Meet the cyclist who's going to the Paris Olympics to row

Canadian Caileigh Filmer of Team Blue Ridge Twenty24 has punched her ticket to go to the Paris Olympics but it won't be on the bike.  Filmer, 27, has rowed for her country in two Olympics already and will be making her third appearance in August. 

In 2016, Filmer was part of an eight-woman shell that finished fifth in the Rio Olympics.  After a break from the sport to focus on her mental health, Filmer made the decision to return to rowing and won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in a two-woman shell with Hillary Janssens. This was Canada’s first Olympic medal in the pair category since 1992.

In Paris, Filmer will once again be part of an eight-woman shell.

Out of the water, Filmer has been cycling at the UCI level since 2021, and has finished in the Top 5 of the Canadian nation time trial championships twice. 

Ahead of the 2023 season, Filmer joined Nicola Cranmer's Team Blue Ridge Twenty24, the longest running women's professional cycling team in the world, with the hopes of a qualifying for the Paris Olympics in track cycling. 

In 2022, Filmer represented Team Canada at the Milton Nations Cup where she took part in the women’s team pursuit, helping Canada to advance all the way to the finals, where they ultimately lost to Team U.S.A. by a fraction of a second. 

In 2023, Filmer again represented Canada, this time at the Pan Am Championships in the individual time trial, where she placed 14th out of 28.

The rower-turned-cyclist suffered a difficult start to 2024 which may have impacted her chances of being selected to the Canadian Olympic team for track cycling. Filmer suffered from an illness at the start of the year, and was then involved in a car accident that left her with a severe whiplash and concussion-like symptoms that delayed her return to full strength on the bike. 

In May, Filmer had opted to return to the rowing shell and earned a gold medal at the Rowing World Cup in Lucerne with Team Canada. This performance helped her punch her ticket to Paris, albeit on the water instead of the boards of the velodrome. 

Together with her seven teammates, Filmer aims to make Canada back-to-back women’s rowing Olympic champions in the eight-woman event.

“It’s a surreal feeling that this is really happening. The journey so far to these Olympics has been unbelievable and I wouldn’t change it,” Filmer says. “Through all of the ups and downs the past three years, living abroad in different countries, competing in two different sports, I can’t believe it’s really happening.” 

Team Blue Ridge Twenty24 supports Filmer’s foray into two sports:

“Caileigh Filmer has been an invaluable mentor and advisor to our junior team, generously sharing her wealth of experience as a high performer in both rowing and cycling,” the team says. “Her insights on the principles of excellence and performance seamlessly cross over all sports…[we] wish her all the very best for Paris 2024.” 

Filmer and Team Canada’s eight-woman shell will begin their journey to gold in Paris on July 29. 

The two-sport athlete has not yet shared if she plans on continuing to pursue her professional cycling career after the 2024 Olympics, or if she will focus solely on rowing.