Olympic viewing guide: Canada’s last medal chance | CBC Sports

As we head into the final day in Tokyo, there’s one more good chance for Canada to pad the record. We’ll start our final viewing guide there. Plus, the last foot race, the newest member of an exclusive medal club, and some ideas on who will be picked to carry the Canadian flag at the closing ceremony tomorrow.

Here’s what to watch on Saturday night and Sunday morning as the Tokyo Games come to a close:

A track cyclist is Canada’s best hope for a 24th medal

Kelsey Mitchell beat women’s keirin bronze medallist Lauriane Genest in an all-Canadian quarter-final matchup today in the sprint event, winning herself the opportunity to race for a medal.

If Mitchell can upset reigning world champion Emma Hinze of Germany in the semifinals at 9:18 p.m. ET, she’ll go on to race for gold in the finals at 10:20 p.m. ET and will come away with at least silver. If Mitchell falls to Hinze, she’ll compete against the other semifinal loser for bronze in the final round. These matchups are all best of three.

Find live streams, must-watch video highlights, breaking news and more in one perfect Olympic Games package. Following Team Canada has never been easier or more exciting.

More from Tokyo 2020

The final foot race is today

Running competition wraps up with the men’s marathon at 6 p.m. ET. The favourite is 36-year-old star Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, who won gold in 2016 in Rio and went on to shatter the world record with an astonishing 2:01:39 in Berlin in 2018 that still stands. Three Canadians will line up against Kipchoge — led by Cam Levins, who broke Jerome Drayton’s 44-year-old national record when he ran 2:09:25 in Toronto in 2018. The others are Trevor Hofbauer, who ran 2:09:51 in Toronto in 2019, and Ben Preisner (personal best: 2:10:17). The men would do well to approach the performances by two Canadians in yesterday’s women’s marathon. 41-year-old Malindi Elmore placed ninth — 17 years after making her first (and only other) Olympic appearance, in the 1,500m. Natasha Wodak finished 13th.

This morning, Canada nearly stole a medal in the final session on the track. The women’s 4x400m relay team made a spirited run at a surprise bronze, finishing fourth as anchor Sage Watson crossed the line just 0.6 of a second behind third-place Jamaica. Allyson Felix ran the second leg for the winning United States team to earn her 11th Olympic medal — and seventh gold. Yesterday, in the final major individual race of her career, the 35-year-old became the most decorated woman in the history of Olympic track and field by taking bronze in the women’s 400m. Now she’s overtaken Carl Lewis for the most track and field medals ever won by an American.

The only other Canadian competing on the track today was Andrea Seccafien, who finished 14th in the women’s 10,000m final. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won gold to complete the 5,000/10,000 double. She also took bronze in the 1,500. Read more about what happened in the final track races and watch highlights here.

WATCH | CAnada finishes fourth in women’s 4x400m relay:

The Canadian women’s team comprised of Alicia Brown, Madeline Price, Kyra Constantine and Sage Watson finished in fourth, just 0.6 seconds back of the third-place Jamaicans, in the 4x400m relay at Tokyo 2020. 4:58

Some other interesting things you should know about

Canada will announce its flag-bearer for the closing ceremony at 6:30 p.m. ET. After so many great Canadian performances, including six gold medals, there are a ton of deserving candidates. But keep in mind that athletes were asked to leave Tokyo within a couple of days of their last event. So that rules out Penny Oleksiak, gold medallist Maggie Mac Neil and the rest of Canada’s swimmers, who left a while ago. Same for the women’s eight rowing team and weightlifter Maude Charron, who are also back home celebrating their gold-medal victories. The best available options appear to be Andre De Grasse, who won gold in the men’s 200m and completed his second consecutive Olympic podium triple; Damian Warner, who won Canada’s first decathlon gold; or someone from the women’s soccer team, which captured its first gold with yesterday’s thrilling victory in a penalty shootout (longtime captain Christine Sinclair would be the most obvious choice to represent them). The chosen athlete will lead what’s left of the Canadian team into Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium for the closing ceremony, which starts at 7 a.m. ET. Watch it live on the CBC TV network, or stream it live on CBC Gem, the CBC Olympics app and CBC Sports’ Tokyo 2020 website.

The United States can complete another basketball sweep tonight. It wasn’t exactly the 1992 Dream Team, but this version still managed to capture the country’s fourth consecutive men’s basketball gold medal with last night’s 87-82 victory over France. Kevin Durant scored a game-high 29 points to add a third Olympic gold to his pair of NBA championship rings. Tonight, the U.S. women’s team goes for its seventh straight Olympic title when it faces Japan at 10:30 p.m. ET. It’s a virtual lock. The Americans, powered by an array of WNBA stars, are favoured by 18 points against a country that has never played in an Olympic basketball medal game.

Other events to watch tonight: This is your last chance to surf between a bunch of different sports. Along with the stuff already mentioned, the menu includes two more track cycling finals besides the women’s sprint (men’s keirin at 11 p.m. ET, women’s omnium at 11:25 p.m. ET), four boxing gold-medal bouts (starting from 1 a.m. ET to 2:15 a.m. ET), and gold-medal games in women’s volleyball (the U.S. vs. Brazil at 12:30 a.m. ET), women’s handball (France vs. the ROC at 2 a.m. ET) and men’s water polo (Greece vs. Serbia at 3:30 a.m. ET).

And finally…

Eddy Alvarez joined a very exclusive club.

By helping the U.S. men’s baseball team to a silver, the 31-year-old infielder became just the sixth athlete in history to win medals in both the Winter and summertime Olympics. His other medal is a silver in short track speed skating from 2014, making for an unusual combination. Two of the other three athletes who have reached both a winter and summer podium after 1936 did it in long track speed skating and cycling — sports that demand a similar mix of leg power and endurance (and massive thighs). Canada’s Clara Hughes rode that combo to six Olympic medals (four winter, two summer), and German Christa Luding-Rothenburger won five — including two in speed skating and another in cycling in the same year in 1988. American Lauryn Williams falls into the same bucket — she won medals in sprinting and bobsleigh, which actively recruits sprinters to push the sleds.

Alvarez is from Miami, so the fact that he even discovered speed skating is pretty remarkable. He also played 12 games in the major leagues last year after being called up to fill in for the Miami Marlins when they were going through a team-wide COVID-19 outbreak. Truly a man for all seasons.

How to watch live events

They’re being broadcast on TV on CBC, TSN and Sportsnet. Or choose exactly what you want to watch by live streaming on CBC Gem, the CBC Olympics app and CBC Sports’ Tokyo 2020 website. Check out the full streaming schedule here.