Vekassy (ICF)/AP Photo-Lee Jin-man/THE CANADIAN PRESS/James Worsfold
The weekend promises to be a busy one for Team Canada athletes. The Canadian women’s soccer team begins its two-game series against Jamaica to secure a spot at the Paris Olympics. Canadian breakdancers are in Belgium for the World Championships, an opportunity to qualify for Paris 2024.
Canadian triathletes are headed to the World Triathlon Championship finals in Pontevedra, Spain, while the Canadian women’s volleyball team is in Ningbo, China hoping to qualify for the women’s Olympic volleyball tournament for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Here’s what you shouldn’t miss this weekend:
football
The Canadian women’s soccer team, the reigning Olympic champions, has a chance to advance and defend its gold medal in a two-game series against Jamaica in the coming days.
The teams will compete for the first time on Friday evening at 8:00 p.m. ET in Kingston, Jamaica, then again on Tuesday, September 26th at 7:00 p.m. ET in Toronto. The team that scores the most goals in both games will qualify Paris 2024.
Canada enters the series as favorites, having beaten Jamaica in their last nine meetings. However, Canada is recovering from a disappointing performance at the World Cup, finishing seventh and failing to advance beyond the group stage. Jamaica, for its part, exceeded expectations during the World Cup. Jamaica, ranked 43rd in the world, still reached the round of 16 after drawing against major women’s football powers such as France and Brazil.
Canada’s national team consists of 14 players who won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020.
READ: Team Canada ready to play its Olympic qualifying series with no future in women’s soccer
Break
Public interest in braking is steadily increasing as the discipline makes its Olympic debut in Paris in 2024. The 2023 WDSF World Braking Championships begin this Friday in Leuven, Belgium and continue throughout the weekend.
Athletes from 62 countries are fighting for the world championship title and qualification for Paris 2024. Each country can send two B-boys and two B-girls to the world championships.
In Belgium, Canada will be represented among men by Philip Kim (B-Boy Phil Wizard) and Samuel Cyr (B-Boy Mass). Tiffany Leung (B-Girl Tiff) and Emma Misak (B-Girl Emma) will be the competing Canadians.
The country’s best chance belongs to reigning world champion Phil Wizard, Canada’s flagship in the sport, who will make his Olympic debut next summer. Kim, Leung and Misak will represent Canada in Santiago 2023.
READ: Phil Wizard on the artistic, cultural and sporting aspects of breaking
Triathlon
The final of the Triathlon World Championships will take place this weekend in Pontevedra, Spain. Team Canada is represented on the men’s side by Tyler Mislawchuk, Charles Paquet and Brock Hoel, while Dominika Jamnicky is the only Canadian competing on the women’s side.
Mislawchuk had a good season, finishing 13th at the Olympic test event in Paris in August, 9th at the World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships in Hamburg, Germany, in July, and 15th at the World Series stop of the World Triathlon in Montreal June.
Jamnicky placed 29th at the Olympic test event in Paris and will compete in the upcoming Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
This weekend’s competition marks the conclusion of the World Triathlon World Series. During the season, the athletes try to collect valuable points in the overall ranking for Olympic qualification.
volleyball
The Canadian women’s volleyball team continues its journey at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Ningbo, China, which ends Sunday. The Canadians are trying to qualify the country for the Olympic women’s volleyball tournament for the first time since Atlanta 1996.
Canada is 2-2 in the tournament. The Canadians, currently ranked 11th in the world, recorded wins against the Netherlands, ranked 9th in the world, and China, ranked 6th in the world. This match was hard fought and ended after five innings.
The two defeats came against the Dominican Republic and Serbia, who are ranked 10th and 3rd in the world, respectively.
Canada still has three more games to play in the tournament: Friday against Ukraine, Saturday against Mexico and Sunday against the Czech Republic, countries ranked 20th, 24th and 16th in the world.
Three Olympic qualifying tournaments are held simultaneously in three different countries and the top two teams from each tournament, played in a round-robin format, receive their Olympic qualification.
Canoe-kayak slalom
The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships began on Tuesday in Lee Valley, Great Britain and continue until Sunday. Seven Canadian athletes are in action as they try to seize their first chance to secure the country’s Olympic qualification spots for Paris 2024.
Three athletes wear Canadian colors: Tokyo 2020 Olympian Florence Maheu, Lois Betteridge and Léa Baldoni. All three Canadians competed in qualifying for the women’s kayak slalom on Thursday, but none made it to the semifinals. On Wednesday, Betteridge was the only Canadian to compete in the women’s canoe slalom, where her run also ended in qualifying.
On the men’s side, Alex Baldoni, Trevor Boyd and Maël Rivard took part in the qualification of the K-1 slalom, where Trevor Boyd reached the semi-finals on Saturday. On Wednesday, Baldoni and Daniel Parry competed in the canoe slalom, but their journey ended in qualifying.
These World Cups are also a first opportunity for the country to qualify for Paris 2024. A country can only qualify one athlete for each event, the top 15 countries in the women’s and men’s K-1 slalom events and the top 12 countries in each C-1 slalom competition receive an Olympic qualification spot.
Canadian athletes will also have another opportunity to qualify the country for the slalom events at the next Olympic Games at the continental qualifiers in Rio de Janeiro.
On Sunday, the seven Canadians present at Lee Valley will take part in the kayak cross competitions, a new discipline that will make its debut on the Olympic program in Paris next summer.
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