The 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo were delayed a year due to COVID-19, but they will now move forward from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

There will be six Manitobans joining Team Canada at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Five are from Winnipeg, and one is from Oak Bluff.

The sports you’ll want to watch are:

• Swimming
• Football (Soccer)
• Cycling – Road
• Water Polo
• Taekwondo
• Triathlon

Here are our athletes:

Desiree Scott

Sport: Football (Soccer)
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

Desiree Scott is a two-time Olympic bronze medallist from London 2012 and Rio 2016. In her Olympic debut, she played in every minute of Canada’s six games. She was similarly impactful in her second Olympic appearance, playing all but 16 minutes of Canada’s six matches.

Scott first represented Canada at the 2006 CONCACAF U-20 Championship where the team won silver to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. After appearing in three games at the global tournament, Scott made her debut with the senior national team in 2010, which included a gold medal at the CONCACAF Championship.

In 2011, she competed at her first FIFA Women’s World Cup and helped Canada win gold at the Pan Am Games in Guadalajara.

From 2011 to June 2015, Scott played in a career-high 62 consecutive Canada matches. After participating in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, she helped Canada win silver at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifier in early 2016, earning the team a spot in Rio. She was also a member of the team that won the 2016 Algarve Cup.

In 2019, Scott was named to her third FIFA Women’s World Cup team. She played all but 11 minutes of Canada’s four matches. In early 2020, Scott helped Canada finish second at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament, securing their ticket to Tokyo 2020. She has now made more than 160 senior international appearances for Canada.

Scott played for the University of Manitoba Bisons from 2005 to 2010. Since turning professional, she has suited up for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2010-12), WSA North Stars (2012-13), FC Kansas City (2013-14, 2016-17), Notts County (2014-15), and Utah Royals FC (2018-20).

Kelsey Wog

Sport: Swimming
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

Kelsey Wog earned her place on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Team by winning the 100m breaststroke at the Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials in a personal best time of 1:06.77. She also won gold in the 200m breaststroke and silver in the 200m individual medley.

In her first appearance at the FINA World Championships in 2019, Wog reached the final of the 200m breaststroke, finishing sixth. She had qualified for the team with her performance at the 2019 Canadian Trials, where she finished second in the 200m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley.

Wog qualified for the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships by winning 200m breaststroke gold and 200m IM silver at the national trials. At the Pan Pacs, she was part of Canada’s fourth-place finish in the medley relay and was also a finalist in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and the 200m IM.

Wog won a gold medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2017 Universiade after swimming in the morning heat for Canada. She also made the semifinals in her individual events. While competing for the University of Manitoba, in 2019-20 Wog won the U Sports Female Athlete of the Year, Swimmer of the Year, and was named an Academic All-Canadian as she won all three breaststroke events (50m, 100m, 200m) plus the 200m IM at the U Sports Swimming Championships.

Wog competed at her first Olympic Trials in 2016 where she won a bronze medal in the 200m, which earned her a spot at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships where she won two individual medals, silver in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m breaststroke. She closed out 2016 by competing at the short course FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in Windsor, Ontario where she won silver in the 200m breaststroke.

Wog made her international debut for Canada at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games. She raced in two individual finals as well as two relay finals. A year later, she earned her first national titles, winning the 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the 2015 Canadian Swimming Championships.

Leah Kirchmann

Sport: Cycling – Road
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

As a teenager, Leah Kirchmann spent her winters racing on cross-country skis and her summers racing on bikes. She achieved a major highlight in 2008 when she competed at the junior world championships in both road cycling and mountain biking. But when it came time to pick one sport to focus on, road cycling won out.

In 2010 she competed at her first Commonwealth Games. A year later, she finished 10th in the road race at the Pan American Championships and made her world championship debut. In 2012 she won road race silver at the Pan American Championships.

Kirchmann had an eventful year in 2014. She broke her clavicle for the second time in her career, but also competed at her second Commonwealth Games and finished fourth in the team time trial at the world championships with her Optum powered by Kelly Benefit Strategies trade team. Her biggest highlights were becoming the first Canadian to sweep the national titles in the road race, time trial and criterium as well as her third- place finish in the one-day 89km La course by Le Tour de France.

