Team Canada cyclists ready to ride to glory at Paris 2024

A strong team of more than 20 cyclists will represent Team Canada on the roads, the velodome, and the mountain bike and BMX courses across Paris this summer. 

Team Canada will be one to watch at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome as one of only three nations to qualify athletes in every track cycling event thanks to a stellar season on the UCI Track Nations Cup circuit. Two medallists from Tokyo 2020, Kelsey Mitchell, Olympic sprint champion, and Lauriane Genest, Olympic bronze medallist in the keirin, have their eyes on return trips to the podium this summer. Mitchell and Genest will also compete in the team sprint alongside Sarah Orban.

“I am so excited to be heading to my second Olympic Games! The Tokyo Olympics was such an amazing experience and I will forever cherish those memories and the journey to becoming an Olympic champion,” said Mitchell. “And three years later, we are back to try and do it again. The journey to my second Olympics in Paris has been full of ups and downs. I grew a lot as a person and an athlete and I am excited to see where I am at when I get on the line. I am also looking forward to seeing my younger teammates experience their first Olympics and I know they will show up ready to represent Canada and themselves to the best of their ability. It is going to be an Olympics to remember!”

Nick Wammes will lend his Olympic experience to teammates Tyler Rorke and James Hedgcock who will make their Olympic debuts in Paris. The trio, who won the gold medal in the men’s team sprint at Santiago 2023, secured their ticket to Paris after winning bronze at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Ont. this spring. 

Veterans Ariane Bonhomme and Michael Foley, who competed at their first Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020, will lead the women’s and men’s team pursuit squads with a group of teammates who will make their Olympic debuts. The endurance team features Dylan Bibic, who has continued to impress since becoming Canada’s first world champion in a men’s endurance event as he won scratch race gold in 2022. He won three gold medals during the 2024 UCI Track Nations Cup, including one in the omnium. 

Paris 2024 will mark a third Olympic appearance from veteran road cyclist Michael Woods. He finished fifth in the men’s road race at Tokyo 2020, Canada’s second-best Olympic result ever in the event. Woods made history with his bronze medal in the road race at the 2018 UCI World Championships – the first medal by a Canadian man in the event in 34 years. The 37-year-old is also the first Canadian to ever reach the podium in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic. In 2023, he earned his first career Tour de France stage victory.  

These Games will see Derek Gee on the roads rather than the track where he competed at Tokyo 2020. Gee will enter Paris 2024 with momentum, having recently celebrated his first international victory, winning a stage of le Critérium du Dauphiné. He gained international attention with his daring breakaways and runner-up finishes in four stages at the 2023 Giro d’Italia which earned him the overall combativity award. Gee competed in the men’s madison and contributed to the fifth-place finish in the men’s team pursuit on the velodrome at Tokyo 2020.

“I’m unbelievably excited to represent Canada for my second Olympic Games in Paris this summer,” said Gee. “Tokyo 2020 was an experience of a lifetime and was a real privilege to race with the maple leaf on my back on the world’s biggest stage. Having spent some time in France already this year and seeing the build up, I can’t wait to experience the atmosphere in Paris this summer. I think it’s truly going to be unparalleled, especially at the cycling events.” 

Well known internationally thanks to her historic victory at Paris-Roubaix in 2023, Alison Jackson will make her second Olympic appearance, after having competed in the women’s road race at Tokyo 2020. Earlier this year, she won a stage of the Vuelta España Femenina. She will be joined by Olivia Baril, who will make her Olympic debut. Silver medallist in the road race and the time trial at the 2023 Canadian Championships, Baril reached the podium during a stage of the 2024 Vuelta España Femenina.  

In BMX racing, all eyes will be on Molly Simpson as the sole Canadian athlete competing. The 21-year-old is making her Olympic debut after great success at her first major Games–a silver medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games. During the 2023 season, Simpson finished in the top five in each of the first four World Cup races. She later reached the top four at back-to-back World Cup races in early 2024. Simpson was the bronze medallist at the 2022 UCI U23 World Championships. 

“I have dreamed of going to the Olympics since I was a little girl and now here I am preparing for my first ones! Words can’t describe how excited and how happy I am to represent Canada at the highest level of my sport; it’s truly an incredible feeling,” said Simpson. “I am really looking forward to the experience and the atmosphere of the whole event, it’s going to be amazing! The process to get here over the past few years has been filled with some high highs and some extreme lows but I am feeling very grateful for this opportunity. Thank you so much to everyone involved.”

Following the conclusion of the Olympic Qualifier Series this past weekend, Canada is expected to receive a quota spot in men’s BMX freestyle when those allocations are officially confirmed on June 26. The athlete who would become Canada’s first ever Olympic competitor in BMX freestyle, which made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, will be named at a late date.

The sibling duo of Isabella and Gunnar Holmgren will sport the maple leaf in mountain biking at Paris 2024. At 19-years-old, Isabella is the youngest cycling athlete on the Canadian Olympic Team. She is a two-time world junior champion, having won gold in mountain bike and cyclocross in 2023. This year, she has won two UCI U23 World Cup gold medals in mountain bike. Gunnar was Team Canada’s first gold medallist at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. Gunnar secured his spot on Team Canada for Paris 2024 with his eighth-place finish at the UCI Elite World Cup  in Nové Město na Moravě, Czechia in late May, posting one of Canada’s best UCI World Cup results in men’s mountain bike since 2019.

“I’m very proud to soon become an Olympian, and being selected alongside my sister makes it even more special,” said Holmgren. “I’m building to my peak form over the next six weeks and I’m excited to get out there and honor the maple leaf.”

Team Canada has won 16 Olympic cycling medals, including the two won at Tokyo 2020. BMX is the only cycling discipline in which Canada has not yet won an Olympic medal. Team Canada’s Paris 2024 cycling team includes eight athletes with previous Olympic experience and 13 Olympic rookies.

BMX racing will take place August 1-2 at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium, while mountain bike races will take place on July 28 and 29 at the Elancourt Hill venue.

Road cycling begins with the individual time trials on July 27, with a start at Les Invalides venue and an arrival at the Pont Alexandre III. The road races will be held on August 3 and 4, starting and finishing in the streets of Trocadero District as well as including a venture outside the city centre. Track events will be held from August 5 to 11 at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.

Team Canada Cyclists at Paris 2024

BMX Racing:
Molly Simpson (Red Deer, Alta.)

Mountain Bike:
Isabella Holmgren (Orillia, Ont.)
Gunnar Holmgren (Orillia, Ont.)

Road:
Olivia Baril (Rouyn-Noranda, Que.)
Derek Gee (Ottawa, Ont.)
Alison Jackson (Vermilion, Alta.)
Michael Woods (Ottawa, Ont.)

Track (Endurance):
Erin Attwell (Victoria, B.C.)
Dylan Bibic (Mississauga, Ont.)
Ariane Bonhomme (Gatineau, Que.)
Maggie Coles-Lyster (Maple Ridge, B.C.)
Michael Foley (Milton, Ont.)
Mathias Guillemette (Trois-Rivières, Que.)
Carson Mattern (Ancaster, Ont.)
Sarah Van Dam (Victoria, B.C.)

Track (Sprint):
Lauriane Genest (Lévis, Que.)
James Hedgcock (Ancaster, Ont.)
Kelsey Mitchell (Sherwood Park, Alta.)
Sarah Orban (Calgary, Alta.)
Tyler Rorke (Baden, Ont.)
Nick Wammes (Bothwell, Ont.)