On Tuesday, four more athletes received early nominations to the 2024 Canadian Olympic team in Paris for the marathon, race walk relay, and 10,000m events. Rory Linkletter of Calgary, Moh Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., and Olivia Lundman of Lantzville, B.C., are the four athletes who will be joining previously nominated athletes Malindi Elmore and Cam Levins on the 2024 team.
Athletics Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have announced six athletes who earned early nomination to the Canadian Olympic Team for Paris 2024 in the 10,000 metres, race walk, and marathon events 🇨🇦https://t.co/zqCqMREU24
— Athletics Canada (@AthleticsCanada) May 14, 2024
The trio of Levins, Elmore, and Linkletter will make up the Canadian marathon team in Paris, with the qualification window closed as of May 5. This is Team Canada’s smallest group sent to an Olympic Games since London 2012, but the standards for these Paris Games were almost 10 minutes faster than in 2012. Linkletter ran a personal best 2:08:01 at the 2024 Seville Marathon in February to hit the Olympic standard of 2:08:10 by nine seconds. The 27-year-old, who has represented Canada in the marathon at two world championships (2022 and 2023), will compete at his first Olympics this August.
“I have an opportunity to represent my family, myself, my country, on a stage that is bigger than any in all sports, just because it’s so global, it’s so watched around the world,” said Linkletter to the Canadian Olympic Committee. “Just to be on this stage in an event like the marathon and be in a position to compete, it means I did something special to get here.”
On the track, Ahmed is the first track and field athlete to receive early selection. This will be Ahmed’s fourth Olympic Games, previously competing for Canada at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Ahmed is the only Canadian to break the 27-minute mark in the 10,000m and made history at Tokyo 2020 when he won silver in the 5,000m, earning Canada’s first medal in a long-distance track event. The 33-year-old gained qualification by hitting the standard at the Sound Running TheTEN event in March, recording the second-fastest 10,000m time of his career– 26:53.01. Ahmed holds the Olympic standard for the 5,000m but will have to wait for the Canadian Olympic Trials in Montreal this June to solidify his spot.
Ahmed said this in a press release: “It’s a great honour and privilege to get the nomination to be able to wear the maple leaf. A fourth Olympic Games means I’m experienced and I hope to put it to good use in Paris. My goal is the exact same as it has been for many of my previous major championships–to stand on top of the podium or as close to it as possible.”
Joining Ahmed and Linkletter are race walkers Dunfee and Lundman who qualified to compete in the inaugural Olympic marathon race walk mixed relay when they finished 21st at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in April. In Tokyo 2020, Dunfee won bronze in the 50km race walk for Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the event. The 50km race walk is no longer on the Olympic programme, replaced with the new marathon race walk mixed relay.
The remainder of the Canadian team for track and field will not be revealed until the end of June after the 2024 Bell Canadian Track and Field Trials.
