Men’s rugby first joined the Canada Summer Games program for back to back Games in 1981 and 1985, and after sitting out the 1989 Games, returned from 1993-2009. Rugby returns to the 2021 Canada Summer Games program in Niagara, ON, as Women’s Rugby Sevens will make its debut.
Rugby union - 15 players per team - has been on the Olympic program four times (1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924) and Rugby Sevens made its Olympic debut in Rio in 2016. Canada won its first ever Olympic rugby medal in Rio when the Women’s Rugby Sevens team captured bronze.