the mad sports man

 We're halfway through the Olympics. Highlights today has athletics beginning, with Jamaica SWEEPING the medal podium in the womens 100m.  Elaine Thompson-Herah winning with an Olympic record time of 10.61, Shelly Anne Fraser-Price with the silver (10.74) and Sherika Jackson with the bronze (10.76).  China and United States are tied with the lead for most medals with 26.  China gets first due to most golds (21-16). Russia is third with 37, Japan is fourth with 30 and Great Britain is 5th with 27.  Canada has 12 medals through 8 days. (3g, 4s, and 5b). Swimming ends tonight and Canada has two more chances to win a medal in the pool and athletics continue. Andre DeGrasse has a chance for a medal in the 100m.

 The swimmer is Kylie Masse. She also set a Canadian record with a time of 2:05.47, and her second medal of the games. That is now 3g, 4s, and 5b for 12 medals.

 A week in already. Canada beat Brazil in an epic (felt like it) penalties. Stephanie Labbe made two hugs stops as Canada won 4-3 in penalties in the quarterfinals. They face the USA, who beat Netherlands in penalties as well.  Other semi final has Sweden vs Australia. Rosie MacLennan finished fourth in trampoline, Penny Oleksiak finished 4th and Mo Ahmed finished 6th in the 10000. Canada finished with 3g, 3s and 5b.

 The women's rowing 8s just won GOOOOOOOLD. Susanne Grainger, Kasia Gruchalla-Vesierski, Kristen Kit (Cox), Madison Mailey, Sydney Payne, Andrea Proske, Lisa Roman, and Avalon Wasteneys led from start to finish winning in 5:59.13.  That is now 3g, 3s, 5b for 11 medals.

 Six days in already. San Marino became the smallest nation to win a medal as Alessandra Perilli won a bronze in trap shooting.  Wow.  Canada women's soccer team plays its quarterfinals game against Brazil at 4am tomorrow and Penny Oleksiak goes for career medal seven in the 100m freestyle tonight at 8pm. Two key times for day 7.  Plus more rowing.  That's all I know for day 7 so far. Canada finished day six with 10 medals. (2g, 3s, 5b).

 The Americans started in the 1925-26 season and their last season was the 1941-42 season. No Stanley Cup finals and got to the semis twice. Thomas Duggan and Bill Dwyer founded the team. When the league expanded to 10 teams, the league went to two divisions. The Americans were put into the Canadian division (which made absolutely no sense). That started their troubles. Them and Boston were the catalysts to the rule prohibiting icing Americans iced the puck 61 times.  Next meeting, Boston iced it 87 times). Over the seasons, lackluster performances, financial difficulties and eventually the second world war severely hindered them.  Dwyer tried selling the team.  When no buyers came, he abandoned them. When the NHL took over operations, Dwyer tried suing. Dwyer and the NHL settled when Dwyer agree if he could pay off all the debts, the team was his again. Dwyer never did so the NHL took over.  NHL asked coach and GM Red Dutton to take over operations.  The f...

 Another bronze, this time it was in the pairs 1000m race as Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens crossed the line 3rd. That is now 2g, 3s and 5b for 10 medals.  Yeeeeeeessssss!!!!!

 The 1941-42 had seven teams and 48 game schedule. Red Dutton becomes owner of the New York Americans and changes it to Brooklyn Americans, hoping to have an attention Brooklyn. By the end of the season, they would suspend operations. The Boston Bruins famous Kraut Line of Milt Schmidt, Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart enlists in the Royal Canadian Air Force and eventually goes overseas. Boston finishes third as a result. Montreal Canadiens owner Frank Patrick suffers a heart attack and sells his interest in the team. They almost end up moving to Cleveland.  Quarterfinals had Boston beat Chicago 2-1 and Detroit beat Montreal 2-1. Semi finals had Detroit beat Boston 2-0 and Toronto beat New York 4-2. Toronto beats Detroit 4-3 in the Stanley Cup final after they went down 0-3.  Yikes.  It's their 4th championship.

 Geez five days in already. Latvia (men) and USA (women) win 3x3 first gold's, Fiji men defends rugby 7s gold and women rugby 7s begins tomorrow.  Baseball began with Japan beating Dominican Republic 4-3. Canada finishes the day with 2g, 3s, and 4b for 9 medals.  Top five has the USA with 31, China with 27, Russia with 23, Japan with 22 and a tie with Australia and Great Britain with 16.  Day six begins in a few hours.

