Team Canada earns tickets to Paris 2024 at Pan Am Games
There is more than just medals on the line at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. For many athletes and teams it is their chance to either qualify themselves directly for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games or earn quota spots for Team Canada to which they hope to add their names next summer.
How Team Canada can qualify for Paris 2024 at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games
Here is a rundown of the Olympic qualification that Team Canada has secured for Paris while in Santiago.
Boxing
Boxing is one of the sports in which athletes earn Olympic qualification by name. A semifinal victory in Santiago doesn’t just guarantee a shot at the gold medal — it gives those boxers a beautiful golden ticket for themselves to Paris 2024.
Tammara Thibeault – Women’s 75kg
Tammara Thibeault, the 2022 World Champion earned a return trip to the Olympics with her dominant defeat of Mexico’s Vanessa Ortiz in the semifinals. Thibeault was clearly the victor in the eyes of the judges, winning all five of them over the three rounds. Thibeault had already sailed through her Round of 16 match, which she won when the referee stopped the contest just 2:51 in. She followed up with an authoritative 5-0 victory in the quarterfinals.
“I’m really happy to be here and I’m really happy that I finally punched my ticket to Paris,” Thibeault said. “It’s been a long year and we’ve worked so hard for this, so a lot of pressure has been relieved and tomorrow [in the final] I can just have fun.”
Thibeault was a quarterfinalist in her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. That followed her winning a silver medal at the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games.
Equestrian
Team Dressage
Four young equestrians from Quebec accomplished the task they set out for and qualified Canada for the team dressage competition at Paris 2024. Those will be the second straight Olympic Games at which Canada will have a full dressage team, whose makeup will be determined next year.
The Canadian quartet of Beatrice Boucher (riding Summerwood’s Limei), Camille Carier Bergeron (riding Sound of Silence 4), Mathilde Blais Tetreault (riding Fedor), and Naima Moreira Laliberté (riding Statesman) won the bronze medal, which was enough to secure the Olympic spot. Team USA won the gold medal, but since they had already qualified their Olympic spot at the 2022 FEI World Championships, that meant the two spots reserved for the Pan American region went to the other two teams on the podium, silver medallists Brazil and Canada.
Only Moreira-Laliberté had represented Canada in a multi-sport Games before, making her the veteran of the squad at the age of 26. Four years ago at Lima 2019, she had been part of Canada’s gold medal in team dressage, which qualified the country for Tokyo 2020.
The dressage competition in Santiago began on Sunday, after which the Canadians found themselves in third place following four solid tests. They maintained that positioning through the second day of competition, finishing with a total of 431.937 points. The Americans earned the victory with 450.670 and Brazil followed with 443.343.
“We qualified Canada for the Olympics!” said Blais Tetreault. “We did our job. We’re super happy with all our rides. Our horses were amazing. Everybody showed up to work.”
Shooting
All shooting quota spots are earned for the country and will be allocated to individual athletes next year based on other competition results and criteria.
Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Canada’s first Olympic quota spot in shooting for Paris 2024 came courtesy of Shannon Westlake‘s bronze medal in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions event. A pair of Americans won gold and silver, but the United States had already earned the maximum two quota spots it could have in the event.
Westlake was competing in her third straight Pan Am Games, but this was her first time reaching the podium. The last time Canada qualified an Olympic entry in any women’s rifle event was for Sydney 2000.
“All of the work that I’ve put in and all of the people that have supported me…it was just so nice to have it all come together today,” Westlake said through happy tears, “I’m just ecstatic.”
Men’s 10m Air Pistol
Tugrul Ozer set a Pan Am Games record to win the gold medal in the men’s 10m air pistol event. Ozer totalled 240.5 points, giving him a narrow victory over American James Hall, who scored 239.3. The victory gives Canada the lone Olympic spot that was available in the event at Santiago 2023.
The last time Canada qualified an Olympic entry in the men’s 10m air pistol was for Barcelona 1992.