It’s a big summer for Olympic sports | CBC Sports

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The Paris Games are still a year away, but several major summer Olympic sports events are happening over the next few months. Here’s a quick look at what’s coming up and some Canadian storylines to follow:

World Aquatics Championships (July 14-30)

This massive meet in Japan includes diving, water polo, artistic swimming and open-water swimming, but the main attraction is the traditional swimming events held over the final eight days.

Canadian swimmers won a national-record 11 medals in the pool at last year’s world championships in Hungary, where Summer McIntosh emerged as one of the sport’s most exciting young stars. At the age of just 15, she became the first Canadian swimmer ever to capture multiple gold medals at a single worlds by winning the women’s 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly events, and she added silvers in the 400m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay.

Since then, McIntosh has only gotten faster. At the Canadian trials this past spring, she broke the women’s world records in both the 400m medley and 400m freestyle and shattered five world junior records.

McIntosh, who turns 17 in mid-August, appears poised to take the Canadian swimming torch (if she hasn’t already) from Penny Oleksiak. The seven-time Olympic medallist is skipping the worlds as she needs more time to recover from last summer’s knee surgery and a subsequent shoulder injury.

Canada’s para swimmers should also make waves at their world championships in England starting July 31. They racked up 18 medals, including six gold, at last year’s worlds in Portugal. Five-time Paralympic gold medallist and four-time para world champ Aurélie Rivard headlines the Canadian team heading to Manchester.

Women’s World Cup (July 20-Aug. 20)

The Canadian women’s soccer team ought to be entering the tournament in Australia and New Zealand with loads of confidence and momentum after their thrilling Olympic gold-medal victory in Japan two summers ago. Instead, the squad finds itself embroiled in a bitter labour dispute with Canada Soccer while navigating injuries to some key players — including standout forward Janine Beckie, who’s out for the World Cup with a torn ACL.

At No. 7 in the world, Canada is the highest-ranked team in its group. But securing the top-two finish needed to advance won’t be easy against a deep slate of opponents. After opening vs. 40th-ranked Nigeria on July 20, the Canadians face No. 22 Ireland on July 26 and 10th-ranked host Australia on July 31.

This is likely the final World Cup for 40-year-old Canadian captain Christine Sinclair, whose 190 international goals are the most in soccer history. Read about how Sinclair is approaching her sixth trip to the big dance in this story by CBC Sports contributor Shireen Ahmed.

World Athletics Championships (Aug. 19-27)

Track and field’s last major meet before the Paris Olympics takes place in Hungary, where Damian Warner will try to take care of some unfinished business. After finally capturing an Olympic gold medal two summers ago in Tokyo, the Canadian decathlon star seemed poised to grab an elusive world title last summer in Oregon. But a hamstring injury in the 400m leg knocked him out of the competition.

Less-heralded Canadian Pierce LePage swooped in for the silver medal at worlds, then upset Warner at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in Austria in May, snapping his teammate’s streak of six consecutive victories there. It was the first international win for LePage, 27, whose rise to major podium contender included a fifth-place showing at the Tokyo Olympics.

Andre De Grasse also has something to prove at this summer’s worlds. Canada’s biggest track star has made a habit of saving his best for the biggest meets — an approach that has resulted in six Olympic medals, highlighted by a 200m gold in 2021, and five world-championship podiums, including last year’s stunning 4x100m gold. But De Grasse, 28, has not looked like a medal contender this season. He’s still looking for his first solo win and, more troublingly, has not come near the benchmarks of 20 seconds in the 200m and 10 seconds in the 100.

Canada’s Marco Arop, 24, could contend for another 800m medal after taking a breakthrough bronze at last year’s worlds. And Camryn Rogers, also 24, will go for a second straight podium in the women’s hammer throw after capturing silver last year.

The World Para Athletics Championships open this Saturday in Paris. Canadians won eight medals at the 2021 Paralympics, including a gold each by shot putter Greg Stewart and middle-distance runner Nate Riech and four silvers by wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos, raising his career Paralympic medal total to 11.

Basketball World Cup (Aug. 25-Sept. 10)

The best way for the Canadian men’s basketball team to qualify for its first Olympics since 2000 is via the World Cup in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. The top two finishers from Canada’s region, the Americas, get tickets to Paris. Even if we assume the United States will grab one of them, there’s no reason why a Canadian roster loaded with NBA talent can’t land the other.

Players committed for the World Cup include guards Jamal Murray, who was the second-best player on the Nikola Jokic-led Denver Nuggets team that just won the NBA title; and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished fifth in MVP voting and fourth in scoring this season with 31.4 points per game for Oklahoma City. OKC’s Lu Dort, New York’s R.J. Barrett, Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin and NCAA player of the year Zach Edey give Canada even more talented youngsters to work with. And there’s still hope that Golden State Warriors standout Andrew Wiggins will hop on board with new coach Jordi Fernandez, who took over for Nick Nurse after the former Raptors coach quit the Canadian program last week.

Canada caught a break when No. 1 NBA draft pick Victor Wembanyama decided he won’t play for France, arguably the best team in Canada’s group. The others are Latvia and Lebanon. The top two advance to the next round.

As the Canadian men’s team eyes the World Cup, the women can shorten their path to the Paris Olympics at the AmeriCup, which tipped off last weekend in Mexico. Canada is 2-0 after routing the hosts and Puerto Rico. Next up for the world’s fifth-ranked team is another group-stage game tonight vs. Colombia. A trip to the tournament final will likely give Canada a spot in February’s Olympic qualifying tournament.