 Penny Oleksiak just won Canada's 4th bronze of these games, this one in the 200 freestyle.  That is now 2g, 3sand 4b for 9 medals. That is Oleksiak's 6th career Olympic medal and is now Canada's most decorated summer athlete. (Cindy Klassen has six in speed skating and Clara Hughes has 2 on the bike plus 4 in speed skating equalling six). YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

 A pretty good day 4.  Couple of first and a slight surprise. The surprise being Lydia Jacobs taking gold in 100m breaststroke.  The firsts include: 1. Hidilyn Diaz winning Philippines first ever gold, winning it in weightlifting 2. Flora Duffy winning Bermuda's first ever gold medal, winning the triathlon and 3. Canada winning it's first ever medal in softball.  That was one of four medals won today (Maude Charron in weightlifting, second women's weightlifting champion, Kylie Masse with a silver and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard a bronze in judo). Day five starts in a few hours.

 Maude Charron is Olympic champion in the 64kg category, lifting 105kg in the snatch and 131 kg in the clean and jerk putting her in the lead. That is now 2g, 3s and 3b for 8 medals. Yeeeees!!!

 This one comes from Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard in the 63kg weight class.  She beat Anriquelis Barrios of Venezuela to get it.  That is now 1g, 3s and 3b for 7 total.

 Canada has just beaten Mexico 3-2 in a pretty good game to win bronze.  First ever medal in this sport.  That is now 1g, 3s, and 2b for 6 medals.  Yes.

 This time it's Kylie Masse in the 100m backstroke.  She led at the split and Kaylee McKeown of Australia beat Masse and set an Olympic record. That is now 1g, 3s and 1b for Canada.

 Day three done.  No real surprises today. Tom Daley of Great Britain finally wins a gold medal in diving.  His first Olympics was 2008.  Skateboarding handed out its first medals. The three medalists on the ladies side, their combined age is 42. 😳. I feel old. Top three in medals are: 1. China with 18 (6g, 5s 7b), 2. United States with 14 (7g, 3s 4b) and 3. Japan with 13 (8g, 2s, 3b). Canada finishes the day with 4 medals won (1g, 2s, 1b). Tomorrow has the threat of a typhoon making landfall. So some sports will be postponed and rescheduled.

 Jessica Klimkait has Canada's 4th medal, this a bronze judo. She beat Kaja Kazjari of Slovenia in the 57kg class. That is 1g, 2s and 1b.  Let's go.

 Maggie Mac Neil had just swam to A GOOOOOOOLD in the 100m butterfly.  55.59 is the winning time.  That is now 1g and 2s. WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

 This is remarkable. Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan is competing in her 8th straight Olympic Games.  Her first one was 1992 in Barcelona when she competed for the Commonwealth of Independent States (Soviet Union was already falling apart).  She also competed for Germany.  Oh yeah she is 46. Unreal eh? 

 Day two finished. Couple of surprises. France handed the United States men's basketball team their first loss since the 2004 Athens Olympics with a 83-76 win. 25 straight wins since last loss in the semis in 2004 for the U.S.  Another surprise was Tunisia winning their second ever gold in the pool, courtesy of Ahmed Hafnaoui.  Canada finished the day with two medals, both silvers. China leads the medal haul with 11 medals (6g, 1s, 4b), followed by the United States with 10 medals (4g, 2s, 4b).

 Jen Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu have claimed a silver in the 3m springboard event. Abel's second ever medal and Citrini-Beaulieu's first. Abel redeems herself from a not too good event in Rio.  That is now 2s so far.

 Canada has just picked up a silver in the 4X100m relay. Penny Oleksiak, Maggie Mac Neil, Kyla Sanchez and Rebecca Smith (Taylor Ruck was the alternate and will also get a silver) finished with a time of 3:32.78, 3/10s ahead of the Americans. Australia got the gold AND a world record (3:29.69). So there's the first medal of the games.

 This is big.  Ahmed Hafnaoui wins the 400 freestyle giving Tunisia its second ever medal in the pool. Wow.  Winning time was 3:43.36.

