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Summer McIntosh captured her first Olympic medal, and Canada’s first of the Paris Games, while the Canadian men’s basketball team won its opener on the first full day of competition in Paris. But those victories were somewhat overshadowed by a hefty punishment for the Canadian women’s soccer team as the Dronegate scandal took another turn.
Let’s get into the good stuff first, then the bad, before we look ahead to Sunday’s action.
Summer to the rescue
With Canadians reeling from this afternoon’s news that the women’s soccer team will be docked the equivalent of two wins in the Olympic tournament, McIntosh delivered a much-needed feel-good moment. The 17-year-old swimming sensation took silver in the star-studded women’s 400-metre freestyle event for her first of what should be many Olympic medals.
World-record holder Ariarne Titmus of Australia defeated McIntosh by a relatively comfortable 0.88 seconds to repeat as Olympic champion in the eight-lap race, while American Katie Ledecky finished a distant third for the bronze — her 11th Olympic medal.
The heavily hyped “big three” battle turned into a two-way showdown as Ledecky struggled to keep up with Titmus and McIntosh. Those two were pretty much even at the halfway point before the Australian began pulling away.
McIntosh finished fourth in this event as a 14-year-old at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She’s since won four world titles, and is now a threat to reach the podium in all four of her solo events in Paris. “We’re literally just getting started,” Mcintosh said after collecting her silver. “There’s eight more days of racing to come and I cannot wait.”
McIntosh had a chance to add a relay medal less than an hour after her silver swim, but her Canadian women’s 4x100m freestyle team finished fourth with McIntosh and seven-time Olympic medallist Penny Oleksiak swimming the final two legs. The Canadian men’s 4x100m team finished sixth in their final. Here’s more on today’s swimming events.
Canada won its first Olympic men’s basketball game in a quarter century
Taking the Olympic court for the first time since Steve Nash led his team to the quarterfinals in 2000, the Canadian men held on to beat former NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece 86-79.
The Greek Freak scored a game-high 34 points, while Canadian star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, this year’s MVP runner-up, scored 21 with a team-high seven assists. R.J. Barrett led Canada with 23 points. Jamal Murray, who saw limited action in Canada’s exhibition games, came off the bench for eight points, including a pair of clutch free throws.
The Canadians led by 10 at the half before Greece carved its deficit to two with a minute left in the game on an Antetokounmpo dunk off a mid-court turnover. But Murray hit both his attempts from the foul line with 15 seconds remaining to put Canada up by five before Barrett sealed it with an emphatic breakaway dunk.
Canada has not won an Olympic basketball medal since its men’s silver in 1936. But, loaded with NBA players, this team is considered one of the top podium contenders after winning bronze at last year’s Basketball World Cup.
Canada’s next game is Tuesday against Australia. The 2021 bronze medallists defeated Spain 92-80 today. Meanwhile, NBA rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama scored 19 points to help host France beat Brazil 78-66.
U.S. flag-bearer LeBron James’ team of NBA stars opens Sunday against Serbia, featuring reigning MVP Nikola Jokic. Here’s more on today’s basketball.
FIFA came down hard on the Canadian women’s soccer team
Soccer’s global governing body stripped Canada of six points in the standings and banned suspended head coach Bev Priestman and two of her staff members for one year over the drone spying scandal that has rocked the Canadian team. Canada’s soccer federation was also fined the equivalent of more than $300,000 Cdn.
Priestman, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and staffer Joey Lombardi were found responsible for “offensive behaviour and violation of the principles of fair play,” FIFA judges said.
Canada Soccer suspended Priestman for the rest of the Olympics on Thursday night for her role in the illicit drone use. Mander and Lombardi, who was arrested for flying a camera-equipped drone over a New Zealand practice, had already been sent home. Before being banished from the Games, Priestman voluntarily sat out Thursday’s opener against New Zealand, which Canada won 2-1 with assistant Andy Spence at the helm.
The Canadian Olympic Committee said it was “exploring” the possibility of appealing the points deduction. If it stands, the penalty will make it very difficult for the defending champions to advance to the next round. In the past two Olympic women’s soccer tournaments, no team with fewer than four points made it out of the group stage. Canada’s best-case scenario is now three points.
Canada’s next game is Sunday at 3 p.m. ET against host France. Les Bleues are ranked No. 2 in the world (six spots above Canada) and reached the quarterfinals at last summer’s Women’s World Cup, where Canada was eliminated in the group stage. The French beat 22nd-ranked Colombia 3-2 on Thursday.
