Olympic newsletter: Women's soccer team does it, Summer goes for another gold
CBC
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Swimmer Ilya Kharun won Canada's seventh medal today, taking bronze in the men's 200-metre butterfly on Day 5 of the Paris Games. It's the first Olympic medal for the teenage son of Cirque du Soleil acrobats, and the first by a Canadian men's swimmer since 2012.
But the biggest Canadian victory came in women's soccer, where the embattled Olympic champs beat Colombia to qualify for the quarterfinals after new information emerged in the drone-spying scandal.
More on that first, followed by Canada's medal opportunities on Thursday — including Summer McIntosh's shot at her second gold.
WATCH | Rise and Stream sets you up for Day 6 at Paris 2024:
All but counted out after being docked two wins for their coaches' drone-spying shenanigans, the reigning Olympic champs defeated Colombia 1-0 to earn an improbable spot in the quarterfinals.
Vanessa Gilles played the hero again. After scoring deep in injury time Sunday to upset France in another must-win game, the attack-minded defender headed in captain Jessie Fleming's pinpoint free kick early in the second half. "It feels incredible," Gilles said. "When adversity and pressure come, we rely on each other."
WATCH l Gilles scores game-winning goal as Canada tops Colombia:
Canada won all three of its games in Group A. But, due to FIFA's six-point penalty for the spying scandal involving suspended head coach Bev Priestman and two members of her staff, the Canadians placed second behind France. They'll face Germany, the runner-up to the United States in Group B, on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.
Canada needed to beat the Colombians to advance after losing an appeal earlier today. Emails released by FIFA indicated that Priestman was aware of spying, which may have been a common practice within Canada's women's and men's national teams for some time.
Here they are in chronological order. The best one is last.
Race walk: Evan Dunfee in the men's 20K at 1:30 a.m. ET
Dunfee took bronze in the 50-kilometre walk at the Tokyo Olympics before his preferred distance was dropped from the Games. But he remains a contender in this shorter race after placing fourth at last year's world championships.
Dunfee will also compete in the marathon race walk mixed relay next week with Olivia Lundman.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.
Goalie Carter Hart, one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July, will make his first NHL appearance in nearly two years when he starts in goal Tuesday night for the Vegas Golden Knights, who host Chicago.
The Canadian women’s hockey team will bring back plenty of familiar faces for its final pre-Olympic games in Edmonton next week.
Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod has been diagnosed with breast cancer, the team announced Sunday.