According to the latest medals forecast released by a data company called Gracenote, women are projected to collect 19 of Canada’s expected 22 medals at the Tokyo Olympics — including four of the five gold.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Women accounted for 16 of Canada’s 22 medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and three of the four gold. But the gender gap looks like it’ll get even wider in Tokyo. With that in mind, here are some of the top Canadian women you should know about — and follow — as the Games approach.
Kylie Masse
The swimmer from LaSalle, Ont., won back-to-back world titles in the 100-metre backstroke in 2017 and ’19. She’s favored to add an Olympic gold to the bronze medal she won in this event in 2016. Masse is also a good bet to reach the podium in the 200 back after taking bronze at the world championships last year, and she might tack on a relay medal.
Laurence Vincent Lapointe
The world’s most dominant women’s canoe athlete was cleared to compete after officials ruled she didn’t knowingly take a banned drug she tested positive for last summer. That’s big for Canada because Vincent Lapointe has a great opportunity of winning two gold medals. She won the 200m singles race at six of the last seven world championships she competed in, and she’s also taken four world titles in the 500m doubles race with several partners.
Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes
They’re the reigning world champs in the glamour event of beach volleyball, and they’re currently ranked No. 1 in the world. Pavan made it to the quarter-finals at the 2016 Olympic with former partner Heather Bansley, but she and Humana-Paredes obviously have a much higher ceiling. Gracenote’s model has Pavan and Humana-Paredes winning the women’s event in Tokyo.
Rosie MacLennan
In Rio, the trampoline star became the first Canadian ever to attain back-to-back gold medals in the same individual event at the Summer Olympics. MacLennan went on to win the world title in 2018 and took bronze at the world championships last year despite suffering a broken ankle only seven months earlier.
If she three-peats in Tokyo, MacLennan will join rowing teammates Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle as the only Canadians to win three gold medals in the Summer Olympics.
With Team sports the Canadian women’s soccer team won bronze at the last two Olympics, and the rugby sevens squad also took bronze in Rio. They should both contend for the podium again, though Gracenote’s model has them both missing the podium (and in fact projects no team-sports medals for Canada in Tokyo).
The women’s basketball team might be on the verge of its first Olympic medal — it’s ranked fourth in the world and looking better than ever. Softball is returning to the Olympics in Tokyo, and the Canadian team is a podium threat in that event too — it’s ranked third in the world.
