Day 1: What to watch with Team Canada at Paris 2024

Let the Games begin! 

It’s Day 1 of Paris 2024 and you don’t want to miss a moment of these historic Olympic Games. Read on to find out more about when all of Team Canada’s athletes are in action on Day 1.

Team Canada Athletes Competing Today

Swimming

Team Canada is looking to start day one of swimming with a bang. The morning session of heats begins at 11:00 a.m local time, 5:00 a.m. EST, and the evening session of semis and finals begins at 8:30 p.m, local time, 2:30 p.m. EST. 

The morning session will see the initial heats for one of the most highly anticipated races of the Games–the women’s 400m freestyle. The evening’s final is projected to be a showdown between the last three world record holders in the event–Canada’s own Summer McIntosh, along with American Katie Ledecky and Australian Ariarne Titmus.

The morning session will also feature the heats for the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m relays, for which the final will take place in the evening. 

The morning session will also see reigning Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil get her Games off to a start, competing in the women’s 100m butterfly heats, alongside teammate Rebecca Smith. The semifinals will take place in the evening session.

READ: Summer McIntosh ready to set the stage for Team Canada success in the Paris 2024 swimming pool

Road Cycling

Day one at Paris 2024 will see both the men’s and women’s road cycling time trial events. On the men’s side, Team Canada will be represented by Derek Gee, who heads to the Olympic Games fresh off of a top-10 finish at the Tour de France. On the women’s side, Olivia Baril will represent Team Canada. The women’s time trial will take place at 2:30 p.m. local time, 8:30 a.m. EST, the men’s event will begin at 4:30 p.m. local time, 10:30 a.m. EST.

Skateboarding

Matt Berger, Cordano Russell, and Ryan Decenzo will compete in the men’s street prelims beginning at 12:00 p.m. local time, 6:00 a.m. EST. Street skateboarding courses are meant to imitate urban terrain, with features like stairs, rails, and benches, as well as some of the traditional elements of skateparks, like quarterpipes. Athletes are judged by five judges, with each of the highest and lowest scores dropped, and the remaining three scores are averaged to provide the overall score for each run and trick. Team Canada’s riders will be looking for a top-eight finish overall in the heats in order to move on to the final. The men’s street final will take place at 5:00 p.m. local time, 11:00 am local time

Fencing

Day 1 will be a full day of fencing for Team Canada, starting with the men’s sabre at 10:25 a.m. local time, 4:25 a.m. EST, featuring François Cauchon, Shaul Gordon, and Fares Arfa. Athletes advance through direct elimination; each bout lasts until 15 hits have been recorded by one competitor, or three periods of three minutes each have passed (at which time the highest scoring fencer is awarded the win). Competition will continue all the way until 9:55 p.m. local time, 3:55 p.m. EST, when the full podium will be decided. Ruen (Angel) Xiao is also in action in the women’s individual épée with her first bout at 12:05 p.m. local time, 6:05 a.m. EST.

Paris 2024 Competition Schedule

Tennis

Leylah Annie Fernandez will kick things off for Team Canada’s tennis players, as she plays Czechia’s Karolina Muchova at 12:00 p.m. local time, 6:00 a.m. EST in the first round of the women’s singles tournament. Fernandez and Muchova will battle it out on court 9 of Roland Garros, Paris’ iconic tennis venue.

READ: Propulsion: Leylah Annie Fernandez, proud of who she is

Canadian fans should keep their eyes on court 9, as the second match of the session features Team Canada’s Bianca Andreescu playing Denmark’s Clara Tauson in another first round match. 

Fernandez will have the length of two matches to recover before she’s back on court 9 again, this time with teammate Gaby Dabrowski for their first women’s doubles match of the Olympic tournament.

Team Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime will take on Team USA’s Marcos Giron, also during the afternoon session at Roland Garros. Auger-Aliassime and Giron play second on court 14, with the first match starting 12:00 p.m. local time, 6:00 a.m. EST. 

Artistic Gymnastics

Action in men’s artistic gymnastics will get underway with the qualification round starting at 11:00 a.m. local time, 5:00 a.m. EST. Team Canada, which includes René Cournoyer, Zachary Clay, Félix Dolci, William Émard and Samuel Zakutney, will be in subdivision one at the start of the day. There are two more subdivisions to follow. 

There are six apparatus in men’s artistic gymnastics: floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar. Each team will put up four athletes on each apparatus, with the top three scores counting towards the team result. The top eight teams will advance to the team final. Qualification will also determine the 24 gymnasts advancing to the individual all-around final and the eight finalists for each apparatus final. 

READ: One big goal this summer for Canada’s first Olympic men’s gymnastics team in 16 years

Paris 2024 Olympic Games Information Hub

Basketball

Team Canada’s men’s basketball team kicks off their highly anticipated Olympic tournament with a game against Team Greece at 9:00 p.m. local time, 3:00 p.m. EST. For the group phase of the tournament, Canada will play in Group A with Greece, Australia and Spain. The top eight teams from group play will advance to the quarterfinals.

Beach Volleyball

Heather Bansley and Sophie Bukovec will be the first Canadian team to take to the sand at the Eiffel Tower Stadium, as the beach volleyball venue was constructed at the base of Paris’ most iconic monument. They will face Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, ranked second in the world, at 10:00 p.m. local time, 4:00 p.m. EST. Bansley and Bukovec will play in Pool B alongside the USA, Australia and China.

Canoe/Kayak Slalom

Alex Baldoni and Lois Betteridge will get things going on the water as canoe/kayak slalom competition begins. Baldoni will compete in the men’s C-1 heats at 3:00 p.m. local time, 9:00 a.m. EST and 5:10 p.m local time, 11:00 a.m. ET. Betteridge will race in the women’s K-1 heats at 4:00 p.m. local time, 10:00 am EST and 6:10 p.m. local time, 12:10 p.m. EST.

Equestrian

Equestrian action will get started at Versailles with the dressage portion of individual and team eventing beginning at 9:30 a.m local time, 3:30 a.m. EST. Eventing includes three tests: dressage, cross country and jumping, with each test contributing to both individual and team results. Team Canada is represented by Jessica Phoenix, Karl Slezak and Michael Winter. 

Shooting

Michele Esercitato will compete in the qualification rounds of the men’s 10m air pistol at 10:30 a.m. local time, 4:30 am EST. Each athlete is scored based on the accuracy of sixty shots, with the top eight athletes advancing to the final.

Badminton

Adam Dong and Nyl Yakura will get things started in the men’s doubles group play with a game against China’s Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang at 9:20 am local time, 3:20 am EST. Dong and Yakura were gold medallists at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games.