Other Canadians to watch on Sunday
Swimming: Maggie Mac Neil in the women’s 100m butterfly final
Canada’s only reigning Olympic swimming champion puts her title on the line at 2:40 p.m. ET. Mac Neil, 24, won the world title in 2019 and took silver at last year’s world championships, with her 2021 Olympic gold sandwiched between. She tied for fourth overall in today’s semifinals, where American Gretchen Walsh set an Olympic record.
Summer McIntosh is off Sunday. She’ll return Monday for the women’s 400m individual medley. McIntosh is a two-time world champion and the current world-record holder in this event and is heavily favoured to win gold.
Gymnastics: Ellie Black in women’s qualifying
This is the fourth Olympic appearance for the 28-year-old Black, who’s still trying to become the first Canadian woman to win a medal in traditional gymnastics. She had a good chance on the balance beam in Tokyo three years ago, but Black hurt her ankle during training and finished fourth as American star Simone Biles grabbed the bronze in her only event after suffering the dreaded “twisties.”
Even without an Olympic medal, Black is the most successful Canadian women’s gymnast ever. She’s the only Canadian to reach the podium in the all-around event at the world championships, taking silver in Montreal in 2017. At the 2022 worlds she took silver in the balance beam and led Canada to its first-ever team medal, a bronze.
The results from qualifying determine who gets to compete in the all-around, the various individual apparatus events and the team final. Action starts at 5 a.m. ET and runs all day.
Biles, who took a two-year break from the sport after Tokyo, is trying to add to her four Olympic gold medals from 2016.
Today, Canada qualified for the men’s team final or the first time ever by placing eighth, grabbing the last spot. Félix Dolci and René Cournoyer led the way as they also advanced to the all-around final.
Rugby sevens: Women’s team
Canada won bronze in 2016, when the sport made its Olympic debut, before failing to get past the group stage in 2021. The Canadians finished fifth on the global SVNS tour this season but lost star player Sophie de Goede to a knee injury just before the Olympics.
Canada faces sixth-ranked Fiji at 11:30 a.m. ET and SVNS champion New Zealand at 3:30 p.m. ET before closing out its group stage against China on Monday morning. The playoff rounds begin later Monday.
France upset two-time reigning Olympic champion Fiji in the men’s final today to capture the host country’s first gold medal of the Games. South Africa beat Australia in the bronze game. Canada did not have a team in the tournament.
Tennis: Everyone
All five of Canada’s players are scheduled to be on the Roland Garros clay Sunday after rain washed away today’s matches on the outdoor courts.
It’s hard to give exact times in tennis, especially with the weather in Paris right now, but here are the matchups: in the women’s singles draw, 16th-seeded Leylah Fernandez faces Czech Karolina Muchova while Bianca Andreescu plays Denmark’s Clara Tauson. Fernandez will also team up with Gabriela Dabrowski in women’s doubles. On the men’s side, 13th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime faces American Marcos Giron while Milos Raonic is against Germany’s Dominik Koepfer.
Top men’s seeds Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek all won their covered first-round matches today. Djokovic is on course to meet Spanish rival Rafael Nadal in the second round. But, after winning his doubles opener with Alcaraz today, the 14-time French Open champion said he’s not sure he’ll compete in singles. Read more about today’s tennis here.
And something else to know
A Canadian fencer pulled off a huge upset. Fares Arfa’s Olympic debut was the stuff of storybooks. In his opening match in the men’s sabre event today, the 35th-ranked Arfa shocked three-time reigning Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi of Hungary. Then he beat France’s Apithy Bolade to reach the quarterfinals, putting Arfa one win away from becoming the first Canadian ever to reach an individual Olympic medal bout in fencing. But he lost 15-13 to South Korea’s Oh Sang-uk, ending his run.
How to watch the Olympics
Live events are being broadcast on the CBC TV network, TSN and Sportsnet. Or choose exactly what you want to watch by live streaming on CBC Gem or CBC Sports’ Paris 2024 website and app.
Highlights of CBC Sports’ digital coverage include Paris Tonight with host Ariel Helwani, live every night at 11 p.m. ET from Canada Olympic House in Paris; Rise and Stream with host Meg Roberts, identifying the key events to watch each day; Hot Takes with host Dale Manucdoc, highlighting must-see moments; and Paris Pulse with Meg and Dale, discussing trending stories from the Games.
You can also test your Olympic knowledge and win prizes on The Game, a nightly trivia contest with host Craig McMorris. Read more about CBC’s multi-platform Olympics coverage here.