Canadian eyes top 12 finish at London Olympic Games

OTTAWA - Two weeks before the start of the 30th Olympic Games in London, Canada has unveiled its Olympic team with hopes that its medal haul will place the country for the first time in the top 12.

Canada will be represented by 277 athletes from nine provinces and one territory competing in 26 sport disciplines and supported by 93 coaches and a mission team of 137. More than half, or 155, of the Canadian athletes are women.

At 65 years of age, equestrian Ian Millar is the oldest athlete, while 15-year-old Victoria Moors, who will compete in artistic gymnastics, is the youngest.

On Thursday, veteran triathlete Simon Whitfield was chosen as Canada's flag bearer for the July 27 opening ceremony.

A resident of the British Columbia capital of Victoria, 37-year-old Whitfield won the gold medal 12 years ago in the first-ever Olympic triathlon in Sydney, where he also carried Canada's Maple Leaf flag into the closing ceremony. Whitfield earned silver in the same event at the last Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Other Canadian star athletes joining him in London include 27-year-old, two-time Olympic silver medalist, Quebec diver Alexandre Despatie, who will compete despite suffering a small concussion and a large cut on his head from a training accident in June, as well as fellow divers Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans - both also from Quebec - who are among Canada's best bets to reach the podium.

Other Canadian medal hopefuls include:

31-year-old trampoline gymnast, Karen Cockburn, who won a bronze at the 2000 Summer Games, and took home silver in 2004 and 2008 making her the only trampolinist to win a medal at every Olympics at which the event was competed;

Adam van Koeverden, 30, who carried Canada's flag at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games, and holds three Olympic medals (a gold, silver and bronze) in the canoe-kayak event;

44-year-old equestrian jumper Eric Lamaze, who won gold in Beijing in the individual show jumping event but whose medal-winning stallion, Hickstead, died last year.

One athlete - cyclist Clara Hughes - could become Canada's most decorated Olympian if she wins a medal. The 39-year-old, Winnipeg-born athlete won two bronze medals in cycling at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, and four medals, over three Winter Olympics, as a speed skater.

Several Canadian athletes heading to London also claim Chinese descent. Among them:

31-year-old Carol Huynh, whose father was born in China and who won Canada's first gold medal in women's freestyle wrestling at the Beijing Olympics;

Table tennis players Andre Ho, whose parents were born in China, and Eugene Wang and Mo Zhang, who were both born in China;

Hubei-born Grace Gao, Michelle Li, born in Hong Long, and Tobias Ng, a first-generation Canadian born of Chinese parents, who will compete in badminton; and swimmers Victoria Poon, born in Hong Kong, and Tobias Oriwol, whose mother, Yuk Sin, is from the People's Republic of China.

At the last Summer Olympics four years ago, Canada took home 18 medals and placed 15th in overall medal count. The country's best Olympic performance to date at a Summer Games happened 28 years ago when Canada won 44 medals, including 10 gold, in Los Angeles when the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the Games.