Both Claire Carver-Dias and Sam Effah will be at the helm after being substituted into the roles when preparations for the Games were already in full swing.

Swimming legend Benoît Huot had initially been appointed way back in July 2020, but the nine-time Paralympic champion stepped away for family reasons in April, with his wife expecting their second child.

The announcement of Carver-Dias and Effah came with around 100 days to go until the Birmingham 2022 Opening Ceremony, and in that situation two pairs of hands are better than one.

"When I heard about Benoit's good news I was excited to have a second turn," said Carver-Dias, a double Commonwealth Games artistic swimming gold medallist who was Chef de Mission on her own at Gold Coast 2018.

"The order of the day is do whatever it takes to ensure the team can perform at the best of its abilities.

"A Games like this, one of the first major multi-sport Games during COVID, has all sorts of complications.

"We have got five Villages and I feel we are better able to face those challenges with two of us.

"I've done it before but every Games is a different animal.

"So this will be completely unique, and I'm going to benefit from having Sam here."

Effah, a former sprinter, has twice been crowned as Canadian champion over 100 metres and competed at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and 2018.

"Initially we had to adapt quickly," he said. "But ultimately we're ready to go. 

"I can't thank the team behind the scenes who are making this all happen enough. 

"As when a change like this does happen, people have to spring into duty and they've absolutely done an amazing job to not only support us as co Chefs de Mission, but the athletes on the ground will be supported and will be able to have everything they need even though there was that last minute switch. 

"We're hungry to make this happen."

Carver-Dias won the Commonwealth solo and duet titles at Manchester 2002 and also claimed team bronze at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

"The people on Team Canada who have been on this journey since the last Games, and getting ready for these Games, are seasoned professionals," she added.

"Even though we came in at the last minute with 100 days to go, they had everything well in hand.

"So it made it really easy for us to slip into the role.

"And having two of us sharing the role makes a little bit of the lift lighter." 

Canada is one of the powerhouse Commonwealth nations and is expected to take around 300 athletes to Birmingham, across most of the sports on the programme.

Big names confirmed include Tokyo 2020 Olympic 200 metres champion Andre De Grasse, and swimmer Maggie Mac Neil who won a medal of each colour at the Games in Japan.

Olympic sprint champion Kelsey Mitchell will feature in cycling but Canada's most decorated Summer Olympian, swimmer Penny Oleksiak, will not compete after opting to focus on the World Championships in Budapest.

"The thing with the Commonwealth Games is it's extremely competitive," said Effah.

"Our athletes treat this on the same level as an Olympic Games. 

"It's a great place to get not only experience, but to push for the podium and as a former sprinter I know the competition!

"You have the Caribbean nations who tend to dominate at sprints, the Jamaicans, Trinidad and Tobago...

"You have West Africans. And then of course Great Britain and parts of Europe who are at these Games.

"We take it very serious.

"It's a world-class sporting competition. It's something that we tend to do well in, and I think when you are an athlete you want to have these experiences so when you are on the global stage you can perform. 

"And that's what the Commonwealth Games provides."

Carver-Dias said Gold Coast was a perfect example of how the Commonwealth Games can act as a springboard for athletes to move onto the Olympic stage.

"We had 282 athletes who were members of the team in 2018," she said.

"Around 33 per cent of those also went to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

"Out of Canada's 24 medals that we won in Tokyo, 18 were in Commonwealth sports and 16 were won by Commonwealth athletes.

"So in other words the Games really sets up Canadians for Olympic and Paralympic success as well."

Canada can once again expect to be in the upper echelons of the medal table in Birmingham.

"We like to keep the pressure off but we are pushing for high performance," said Effah.

"Eighty-two medals were won at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and that placed us fourth overall. 

"We're definitely always pushing to not only reach those levels but do the best we can to exceed.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that's the benchmark, but that's where we've been at in the past so it's always great to look at those markers and just keep pushing.

"We're more than capable, we have an amazing group of athletes that are hungry to get some medals."

Carver-Dias, who has served on the Board of Commonwealth Sport Canada, added: "Sometimes we forget that there are 'Commonwealth only' sports.

"I had a great time in 2018 watching bowls, I had never seen lawn bowls previously.

"That's the highlight of their competitive schedule.

"I remember watching [bowler] Ryan Bester winning a silver in 2018 and it will be exciting to have him back.

"Those are some of the fun things about the Commonwealth Games, there are all these sports we excel at and this is the biggest point of their competitive calendar."

