The countdown is on to the 2012 Summer Olympics, but there is still plenty of work facing Canadian athletes in their quest to strike Olympic gold.
With one year to go until the opening ceremony at London’s Olympic Stadium, here are 10 Canadian athletes to watch in the months ahead, as Olympic qualifications continue and the clock ticks down to July 27, 2012.
Dylan Armstrong, shot put
Hometown: Kamloops
Age: 30
Armstrong came ever so close to winning an Olympic medal at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, when he set a Canadian record with a throw of 21.04 metres. But he proved to be just one centimetre short of hitting the medal podium, marking one of 10 fourth-place finishes for Canada in China.
The five-time Canadian champion won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and was fourth at the 2010 world indoor championships in Doha.
Ryan Cochrane, swimming
Hometown: Victoria
Age: 22
Cochrane captured a bronze medal in the 1,500-metre freestyle event at the 2008 Games, becoming the first Canadian to win a swimming medal since the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Two years later, at last fall’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Cochrane won a pair of gold medals, including the 400-metre freestyle event, becoming Canada’s first man to win a gold in the 400-metre event at the Commonwealth Games in 72 years. He also won gold in the 1,500-metre freestyle final.
Alexandre Despatie, diving
Hometown: Laval, Que.
Age: 26
From the time he won gold at the 1998 Commonwealth Games at the tender age of 13, Despatie has continued to add to his medal chest.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he won three gold medals for Canada, proving that he is still one of the best divers in the world.
A 36-time senior diving champion in one-metre, three-metre and 10-metre platform events, Despatie was fourth at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, then won silver in 2004 in Athens and silver in 2008 in Beijing – both in three-metre springboard.
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Perdita Felicien, hurdles
Hometown: Pickering, Ont.
Age: 30
Felicien has had plenty of success on the world stage, but the Olympic Games haven’t been kind to her.
A gold medallist at the 2003 world championships in Paris, Felicien was considered a medal threat at the 2004 Games in Athens. When hurdling legend Gail Devers of the U.S. pulled out with an injury, Felicien was considered a shoo-in for gold, but she tripped on the first hurdle and tripped up her medal hopes.
A foot injury kept her out of the 2008 Olympics, and she’s hoping a move to the University of Calgary, where she’s training with former national team coach Les Gramantik, will help her reach the podium in London.
Paula Findlay, triathlon
Hometown: Edmonton
Age: 22
Findlay has taken the triathlon world by storm, proving that her third-place finish at the 2009 under-23 world championships was no fluke.
She captured top spot at the 2010 International Triathlon Union world championship series last July in London and won the first two races of the 2011 world championship series – in Sydney and Madrid.
Findlay, who is ranked No. 1 in the world by the ITU, missed the Edmonton World Cup race earlier this month with a sore hip, but plans to be ready for the London race in August, which is an Olympic test event.
Clara Hughes, cycling
Hometown: Glen Sutton, Que.
Age: 38
Possibly one of Canada’s greatest athletes of all time, the Winnipeg-born Hughes is a speedskater turned cyclist, turned speedskater, turned cyclist.
She has six Olympic medals in her trophy case, including a pair of bronze medals in cycling from the 1996 Games in Atlanta, and four medals (one gold, one silver, two bronze) in three appearances at the Winter Olympics.
She is the first Canadian to have won medals in both a Winter and Summer Games, and needs one more medal to top former speedskating teammate Cindy Klassen as Canada’s most decorated Olympian.
After winning a bronze medal in the 5,000-metre speedskating event at the Vancouver Games, Hughes retired from the ice to return to cycling, where she won the individual time trial and road race at the 2011 Pan American championships, and appears to be on track for more Olympic glory.
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, hurdles
Hometown: Whitby, Ont.
Age: 28
Lopes-Schliep is carrying a little extra weight these days with the world’s top-ranked hurdler expecting her first child in September. But she fully expected to be ready for London, where she’s hoping to hit the medal podium.
She won the bronze medal in Beijing – a surprise bronze at that – becoming the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic track and field medal since the 1992 Games.
Lopes-Schliep hasn’t slowed down since 2008, winning silver at the 2009 world championships in Berlin and a bronze at the 2010 world indoor championships in Doha.
Catharine Pendrel, mountain biking
Hometown: Kamloops, B.C.
Age: 30
Pendrel won the 2010 World Cup overall championship and was fourth at the mountain bike world championship last season. The three-national national champion has 12 World Cup podium finishes to her credit, including four victories.
A fourth-place finisher at the Beijing Summer Games, Pendrel was the 2007 Pan American Games champ and 2008 Pan American champion.
Mary Spencer, boxing
Hometown: Windsor, Ont.
Age: 26
Women’s boxing makes its debut in London, and Mary Spencer could make history as one of the sport’s first ever Olympic medallists.
Spencer is a three-time world amateur champion, winning the crown in the 66-kilogram event twice, and the 2010 world title in the 75-kilogram event, the weight class she now competes in.
Not only is she looking to win Canada’s first women’s boxing medal, she’s also trying to snag this country’s first boxing gold medal since the 1988 Games in Seoul, when Lennox Lewis accomplished the feat.
Adam van Koeverden
Hometown: Oakville, Ont.
Age: 29
Van Koeverden has accomplished nearly everything in the world of kayak. Not only did he bring the sport to the attention of the rest of the country at the 2004 Athens Olympics, he has a complete set of Games medals, including a gold a bronze from Athens and a silver from Beijing.
Canada’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and the flag-bearer for the 2008 Beijing opening ceremony, van Koeverden won the Lou Marsh Trophy in 2004 as Canada’s top athlete.
A seven-time medallist at the world championships, including a bronze last year in the K-1 500-metre, van Koeverden has the potential to bring back more hardware from London.
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