The Paris 2024 Olympic Games is here, and Canada is looking to get off to a fast start on Day 1 in the pool on Saturday.
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 400m freestyle, and the men's and women's 4x100-m freestyle relays.
Team Canada says it is coming in off an outstanding staging camp in Caen, France, the historic Normandy town where they mentioned being welcomed with open arms. The swimmers took advantage of beautiful training facilities and the opportunity to learn about Canadian history on the 80th anniversary of Juno Beach and the liberation of Caen.
"We have a great group here, and everyone's fitting in really well and adapting to the culture 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 you'll remember forever," Masse said. "I'm really looking forward to enjoying that again, and hopefully, everyone else will 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 team's depth 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 Olympic Games, the men are looking to reach the podium for the first time since London 2012.
"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 be , in finals, and be able to challenge in races. We're setting our goals high, and it's good to see that," said Josh Liendo, a four-time World Aquatics Championships medallist seeded first in the 100-m butterfly.
Later in the swimming portion of Paris 2024, 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 Aquatics Championships in those events in 2022 and 2023.
"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," McIntosh said. "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.
The nine-day swimming competition builds through 4 August, concluding with the men's and women's medley relays, the latter of which Team Canada took bronze in Tokyo.
"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," McIntosh said. "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."