This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games by subscribing here.
Canada did not reach the podium on Day 2 of medal events in Beijing. Snowboarder Laurie Blouin came close, placing fourth in the women’s slopestyle. Speed skater Ted-Jan Bloemen did not, finishing 10th in the men’s 5,000 metres. With both athletes falling short after taking silver in these events four years ago, Canada remains at two medals and is still looking for its first gold.
But it was far from a boring day. The mixed doubles curling event went bonkers, with Canada’s team at the centre of the chaos. The mayhem (both on and off the ice) set up a dramatic conclusion to the round robin tonight, followed by the semifinals on Monday morning.
We’ll start our daily viewing guide there, then look at what could be a big medal day for Canada in snowboarding and short track speed skating. Plus, a Canadian teenage figure skater delivers under pressure and the Dufour-Lapointe sisters share a tearful farewell.
Here’s what to watch on Sunday night and Monday morning:
What the hell just happened in mixed doubles curling?
Today looked like it would be a get-right day for Canada’s Rachel Homan and John Morris. A tough schedule to start the tournament left the Canadians clinging to the fourth and final playoff spot with three games remaining. But Sunday’s matchups vs. the Czech Republic and Australia — the two worst teams in the standings entering the day — offered a great chance for Canada to solidify its status for the medal round. The road seemed to get even easier when one of Australia’s players tested positive for COVID-19, apparently disqualifying them from the rest of the event and removing the danger of Canada suffering an upset.
Until, that is, Chinese health officials reinstated the Australian duo in time for them to upset 2018 silver medallist Switzerland for their first win. Then the rejuvenated Aussies pulled off an even bigger shocker, racing out to a 7-0 lead over Canada before blowing it but ultimately pulling out a 10-8 win when Homan whiffed with her team’s final rock.
That brutal defeat forces Canada (5-3) into the most pressure-packed scenario imaginable for tonight’s final round-robin draw. A win puts them in the playoffs. A loss sends them home. And their opponent is the top team in the table: 8-0 Italy. The surprising Italians have already locked up the top seed for the semifinals, but they’d surely love to knock out the country that won gold in 2018, when Morris dominated this event with Kaitlyn Lawes. The round-robin finale is at 8:05 p.m. ET.
If Morris and Homan survive, they’ll play in the semifinals at 7:05 a.m. ET. Great Britain and Norway (both 5-3) have joined Italy in clinching spots, based on their tiebreaker advantages. If Canada doesn’t get the final berth, it will go to Sweden (5-4).
Read more about today’s mixed doubles drama and watch highlights here. Get primed for tonight’s game by watching That Curling Show with hosts Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones at 7 p.m. ET on the CBC Sports YouTube channel.
WATCH | Homan, Morris suffer shocking loss to Australia:
Canadians Rachel Homan and John Morris rallied after falling behind 7-0 to Australia, but would lose 8-7 in an extra end of mixed doubles curling. 3:40
Canadian medal chances on Sunday night/Monday morning
While the curling semifinals aren’t technically medal games, they also kind of are, in the sense that a victory guarantees you at least a silver. But if we’re talking opportunities for Canadians to win actual, defined spots on the podium, here are the strong possibilities in chronological order:
Snowboarding: Men’s slopestyle final at 11 p.m. ET
Canada’s big 3 of Mark McMorris, Max Parrot and Seb Toutant all qualified today for the 12-man final. Each guy is capable of reaching the podium in this event, which involves riders tricking off ramps and urban-style features like railings and a makeshift roof. McMorris did it at the last two Winter Olympics, taking bronze both times. Parrot topped him in 2018, winning silver. Parrot took silver at last year’s world championships, and is the reigning Olympic champ in big air, an event that demands a similar skill set (McMorris and Parrot are also very good at it).
McMorris, though, seems like the man for Canada right now. He won the prestigious X Games men’s slopestyle title for the sixth time two weeks ago, and last night he put up the second-best score in qualifying. Toutant, who skipped the X Games, was eighth in qualifying. Parrot, who finished seventh at the X Games, was 10th. The top qualifier was 17-year-old Chinese rider Su Yiming. He’s now the slight betting favourite to win gold, just ahead of McMorris.
