Darren Calabrese/COC, Mateusz Kielpinski/FIS freestyle, Darren Calabrese/COC
Get ready for a jam-packed weekend for Team Canada fans, as Canadian athletes compete on the sand, on the snow, in the ring and on the water.
The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour Elite 16 circuit starts in Doha, Qatar, while the FIS Freestyle World Cup circuit stops in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Canadian boxers are battling for spots at Paris 2024 at the World Qualification Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy, while Canadian sailors are competing at the 49er and 49er FX World Championships in Lanzarote, Spain. Meanwhile, the Triathlon World Championships begin this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
Here's what you don't want to miss:
Beach volleyball
The Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour makes its first stop of 2024 in Doha, Qatar, for an Elite 16 event that kicked off earlier this week and continues through Saturday.
Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson entered the main draw ranked fourth in the FIVB world rankings. After winning their first two matches on Wednesday, they lost their last match of the preliminary round 2-1 (10-21, 24-22, 15-13) against Latvians Tina Graudina and Anastasija Kravcenoka, ranked 12th in the world.
Friday will feature the round of 16 and quarterfinals, leading into the semifinals and final on Saturday.
The Beach Pro Tour results have implications for Olympic qualification, as the top 17 teams by gender in the FIVB Olympic Rankings will qualify for Paris 2024. The rankings take into account a team's 12 best performances between January 1, 2023 and on June 9, 2024.
READ: Brandie Wilkerson on big wins, learning from losses, and making a positive impact
Freestyle skiing – moguls and jumps
The FIS Freestyle World Cup circuit stops in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where moguls and aerials events are taking place this weekend. This is the last competition of the season for single moguls and aerials and the penultimate event for double moguls.
This is the first World Cup in over a month for the workers. At their final stop in Deer Valley in early February, Mikaël Kingsbury earned his 87th career World Cup victory, a record for a male athlete in any FIS Olympic ski or snowboard discipline.
Kingsbury is currently first in the men's combined moguls and dual moguls World Cup rankings and first in the men's dual moguls rankings. He is second in the men's moguls standings, but just 30 points behind Japan's Ikuma Horishima, setting up an exciting final. The men's and women's moguls events will take place on Friday, followed by dual moguls on Saturday.
The aerials events will take place on Sunday. Marion Thénault is fourth in the Women's World Cup standings this season, even though she had to miss a stage of the circuit in December after suffering a nasty fall in training. The 23-year-old got the season off to a flying start by winning gold in Ruka in the 2023-24 World Cup opener. She was also on the podium at the most recent event, finishing third in front of family and friends in Lac-Beauport last month.
In the men's aerials, Alexandre Duchaine, winner at Deer Valley in early February, will compete alongside Émile Nadeau and Lewis Irving, who both have World Cup podiums to their credit.
Boxing
The first World Boxing Qualification Tournament will take place March 3-11 in Busto Arsizio, Italy. There are 49 Olympic places available for Paris 2024 across the 13 weight categories. In most weight categories, four Olympic places must be allocated. The exceptions are women's 57 kg (2 places) and women's 60 kg (3 places).
Team Canada has several boxers still in content. Scarlett Delgado (women's 54kg) won her fight against Sweden's Anna Svensson on Thursday and will advance to the round of 16 with a fight against Azerbaijan's Zeynab Rahimova on Friday. In the women's 57 kg category, Marie Al-Ahmadieh will face Greek Olga Papatadou in the round of 16 on Thursday afternoon.
Sara Kali will face Latvian Kitija Zarberga in the round of 16 in the women's 66kg category on Friday, while Mckenzie Wright will face Philippine Aira Villegas in the round of 16 in the women's 50kg category. Victor Tremblay will face Portugal's Pedro Manuel Gomez in the men's 57 kg round of 16, also on Friday. On Saturday, Alexis Barrière will face Gerlon Congo from Educador in the men's +92 kg round of 16.
Veil
The 49er and 49er FX World Championships will take place March 4-10 in Lanzarote, Spain, where Canada is represented by five crews. This is the first of two regattas whose results will be used to determine the Canadian 49er and 49er FX crews for Paris 2024.
In the men's 49er event, Santiago 2023 bronze medalists William Jones and Justin Barnes (who qualified for the Olympic quota spot) are the top Canadians through the first eight races in Lanzarote. Also competing are Thomas and William Staples as well as Arie Moffat and Hunter Hoy.
In the women's 49er FX event, the leading Canadian crew through eight races is Georgia and Antonia Lewin-Lafrance. Also in the running are Santiago 2023 silver medalists Alexandra ten Hove and Mariah Millen, who qualified for the quota spot.
The qualifying race series took place March 5-7, followed by the final series March 8-10, which concludes with the medal races.
Triathlon
The World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS), triathlon's most prestigious competition circuit, begins this weekend with a stop in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The women's and men's sprint distance events – comprising 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run – will begin the season on Friday.
Four Canadians will be in action. Tyler Mislawchuk, ninth at the 2023 Sprint Triathlon World Championships in Hamburg, and Charles Paquet, seventh at the WTCS sprint event in Montreal last June, will take part in the men's race, while Dominika Jamnicky and Emy Legault, respectively fifth and sixth, at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, will represent Canada in the women's event.
Triathletes can accumulate points towards the individual World Triathlon Olympic qualification ranking until May 27.
“Web specialist. Social media ninja. Amateur food aficionado. Alcohol advocate. General creator. Beer guru.”