In 2015 Kirchmann finished second in the road race and third in the time trial at the Canadian championships. She finished third in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Gatineau road race in 2016 before making her Olympic debut in Rio. She finished the 2016 season ranked second overall on the UCI Women’s World Tour.

In 2017, her first season racing with Team Sunweb, she was part of their team time trial gold medal at the UCI World Championships. In 2018, she won team time trial bronze with Team Sunweb, but her highlight of the world championships was placing fourth in the individual time trial, just two seconds off the podium. The time trial had formerly been a weakness, so that result along with two national titles in the event make her particularly proud.

In July 2019, Kirchmann finished second in La Course by le Tour de France. But her season came to an end in September when she partially tore an MCL in a crash, forcing her to miss the world championships.

Shae (Fournier) La Roche

Sport: Water Polo
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

Shae La Roche (née Fournier) had an impressive junior international career, winning gold medals at the 2008 and 2010 Pan American Junior Championships to go with a sixth-place finish at the 2009 FINA World Junior Championships.

At the senior level, she has competed in three FINA World Championships (2015, 2017, 2019) and captured a silver medal at the 2017 FINA World League Super Final. La Roche also helped Canada win silver at the 2015 and 2019 Pan American Games, securing the team’s ticket to Tokyo 2020 with the latter. In 2021, she was part of Canada’s fourth-place finish at the FINA World League Super Final, the team’s first competition in more than 18 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

La Roche made two appearances at the Summer Universiade, just missing the podium with fourth place finishes in both 2009 and 2013. She made her senior international debut in 2014, competing in the FINA Water Polo World League. In her senior year at Indiana University she became the school’s first water polo player to earn Academic All-American honours. She was also a second-team All-American and Collegiate Water Polo Association Player of the Year. She set a Hoosiers record with 302 career goals, making her one of only five players in NCAA history to score 300 or more goals. She is also the school’s all-time leader in assists (154) and is second in steals (306).

Skylar Park

Sport: Taekwondo
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB

Skylar Park had a breakout performance at the 2016 World Taekwondo Junior Championships in Burnaby, British Columbia when she won gold in the 59kg weight class. It was also in 2016 that she competed in her first senior-level international events, before she fully transitioned into senior competition in 2017. It was then she realized that avoiding mistakes and believing she belonged with the best in the world would be as important a factor to her success as her physical strength. With that understanding, she achieved career highlights in 2019, including a bronze medal at the World Taekwondo Championships (57kg) and a silver medal at the Pan American Games (57kg) in Lima, as she stood on the podium in eight of her 11 international events.

Tyler Mislawchuk

Sport: Triathlon
Hometown: Oak Bluff, Manitoba

In 2013, Tyler Mislawchuk won a silver medal at the Canada Games, where he was joined on Team Manitoba by his sister Madison, a rower. Mislawchuk began competing internationally in 2011 which included a trip to the ITU World Championship Grand Final in the junior division. He made his World Cup debut in 2013 on home soil in Edmonton. After competing in various Pan American Cup, Oceania Cup and European Cup events, Mislawchuk made his ITU World Triathlon Series debut in 2015. In just his third start on the elite circuit, he finished 10th in London where he was the highest-ranked Canadian man. He also posted a 10th place finish at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto and competed at the ITU Grand Final as a senior for the first time. Mislawchuk achieved two more 10th place finishes in his first three World Triathlon Series starts in 2016 before making his Olympic debut in Rio, where he posted a top-15 result.

In 2017, Mislawchuk won his first senior national title but after an otherwise disappointing season, he decided to relocate to Triathlon Canada’s National Performance Centre for training in 2018. The move seemingly paid off, as Mislawchuk posted consistent top-10 finishes on the World Cup, earned a fourth-place finish at the World Triathlon Series race in Yokohama, and was a career-high 10th at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final.

The breakthroughs continued in 2019 as Mislawchuk earned his first World Cup victory in Mooloolaba in March and added another in Huatulco in June. He immediately followed that by becoming the first Canadian man to reach the podium at a World Triathlon Series event, winning bronze in Montreal. He topped that feat by winning the official Olympic test event in Tokyo in August.

After just one race in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mislawchuk returned to the top of the podium in the Huatulco World Cup in June 2021.