Carver-Dias also won two Pan American Games golds in the pool and a World Championship bronze.

Her Commonwealth Games titles came at the end of her competitive career, a different way around to how many other athletes do it.

"I took a bit of an unconventional journey to the Commonwealth Games," she said. "It is often the first major multi-sport Games for an athlete but for me it was my swansong, it was the way I ended my career.

"I actually delayed my retirement from sport in order to go to the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and compete in the UK.

"My parents are Welsh and I had family that came and watched from Wales and Canada.

"It was just a great way to wrap up my swimming career."

Effah has served as a Right to Play athlete ambassador and was a contestant on the television show The Amazing Race.

"My experience at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India was an interesting one," he said.

"It was my first jump onto the international scene in terms of sprinting and it was great.

"I had never competed in India, and it was my first international multi-sport finals.

"I ended up placing seventh and I was disappointed with my performance.

"But that was one of the experiences which kicked off this hunger in me to push to get to the podium.

"I also realised how competitive these Games are and how you have to really put in that work and get that consistent effort.

"When I think back to 2018 it was a bit of a contrast as an older athlete.

"One thing that stood out to me was how well they did throughout those Games.

"We saw the athletes supported, we saw the people in the Village supported.

"We saw staff, we saw volunteers. Everyone was excited to have those Games and I think that's where the Commonwealth Games stands out.

"You have really dedicated volunteers, both 2010 in India and 2018 in Gold Coast.

"It was a great experience and I know that Birmingham won't disappoint."

Birmingham 2022's multi-Village model means Canada's large squad will be split up across several sites, perhaps making it more difficult to achieve a "one team" mentality and generate camaraderie. 

"That's been one of the main focuses, we've been thinking about that a lot," said Carver-Dias. 

"How do you create a 'Team Canada feel' when you've got people split into different Villages?

"Our response is we are so used to, after this COVID era, remote communication.

"We're used to finding ways to connect when we're not together. 

"So we're going to take all of that experience that we've gained over the last two-and-a-half years and apply it to these Games.

"I think it also creates an opportunity for sports to really focus on performance and not have some of the distractions that happen with a very large Village."

Canada has hosted the Commonwealth Games four times - including the inaugural edition in Hamilton in 1930 after local sports journalist Bobby Robinson, an athletics team manager at the Amsterdam 1928 Olympics, founded the event.

Further Canadian Games were held in Vancouver in 1954, Edmonton in 1978 and Victoria in 1994.

It is now hoped that Hamilton can secure the 2030 Games which would serve as a centenary edition.

"This is something that Canada wants and Canada needs," said Carver-Dias.

"Athletes will benefit from having another Summer Games in Canada.

"The organisers who are going to put forward the bid for Hamilton have some really innovative ideas about how they can create a Games that has a legacy."

The Commonwealth Games Federation's new blueprint for the Games, which lists athletics and swimming as the only compulsory sports and allows for the event to be held across multiple cities and Villages, could provide cost-saving incentives for potential hosts.

"I'm excited about how it creates this opportunity for us to think about future Games and cost savings and not having these massive white elephants," Carver-Dias added.

"I only see the opportunity in this new model."

Effah said that he was excited at the potential opportunity for Hamilton to host 100 years on. 

"We want to have a Games that not only uplifts us in sport but, coming fully out of a pandemic, hopefully by that time, is something that would be huge," he said.

"That would be the 100th anniversary as well so it would definitely make things extremely special."

A potential spanner in the works could be Vancouver's interest in holding the Winter Olympics in the same year, but Carver-Dias believes that Canada could host both.

"We see it as an opportunity," she said. "A Winter Games on the west side and a summer sport Games on the east side of Canada. We're a huge country and 2030 could be the year of sport in Canada.

"So we actually see it as something exciting and to be sought-after rather than avoided."

For now though, Birmingham 2022 is at the forefront of the pair's thoughts.

"This is my first go at it," said Effah.

"I'm super excited. Claire was Chef de Mission in 2018 so to be co-Chef with Claire is an honour.

"She brings the experience that I think we'll need going into these Games.

"For me to have her to look up to and to have her take me under her wing as we work side by side is going to be great, as she's seen this in action from the other side.

"When we go out there, we are not only going to be motivating, we're going to be giving pep talks, we're going to be pushing for Team Canada to bring medals.

"That's what I'm excited to see. 

"I want to see the Kelsey Mitchells, the lawn bowls. I want to see netball, table tennis, aquatics...

"The list goes on."