COC officially announces Canadian team heading to Rio 2016

The Canadian team that will compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio was officially unveiled Monday and includes 313 athletes participating in 37 sports.

Led by Rosie MacLennan, gold medallist in trampoline at London 2012 and Canada's flag-bearer for the opening ceremony, 92 of the athletes were also at the Olympics four years ago.

None have more experience that rower Lesley Thompson-Willie. Rio will be her eighth Olympics, tying the all-time women’s record. On the flip side, these are the first Games to feature born in the 21st century. The Canadian team has four athletes born in 2000: two swimmers (Penny Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck) and two gymnasts (Shallon Olsen, Rose-Kaying Woo).

Georgia Simmerling is about to accomplish some history, too. Simmerling participated in alpine skiing in Vancouver 2010, freestyle skiing in Sochi 2014, and is a member of the track cycling team at Rio 2016. She'll be the first Canadian to suit up in three different sports at three Olympic Games. 

Graham DeLaet, David Hearn, Brooke Henderson, and Alena Sharp will hit the links as golf makes its return to the Games after a 112-year absence, while the women's rugby team is ready for the first Olympic sevens tournament. The traditional 15-player rugby was part of the Olympic set-up from 1900 to 1924.

Along with the rugby team, the men's field hockey and men's volleyball qualified, joining the women's basketball and women's soccer team to grow Canada's team sport contigent from two representatives in London to five in Rio.

The athletics team is especially stocked with medal contenders as Shawn Barber (pole vault), Derek Drouin (high jump), Andre DeGrasse (100 metres, 200 metres), Melissa Bishop (800 metres), Damian Warner (decathlon), and Briane Theisen-Eaton (heptathlon) all hit the podium at last summer's World Championships in Moscow.

While there have been a number of high-profile dropouts in tennis, including Canada's Milos Raonic, Eugenie Bouchard is not one of them. Bouchard is set to play the women's singles draw and her doubles partner is Gabriela Dabrowksi. Vasek Pospisil is taking part in the men's singles tournament and he will pair with Daniel Nestor in doubles.

Veterans Mark de Jonge, Adam van Koeverden, and Mark Oldershaw are familiar names on the canoe/kayak team. Ryan Cochrane and Richard Weinberger won medals in London and hopes are high for Canada's 30 swimmers to do more damage at the Rio Olympics.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr