Canada's women's soccer team stacked with Olympic champions as Paris roster revealed
Veteran Jessie Fleming will wear captain's armband
Having wrangled the Rubik's Cube of an 18-player Olympic roster, coach Bev Priestman and her staff leave Tuesday for a pre-tournament camp in Spain.
The eighth-ranked Canada women will play two final warm-ups in Europe against yet-to-be announced opponents during the July 8-16 FIFA international window that precedes the Olympic tournament.
"I'm super-, super-excited," Priestman said Monday after naming her roster. "I think I couldn't get excited until I'd had some really difficult (roster) conversations and this was done. And then you start to work with the team you have got."
Sydney Collins, Nichelle Prince and Quinn won their injury battles in making a roster that features 13 players who won gold in Tokyo including six — captain Jessie Fleming, Janine Beckie, Kadeisha Buchanan, Ashley Lawrence, Prince and Quinn — who also earned bronze in 2016 in Rio.
WATCH: Olympians help reveal women's soccer roster:
The six veterans have a combined 717 caps, ranging from 149 for Buchanan to 97 for Prince.
Fifteen members of the Olympic roster were on last summer's 23-player World Cup squad. Former captain Christine Sinclair and veteran midfielder Sophie Schmidt have since retired from international football.
Beckie and Jade Rose missed the World Cup through injury. Collins was not picked.
Canada opens defence of its Olympic title on July 25 against No. 28 New Zealand before facing No. 2 France on July 28 and No. 22 Colombia on July 31. The first two Group A games are at the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne with the third at the Nice Stadium.
The top two teams from each of the three groups, along with the two best third-placed sides, advance to the knockout rounds.
The 24-year-old Collins, a defender/wingback whose Canada debut was in March 2023, makes the Olympic squad after fracturing her ankle in February in the Canadian camp ahead of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup while the 29-year-old Prince suffered a calf injury at the tournament, exiting in the 44th minute of a 4-0 win over El Salvador.
The 28-year-old Quinn is back from a knee injury. Their last appearance for Canada — which marked a century of Canada caps for the veteran midfielder — was in the penalty shootout loss to the United States at the W Gold Cup on March 6.
Teams have until Wednesday to name their Olympic roster.
"It did come right to the wire and it was a really really difficult decision," said Priestman. "When I was making these (roster decision) calls, every player answered the call and was nervous at the end of the phone," she added.
In part because the Olympic roster is just 18 players, plus four alternates, compared to 23 for the FIFA World Cup.Canada is the only country to have reached the podium in women's soccer at each of the last three Olympics.
Canada qualified for the Paris Olympics in September by defeating No. 42 Jamaica 4-1 on aggregate in the two-match CONCACAF W Olympic Play-In.
Canada is 10-1-4 since a disappointing 1-1-1 performance at last summer's World Cup that saw Priestman's team fail to make the knockout round. Two of the ties since turned into shootout losses to the U.S. while one became a shootout win over Brazil, which also accounted for the lone Canadian loss in regulation time since the World Cup.
Goalkeepers:
Sabrina D'Angelo (Welland, Ont.)
Kailen Sheridan (Whitby, Ont.)
Defenders:
Kadeisha Buchanan (Brampton, Ont.)
Sydney Collins (Beaverton, Oregon, USA)
Vanessa Gilles (Ottawa, Ont.)
Ashley Lawrence (Caledon East, Ont.)
Jayde Riviere (Markham, Ont.)
Jade Rose (Markham, Ont.)
Midfielders:
Simi Awujo (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
Jessie Fleming (London, Ont.)
Julia Grosso (Vancouver, B.C.)
Quinn (Toronto, Ont. )
Forwards:
Janine Beckie (Highlands Ranch, Colorado, USA)
Jordyn Huitema (Chilliwack, B.C.)
Cloé Lacasse (Sudbury, Ont.)
Adriana Leon (King City, Ont.)
Nichelle Prince (Ajax, Ont.)
Evelyne Viens (L'Ancienne-Lorette, Que.)
Alternates:
Gabrielle Carle (Lévis, Que.)
Lysianne Proulx (Boucherville, Que.)
Shelina Zadorsky (London, Ont.)
Deanne Rose (Alliston, Ont.)
