Juno Beach and the liberation of Caen.
 
“We have a really great group here and everyone’s fitting in really well and adapting to the culture that we’ve set,” Mac Neil said.
 
Other returning individual medallists, include Kylie Masse, who returns in the backstroke events, and Canada’s most decorated Olympian Penny Oleksiak, who is expected to be a relay contributor at her third Games.
 
“These sorts of experiences and moments are memories that you'll remember forever,” Masse said. “I'm really looking forward to enjoying that again and for hopefully everyone else to enjoy it as well.”
 
High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson, the Olympic Team Leader, has said Canada is looking to build on its six-medal total from each of the last two Games. 

“With such a dedicated group of athletes who are all striving to be the best they can be at the Olympic level, it kind of takes away the need for us to say, ‘This is what you're going to achieve.’ because it's each athlete has their own goals that they will strive to attain. If you look back as a whole the depth of the team is probably stronger and deeper than we have had at previous Games.”

While the women’s team won all 12 medals at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games, the men are looking to reach the podium for the first time since London 2012.

Josh Liendo, a four-time World Aquatics Championships medallist seeded first in the 100-m butterfly, said:

“We're not afraid to aim high at this point. We've seen the success of the women and obviously we want to get to that point. We want to be able to win medals and be in finals and be able to challenge in races. We're setting our goals high, and it's good to see that."

Later in the meet the 17-year-old McIntosh will take on events such as the 400m individual medley, in which she holds the world record, as well as the 200m butterfly. She won back-to-back world championships in those events in 2022 and 2023. The nine-day meet builds through Aug. 4, concluding with the men’s and women’s medley relays, the latter of which took bronze in Tokyo.

Says McIntosh:

“I'm really just focused on myself and all the things that I can do to prepare as best as possible for all my races and things I can do to recover from my previous race. Just trying to stay in the moment and try to execute as best as possible is really what I'll think success will look like for me.

On relays: “We just try to work together as a team to have that close knit bond because we all are kind of going through the same thing heading into these Games. No matter what position we're going in, it's always going to be a huge deal whenever any of us get to represent our country and do the sport that we love.”

Schedule and Results

For Canadian viewers:

In English, CBC’s comprehensive coverage of Paris 2024 will feature live broadcasts on CBC and partner networks TSN and Sportsnet, CBC Gem, CBC’s Paris 2024 website and the CBC Paris 2024 app for Android and iOS devices. ICI TÉLÉ, ICI TOU.TV and RDS will offer daily French coverage to follow the decisive moments and medals won by Canadian athletes.