10 Edmonton-area athletes competing at Paris 2024 Olympics

Kelsey Mitchell of Team Canada celebrates winning the gold medal in the track cycling women's sprint race at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Aug. 8, 2021, in Izu, Japan. (Christophe Ena/Associated Press)

Ten athletes from the Edmonton area will compete at this year's Summer Olympics in Paris.

The Games are scheduled to begin July 24 and run through Aug. 11 at several venues in the French metropolis.

Canadians won 24 medals at the previous Summer Olympics in Tokyo, including seven gold, seven silver and 10 bronze.

Marco Arop - Athletics

The Edmonton track-and-field athlete is the reigning world champion in the 800 metres. He won gold at last year's World Athletics Championship, a year after finishing third in the event.

He set a personal best time of 1:43.24 at a Diamond League event shortly after August's world championship victory, then beat that mark — setting a Canadian record in the process — with a time of 1:42.85 in a season-ending race.

He represented Canada at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where he finished 14th.

The 25-year-old was born in Khartoum, Sudan, and emigrated to Canada with his parents in 2002 as refugees from the African country's civil war.

Fancy Bermudez - Rugby

The 22-year-old Edmontonian will make her Olympic debut in Paris with Canada's Rugby 7s squad.

In 2023, Bermudez competed for Canada's 15s squad in a test against South Africa and in the Pacific Four Series.

The outside back competed internationally for Canada's 7s in 2022 at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, where the squad finished fourth, and at the Rugby Cup World Sevens in which it finished sixth.

Emma Finlin - Swimming

The Edmonton native qualified for the Paris Games with a 24th-place finish in the women's 10-km open water swimming race at the World Aquatic Championships.

She made her international debut two years ago at the worlds, finishing 28th in the women's 5-km open water competition.

Last year, she competed in both long-distance pool and open-water races after winning three events at the Canadian Swimming Trials.

The 19-year-old will swim collegiately at Ohio State University starting this fall.

Daniel Gu - Fencing

The 26-year-old competed at cadet and junior levels at world junior events as a teenager.

The Edmonton native returned to international competition in November 2022 at an FIE World Cup competition.

Kelsey Mitchell - Cycling (track)

The Sherwood Park resident returns to the stage in Paris as the reigning Olympic champion in the sprint.

Her gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2020 was just the second time a Canadian track cyclist had claimed one. She also placed fifth that year in the keirin.

The 30-year-old University of Alberta graduate started competing on a velodrome in 2018, when she won three medals at the Canadian championships, including a gold in the sprint.

Emma O'Croinin - Swimming

The Edmonton native comes into the Paris Games having competed at last year's Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, where she swam in the preliminaries of the women's 4x200m freestyle relay for a Canadian team that took bronze.

As an individual, she reached the final of the women's 200m freestyle in Santiago.

The 21-year-old is a student at the University of British Columbia, for whom she has competed collegiately. Last year, she won gold in three individual races and one team event at university nationals. In 2022, she was named USports female rookie of the year after winning gold four times at the Canadian university nationals.

Kindred Paul - Water Polo

Paul competed in women's water polo for Canada at the previous Olympics in Tokyo, where the team finished seventh.

The 28-year-old from Spruce Grove has also competed for Canada internationally in two Pan Am Games and has been a member of the women's national squad for FINA world events since 2016.

Katherine Plouffe - 3x3 basketball

While the Paris Games will mark Plouffe's Olympic debut in 3x3, it's not the 31-year-old Edmontonian's first time competing for Canada on this stage.

The Marquette graduate made her Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 on the country's five-on-five basketball squad that finished seventh that year, alongside her twin sister Michelle.

Plouffe switched her focus to 3x3 in 2019 and has been among the world's top players in the sport, helping lead Canada to back-to-back FIBA 3x3 Women's Series titles in 2022 and 2023, a sliver medal at the 2022 FIBA 3x3 World Cup and leading Canada in scoring at this year's 3x3 Olympic qualifying tournament to help the team qualify for the Paris Games.

Michelle Plouffe - 3x3 basketball

Plouffe, like her sister Katherine, is a national basketball veteran. The 31-year-old Utah grad competed for Canada in two Olympic Games — in 2012 at London and in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro — before changing her focus to 3x3 basketball in 2019.

Both she and Katherine had also been members of the Canadian women's squads that won gold in 2015 at the Pan Am Games and the FIBA Americas Championships.

Lucas Van Berkel - Volleyball (indoor)

Paris 2024 will mark the second Olympic Games for the 32-year-old Van Berkel, who first competed with the senior national team in 2012 while still with Canada's junior men's program.

He has been competing for Canada in various FIVB events in the years since, including his senior world championship debut in 2018, when Canada placed ninth.

The Edmonton native was a part of the national squad that went undefeated in January 2020 at the NORCECA Continental Cup to secure a spot at the Tokyo Olympics in which the team made it to the quarterfinals, finishing eighth.