PARIS — Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo and Summer McIntosh of Toronto had the same word when describing their selections as the closing ceremony flagbearers Sunday for Canada in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games: “whirlwind.”
Katzberg, who won the gold medal in the men’s hammer throw in the 2024 Olympics, had departed and was training in Slovakia when he got the word and rushed back to Paris. McIntosh, a sensation in winning three gold medals and a silver in swimming, was in Ontario cottage country enjoying a more leisurely splash in Muskoka.
“I was happy to interrupt my training for this,” said Katzberg, the John Barsby Secondary graduate and former Bulldogs basketball player who became the first Canadian men’s hammer-throw medallist in 112 years and the first to win a gold.
“It’s been a great Olympics for Canada,” added the Nanaimo Track and Field Club product. The 27 Canadian medals are the most in a non-boycotted Summer Games.
“I’m excited to close out these great Games by carrying the flag for Canada.”
As flagbearers, Katzberg and McIntosh were the first Canadian athletes on the floor of the Stade de France before being joined by the rest of the athletes en masse. They watched as Tom Cruise, held by wires, jumped from the top of the stadium to the floor Mission Impossible style to commemorate the handover section of the ceremony to the next host city of the Summer Olympics Games, Los Angeles in 2028.
Hundreds of other Canadian athletes poured in minutes after the duo, leading off two groups entering the 80,000-capacity stadium.
The Canadians all came dressed in shorts and T-shirts in a dark, galaxy-like pattern with “CAN” written vertically down the back in white letters, and the medal winners proudly carried their hardware around their necks.
The closing ceremony overall was good but stadium based and more standard than the audacious opening ceremony that used all of Paris as a canvas.
Being closing ceremony co-flagbearer for Canada was surreal for McIntosh: “It’s not really sunk in at all. It’s been a whirlwind of emotions and will probably take a few months.”
Katzberg was the third Island athlete to carry the Canadian flag into an Olympic closing ceremony following rower Silken Laumann at Barcelona in 1992 and triathlete Simon Whitfield at Sydney in 2000.
“I am very happy to represent Vancouver Island,” said Katzberg, 22.
He said no one individual athlete inspired him while growing up, but a home-province event did: “I watched the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as a kid and thought how amazing sport can be.”
One Canadian flagbearer used to be chosen for the closing. The Canadian Olympic Committee now chooses a male and female athlete.
“It’s an honour and I am proud to share it with Ethan,” McIntosh said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Canada placed 12th in the Paris medals table with nine gold, which isn’t bad for a nation better known for the Winter Olympics. The Summer Games are much more competitive among a far wider range of nations.
“We are one of the only countries that does well in both the Summer and Winter Olympics,” said Canadian Olympic Committee president Tricia Smith. “It’s a different story for, say, Norway in the Summer Games.”
(The Norwegians, for the record, earned eight medals in Paris, including four golds.)
Canada had 49 top-five finishes in Paris.
“We won medals in 15 different sports. Diversity is the strength of our team,” said Eric Myles, director of sport for the COC.
With Katzberg’s gold, and the silver medals won by the Langford-based Canadian women’s rugby sevens team and the North Cowichan-based Canadian women’s rowing eight, the Island kept alive its streak of producing medallists for Canada in every Summer Olympics since Barcelona in 1992.
“Those national training centres are super important [in a country as far-flung as Canada],” said Myles.
Myles said he hopes children across the country were inspired by what they saw over the past two weeks in the Paris Summer Games.
“Getting more kids in sports is crucial for continuity,” he said.
But David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, warned against complacency.
“I worry about the future and Los Angeles 2028. We’ve had no increase in [federal government] funding in 19 years,” he said.
He said the Canadian Olympic Committee is a private organization, describing the Canadian Olympic teams as a “private-public partnership.”
“I would like to see the government of Canada do much more.”
— With a file from The Canadian Press
