Amid the crowd of 338 Team Canada athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be a showing of competitors and support staff based on the North Shore.
From July 26 to Aug. 11, an estimated 10,500 athletes from 206 different countries will gather in the capital city of France to square off in the world’s premier international sporting event.
From North Vancouver, Emily Bugeja will race in the kiteboarding event in her first Olympic Games. While the 25 year old has been sailing since age eight, she only started kiteboarding in 2020. Since then, she’s made rapid gains in the sport.
In 2023, she finished sixth in kiteboarding at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, securing a spot for Canada in the Olympics. Bugeja followed that performance by earning her own qualification by being the top-ranked Canadian (25th overall) at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia regatta in Palma, Mallorca in April.
Hailing from Flicka Gymnastics Club in North Van, 24-year-old Shallon Olsen is gearing up for her third Olympic performance. At Rio 2016, she placed eighth in women’s vault, her specialty event, and ninth in the women’s team event. At Tokyo 2020, she placed seventh in vault and 10th in the team competition.
Competing for the University of Alabama from 2018 to 2023, Olsen helped the Crimson Tide win the NCAA Southeastern Conference Championship title in 2021. Olsen, who lists Surrey as her hometown, will be supported in Paris by her personal Flicka coach, Dorina Stan of North Vancouver.
Elite fencer Nicholas Zhang will also compete for Team Canada in Paris. At just 18 years old, he qualified for the Olympics by winning the men’s individual epee event at the Pan American Olympic Qualifying Tournament in San José, Costa Rica.
While Zhang lives in Richmond, he has attended the academy program at West Vancouver’s Sentinel Secondary, which provides a flexible academic schedule for high-performance athletes.
In Paris to support Team Canada will be cycling coach and North Vancouverite Laura Brown. A two-time Olympian herself, Brown took home bronze in the team pursuit event at Rio 2016.
Also there to support Canadian athletes is cycling mechanic Adam Trotter. The North Van resident is also the enduro team mechanic for Canyon Bicycles.
