Marathoners Trevor Hofbauer and Dayna Pidhoresky and race walker Evan Dunfee have been nominated by Athletics Canada for their events at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee announced recently that the Games are now scheduled for July 23 to August 5, 2021.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed recently that the athletes who had qualified for Tokyo 2020 would maintain their spot despite the year-long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding these Games for the past few weeks and we’re happy to put the focus on the outstanding achievements of our athletes today,” said Athletics Canada’s High Performance Director Simon Nathan. “With a new timeframe to work from, our athletes, coaches and staff have a new finish line to work towards and we are all looking forward to the time when we can get back on the track and the field and represent Canada. In the meantime, we will continue taking every precaution to keep our athletes, coaches and support staff safe and healthy.”

Hofbauer, 28, met the nomination criteria by winning the 2019 Canadian Marathon Championships in Toronto last October. His time of 2:09:51 was under the Olympic standard of 2:11:30 for the men’s marathon and represented a personal best. The Calgary native is also the 2017 Canadian Marathon Champion and the 2018 Canadian Half Marathon Champion.

Pidhoresky, a 33-year-old from Vancouver, also met the nomination criteria with her 2019 Canadian Marathon Championship, crossing the line in a time of 2:29:03, just under the women’s Olympic marathon standard of 2:29:30.

Dunfee, 29, bettered the Olympic 50 km race walk standard (3:50:00) at a race in Japan last spring, coming in one minute faster (3:49:00). The native of Richmond, B.C. is the 2015 Pan American Games champion in the 20 km race walk and a 2019 World Championship bronze medallist in the 50 km race walk.

Three other women have met the initial qualification time for the Olympic Marathon: Malindi Elmore (2:24:50), Rachel Cliff (2:26:56) and Lyndsay Tessier (2:42:03).

“We can only select a maximum of two of these three talented women. With so much time before the Games and the additional possibility of other athletes qualifying, we decided not to nominate anyone else for the women’s marathon at this time,” Nathan said. “However, we are supporting all three ladies through our CAPP funding program. I know it is tough for them, but it is exciting for Canada to have so much talent to choose from.”

Athletics Canada’s final list of nominations will be submitted to the Canadian Olympic Committee in 2021, closer to the Games.

For more information: 

Caroline Sharp
Interim Communications Manager
Athletics Canada
caroline.sharp@athletics.ca
613-323-5605