The Paris 2024 Olympics will take place from Friday, July 26 to Sunday, Aug 11, 2024.
Here are the Manitoba athletes to keep an eye on… good luck to them all! GO TEAM CANADA!
Desiree Scott
Football (Soccer)
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB
Desiree Scott is an Olympic gold medallist from Tokyo 2020 and 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. During her third Games, Scott was a fulltime player in five of Canada’s six matches, including the extra time of the quarterfinal and final.
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).
Skylar Park
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.
Park made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 where she reached the quarterfinals in the 57kg event. In 2022, she won her third straight gold medal at the Pan American Championships. That year, she also won three World Taekwondo Grand Prix bronze medals, including at the Grand Prix Final in Riyadh.
In 2023, Park earned four international victories, highlighted by her first ever Grand Prix gold medal and followed quickly by a gold medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games. Park finished 2023 ranked third in the world in the Olympic 57kg rankings.
Kelsey Wog
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 Olympic debut, Wog qualified for the semifinals of the 200m breaststroke.
In her first appearance at the World Aquatics 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 returned to the World Aquatics Championships in 2022. She came home with a bronze medal after swimming in the preliminary heats of the 4x100m medley relay. Individually, she finished fourth in the 200m breaststroke.
In 2023, Wog competed in her first Pan Am Games, taking silver in the 200m breaststroke at Santiago 2023. She made the final of the 200m breaststroke for the third straight time at the World Aquatics Championships.
Wog won her first Swimming World Cup medals in the fall of 2022, taking bronze in the 200m breaststroke in Toronto and Indianapolis.
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.
Tyler Mislawchuk
Triathlon
Hometown: Oak Bluff, MB
Tyler Mislawchuk is a two-time Olympian who placed 15th at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. In his Olympic debut, he was the youngest man in the field. In his second Olympic appearance, he partially tore his Achilles tendon during the individual race after experiencing some pain during training the week prior and was forced to withdraw from the mixed relay.
Mislawchuk enjoyed three big breakthrough moments in 2019. In March, he earned his first World Triathlon Cup victory in Mooloolaba, which was followed in June by a win at the Huatulco World Cup. In his very next race, he became the first Canadian man to reach the podium at a World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) event, winning bronze in Montreal. He topped that feat in August by winning the official Olympic test event in Tokyo.
In 2023, Mislawchuk finished in the top-10 in two major events. First was a ninth-place performance at the World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championships where the elite men’s race was held in the super sprint format. He then finished ninth in the Olympic distance race at the World Triathlon Championship Series Finals.
Mislawchuk began competing internationally in 2011 which included a trip to the WTCS 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 WTCS 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 WTCS Grand Final as an elite athlete for the first time.
Mislawchuk has been consistently successful at the Huatulco World Cup since his victory there in 2019. He won again in 2021, followed by back-to-back second place finishes in 2022 and 2023.
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.
Shae (Fournier) La Roche
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. In her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, La Roche tied for second on the team with 10 goals as Canada finished seventh.
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).
Eric Loeppky
Volleyball – Indoor
Hometown: Steinbach, MB
Eric Loeppky started playing volleyball at a young age and helped lead the Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres to their first AAAA provincial volleyball title in 2014, the top high school league in the province of Manitoba.
After high school he went to play volleyball with the Trinity Western University Spartans. Loeppky joined the men’s national team and helped the team to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics at the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments.
Following his qualification to the Olympics he told CTV Winnipeg that it was his childhood dream come true, saying that “for it to finally be true is pretty surreal. Reflecting on all the time and hours and money and just energy put towards this thing, it feels like it just all came together in this one game. It was pretty, pretty special.”
This will be Eric Loeppky’s Olympic debut.
Luke Herr
Volleyball – Indoor
Hometown: Winnipeg, MB
Luke Herr is a member of the Canadian national team and competed for Canada at the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments.
Volleyball Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have announced the roster of Team Canada men’s volleyball athletes nominated to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The team qualified for Paris 2024 after placing second in its pool at the FIVB Olympic Qualification Tournament in China last fall. At the recent Volleyball Nations League tournament, the team finished the three-week preliminary phase in fifth place, advancing to the quarterfinals where they were eliminated by Japan, who went on to place second overall. Canada goes into Paris as the ninth-ranked team in the FIVB men’s volleyball world ranking.
This will be Luke Herr’s Olympic debut.
