When the women’s freestyle-relay team walked out onto the pool deck at the Paris Olympics for the 4x200 preliminary heats on Thursday, the Canadian squad had a bold new look.

Of the four swimmers racing, three of them were getting their first taste of an Olympics.

Julie Brousseau, Ella Jansen and Emma O’Croinin are all Summer Games debutantes in Paris, and are part of a contingent of 16 rookies Canada has brought to these Summer Games.

In a program that has leaned heavily on veteran talent in recent years, this new relay squad was a glimpse of the future, as Swimming Canada looks ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Other than Jansen, who raced the 400-metre individual medley on Monday, Brousseau and O’Croinin were diving into Olympic water for the first time.

“It’s super exciting,

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