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From swimming to soccer to tennis to trace, Saturday’s schedule had all of it and compelled Canadian followers to offer their TV remotes a exercise.
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At about 3 p.m. on a heat, humid Saturday afternoon in Montreal, this was occurring on the opposite facet of the Atlantic:
Summer season McIntosh was successful her fourth medal and third gold on the Paris Olympics, this one within the 200-metre particular person.
Native hero Félix Auger-Aliassime was battling for the bronze medal in tennis.
Canada’s embattled girls’s group was about to enter a shootout towards highly effective Germany after 120 minutes of nil-nil soccer.
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A 400-metre hurdler named Femke Bol, working the anchor leg of the combined 4-x-400-metre relay for her Netherlands group, was about to tug off one of many nice feats in Olympic historical past. From fourth place, 15 metres again of an American group that had set a world report within the preliminaries, Bol started her transfer going into the ultimate curve. She overhauled Belgium, then Nice Britain, then with observe working out, she caught the Individuals and received going away.
Someplace in between, younger Saint Lucian runner Julian Alfred blew the doorways off the heavy favorite, American Sha’Carri Richardson, to win the ladies’s 100 metres on the observe.
Canada would lose the shootout to the Germans, bringing down the curtain on the cleaning soap opera that started the day an assistant coach was caught utilizing a drone to spy on a New Zealand apply.
Auger-Aliassime would lose in three units to Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, ending his try to win a second bronze in as many days after successful the combined doubles with Gabriela Dabrowski.
All this occurred inside a span of 45 minutes, give or take. My thumbs have been getting a exercise as I attempted to channel-hop so as to catch the whole lot. At that, I in all probability missed most of what was happening in Paris on the similar time. It was as intense a three-quarters of an hour as I’ve skilled in a lifetime watching sports activities — heartbreaking and exhilarating and unattainable by turns, with Bol’s exceptional run the breathtaking climax and Canada’s exit from the soccer match offering the heartbreak.
Street to the Cup
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For Canada, the 2 storylines of Paris 2024 are and at all times would be the destiny of the soccer group and McIntosh’s storybook Olympics, untarnished by her incapacity to tug her medley relay group to a medal on the ultimate day of the swimming competitors.
McIntosh is the whole lot you need in a sporting hero, particularly on this nation, the place modesty continues to be deemed a advantage. She is down-to-earth, humble, matter-of-fact and capable of knock off gold medals in virtually informal trend, after which she sings O Canada in each official languages.
The destiny of the ladies’s soccer group is a darker story, the heroism of the ladies who managed to battle via to the knockout spherical juxtaposed towards the uncooked ugliness of the drone spying scandal imposed by disgraced British coach Bev Priestman and earlier than that by her mentor, John Herdman.
Priestman has been punished with a one-year suspension, a relative slap on the wrist provided that she betrayed her personal gamers, tried to throw her assistants underneath the bus to save lots of her personal pores and skin, and seemed into firing an assistant who refused to spy.
Thus far, Herdman has prevented any penalties, regardless that Canada Soccer has admitted that the drone spying started with him. Over the weekend, he tried to brazen it out, refusing to reply questions in regards to the scandal and boasting of his skill to tune out the “noise,” ignoring the truth that he’s himself answerable for that noise, in line with his personal federation.
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To punish Priestman and ignore Herdman’s position within the scandal reeks of sexism — however the narrative is way from over. There can be extra investigations, with Canada’s gold medal received in Tokyo in 2021 hanging within the stability.
Priestman deserves to lose her medal however the girls on that group need to hold theirs. The way it will play out, nobody is aware of. However the braveness these gamers confirmed in beating France and Colombia to stay within the competitors so long as they did was a show of Olympian braveness and dedication that ought to by no means be forgotten.
Katz can: The weekend ended with the genial big Ethan Katzberg virtually casually successful the hammer throw along with his first effort, which soared 84.12 metres. His opponents spent the following hour attempting to match him however not considered one of them might even attain the 80-metre mark.
It was a powerful victory for a 22-year-old who is unquestionably removed from his peak. With Katzberg and the 17-year-old McIntosh to paved the way, Canada ought to have a robust core via Los Angeles, Brisbane and past.
Heroes: Ethan Katzberg, Janine Beckie, Jordyn Huitema, Jessie Fleming, Kailen Sheridan, Vanessa Gilles, Sophiane Méthot, Kylie Masse, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Gabriela Dabrowski, Eleanor Harvey, Canada’s girls’s eight rowing group, Wyatt Sanford, Josh Liendo, Ilya Kharun, Julien Alfred, Davis Alexander &&&& final however not least, Summer season McIntosh — already nice at 17.
Zeros: Bev Priestman, John Herdman, Steven van de Velde, Charlotte Dujardin, Novak Djokovic, Noah Lyles, genetics specialists who failed high-school biology, Dan O’Toole, BetRivers, playing advertisements throughout Olympic protection, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& final however not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and perpetually.
jacktodd46@yahoo.com
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