East Toronto athletes ready to compete in the Paris Olympic Games

Beacher Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most decorated Olympian with a total of seven medals won, will be taking part in her third Olympic Games in a row this month in Paris, France.

The 24-year-old swimmer, who won four medals at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and three more medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, will be competing in the pool in Paris as a member of the Canadian women’s 4×100-metre freestyle relay. The relay is the only event Oleksiak will be taking part in at the Paris Olympics.

As a 16-year-old at the Rio Olympics in 2016, she won won a gold medal in the 100m freestyle; a silver in the 100m butterfly; and bronze medals in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays.

In the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Oleksiak won a silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay and bronze medals in the 4x100m medley relay and the 4x200m freestyle relay.

With her seven medals, Oleksiak has won more Olympic medals than any other Canadian athlete. Speed skaters Clara Hughes and Cindy Klassen, and sprinter Andre De Grasse are tied for second among most decorated Canadian Olympians with six medals each.

The Paris Olympic Games take place in France from July 26 to Aug. 11.

The swimming events are set for July 27 to Aug. 4.

Other East Toronto athletes taking part in the 2024 Paris Olympics that Beach Metro Community News is aware of are East York skateboarder Faye De Fazio Ebert, 14, will among the younger athletes taking part in the Paris Olympics. She will be competing in park skateboarding at the Olympics, with both the preliminary and medal events slated for Tuesday, Aug. 6.

At age 14, Ebert is one of youngest competitors to ever represent Canada at an Olympic Games. The youngest Canadian athlete to take part in the Olympics was swimmer Barbara Hounsell at age 13 in 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The Balmy Beach Canoe Club will once again see club members competing at the Olympic Games for Canada as Courtney Stott and Nick Matveev have qualified.

Balmy Beach Canoe Club members Nick Matveev and Courtney Stott have qualified to represent Canada at the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. Photo: Susan Legge

Stott will be paddling in the K-4 500-metre race as part of the Canadian women’s team.

Matveev will be paddling in the K-4 500-metre race with the Canadian men’s team. Matveev took part in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The Balmy Beach Canoe Club has a long Olympic tradition going back to the 1924 Paris Games 100 years ago. In those Games, Beacher Roy Nurse won two gold and four bronze medals in canoeing, which was a demonstration sport at the time.

Track and field sprinter Aaron Brown, Bowmore Road Public School and Birchmount Park Collegiate, will be back for his third Olympics this summer.

Aaron Brown is shown in this Athletics Canada file photo, Brown attended Bowmore Public School and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute. He will competing in his third Olympics this month in Paris, France.

He was a member of the silver-medal winning men’s 4x100m relay team at the Tokyo Games. It had originally been thought that the Canadian men were the bronze medal winners at the race but a doping violation by the British team moved Canada into the silver medal spot and they were presented with those medals in a reallocation ceremony in July of 2023. The British team had finished second at the Tokyo race before the doping violation was discovered. Brown was also a member of the Canadian bronze medal 4x100m relay team that was awarded the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Brown will be running in the men’s 200m event at the Paris Olympics. He may also run as a member of the 4x100m relay team.