Short track speed skating
Canada has two strong contenders on Monday morning with Kim Boutin in the women’s 500 metres and Pascal Dion in the men’s 1,000m. First, they’ll have to survive the quarter-final and semifinal rounds. Racing starts at 6:30 a.m. ET.
Boutin got bronze in the 500 in 2018 after a South Korean skater was disqualified for interfering with her in the final. This led to Boutin being harassed by online trolls. But she battled through it, ended up with three medals and was named Canada’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony. She’s currently ranked second in the world in this event and is the No. 2 favourite in the betting odds, which imply a toss-up between three athletes. The women’s 500m final is at 7:46 a.m. ET.
Dion is ranked No. 1 in the men’s 1,000 after reaching the podium three times this season. He captured a bronze at the 2018 Olympics as part of the Canadian men’s relay team but is still looking for his first individual Olympic medal. Dion is the No. 2 favourite in the betting odds, which show no clear favourite. The men’s 1,000m final is at 7:58 a.m. ET.
WATCH | McMorris leads trio of Canadians into slopestyle final:
Mark McMorris qualified in second place, Sebastien Toutant qualified in eighth place and Max Parrot qualified in tenth place, as all three Canadians advanced to the men’s snowboard slopestyle final at the Beijing 2022 Olympics. 7:46
Some other interesting stuff you should know about
Madeline Schizas came through. But will it matter? The 18-year-old figure skater delivered under pressure last night, placing third with a personal best in the women’s short segment of the team event to lift Canada from sixth place into the five-team final round. Unfortunately, Roman Sadovsky promptly finished last in the men’s free skate, leaving Canada a distant fourth in the overall standings. It would take a miracle to catch Japan for bronze as the event closes tonight with the pairs (8:15 p.m. ET), dance (9:30 p.m. ET) and women’s (10:35 p.m. ET) free skates. The team from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) leads and will try to hold off the United States for gold.
The Canadian women’s hockey team plays its last game before facing the United States. Coming off blowouts of Switzerland and Finland by a combined score of 23-2, Canada faces the ROC tonight at 11:10 p.m. ET. This will be a mere appetizer for Monday night’s round-robin finale vs. the U.S., which will itself be a mere appetizer for the archrivals’ near-certain showdown in the gold-medal game.
Also…
There’s a double dose of alpine skiing tonight. The postponement of last night’s men’s downhill due to high winds means two races are on tap for tonight. The women’s giant slalom is up first, with the first leg at 8:30 p.m. ET. The men’s downhill, which takes place on a different slope about a half-mile away, goes at 11 p.m. ET. Then the second and final leg of the women’s giant slalom at 1:30 a.m. ET. Canada doesn’t have a strong contender in either race. Valérie Grenier is 13th in the World Cup women’s GS standings. Jack Crawford is 21st in the men’s downhill. Neither has reached an international podium at the highest level. But you never know in alpine — and especially in the downhill, which is the sport’s most volatile event.
And finally…
The Dufour-Lapointe sisters bid a tearful farewell to the Olympics. Justine and Chloe were big stars at the 2014 Games in Sochi, where they shared the women’s moguls podium after Justine won gold and her older sister took silver. The Canadians also both competed in the 2018 final, where Justine landed a silver of her own. Now in the twilight of their careers, Justine, 27, and Chloé, 30, made it to today’s final at what is likely their last Olympic Games. It didn’t end well, with Justine crashing out in the first run and Chloé failing to advance past the second. Both sisters were in tears afterward as they shared a (probably) final Olympic embrace. Certainly not the ending these two great athletes deserved. But at least they had each other.
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 Sports app and CBC Sports’ Beijing 2022 website. Check out the full streaming schedule (with links to live events) here and read more about how to watch the Games here.
If you’re located outside Canada, you unfortunately won’t be able to access CBC Sports’ coverage of the Games on the app or the website. That’s due to the way the Olympics’ media rights deals work. But if you’re in the northern United States or other international regions, such as Bermuda, that regularly offer the CBC TV network, you can watch the Games there.
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