 From Devin Heroux: Annie Guglia will be competing in Tokyo.  She originally fell short in qualifying. After a few positive cases,  she got into the competition.  She got into Tokyo a few days ago.  Big.  Happy for Annie, sad for the competitors.

 Day one is finished. China leads the medal haul with 4 medals (3g 1b). Some of Canada results include Mike Woods finishing 5th in a road race (close to medaling), Sarah Pavin and Melissa Humana-Paradis won their first beach volleyball match against the Dutch, Canada beating Chile in women's soccer and Canada losing to Germany 7-1 in men's field hockey. (Ouch). Let's see what day 2 brings.

 As usual it's the 10m air rifle. Yang Qian of China has won gold with an Olympic record. Anastasia Galyshina of Russia with the silver and Nina Christen with the bronze. The first of many medals to be handed out.

 The cauldron has been lit. Speeches have been made. The parade of nations was smaller.  Performances were pretty good. Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron, which is pretty unique looking.  Miranda Ayim and Nathan Hirayama led 30 of the 370 Canadians in the parade of nations. 206 nations in the parade.  Action resumes tonight and into the early hours of tomorrow. 16 days of excitement, heartache, records and medals coming up. As Devin Heroux would say - buckle up.

 Let's start with the surprise.  This in soccer.  Sweden beat the USA 3-0 to start the women's tournament. Ok who predicted that? This game just ended as Canada and Japan played to a 1-1 tie. Christine Sinclair scored in the 6th minute to open the scoring and Mana Iwabuchi tied it in the 84th minute. For Sinclair, it was her 187th international goal in her 300th game.  Canada plays Chile early Saturday morning. 1:30am Prince Albert time.

 ....... Brisbane Australia. They were the only bid "selected" to run for these games.  It wasn't much of a doubt.  Of the 80 that voted, 72 voted for Brisbane, 5 were against and 3 abstained.

 Good game for Canada as they beat Mexico to open their softball tournament 4-0. Sara Groenewegen threw 4 innings of no hit ball,and I believe gave up one walk. Next game is against the US.

 The summer games are on.  Japan opened with an 8-1 win against Australia in softball.  Mercy rule came into play. Canada plays Mexico at midnight Prince Albert time, weather permitting.  Threat of thunderstorms in the Fukushima area. Canada opens the soccer tournament vs Japan at 4am. Here come the late nights.

 200 days to the winter Games in Beijing.  200 more days till we see pucks being chased, spinning on skates, skating in circles, granite being thrown, going downhill and cross country on boards, sledding downhill, and even jumping on boards. Going to be fun.

 ......... Miranda Ayim and Nathan Hirayama.  Second time there is a duo carrying the flag, but first time a duo from different sports.  Ayim is on our basketball team and Hirayama is on the rugby 7s team.  Opening ceremonies is Friday morning around 4:30am Prince Albert time.  As Devin Heroux says, buckle up.  

 Thanks to Devin Heroux and CBC sports for this. Canada will be sending 371 athletes to Tokyo. 146 men 225 women.  Still the third largest delegation behind Los Angeles (408 in 1984) and Montreal (385 in 1976).  Youngest athlete is Summer McIntosh at 14. Oldest is Mario Deslauriers at 56.  Flag bearer(s) should be announced next week. Cheers.

Game goes the 90 minutes tied at ones. They go to extra time (because why not). Nothing gets solved.  Goes to penalties (because why not). First shot, both Italy and England score. Second shot, Italy gets stopped and England scores. Third shot, Italy scores and England hits the post. Two a piece. Fourth shot, Italy scores and England gets stopped.  Final shots. Italy gets stopped.  England has a chance to extend it, only to get stopped.  Italy wins 3-2 in penalties and is Euro 2020 champions.  Congrats to Italy.  Next Euro tournament is 2024 in Germany.

 Canada will be sending 382 athletes to Tokyo. 233 women and 149 men.  Third most amount of athletes going, behind Los Angeles (408 in 1984) and Montreal (385 in 1976).  They will not be participating in handball, modern pentathlon and surfing. I'm pretty sure the 233 women will be the most women sent by Canada. (Could be wrong). Should be an announcement on flag bearer soon.  Let that speculation begin.

 Tampa Bay Lightning have won the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row after beating Montreal 1-0 in game five and the series 4-1.  It wasn't much of a doubt. A busy offseason coming with the expansion draft, the draft and free agency.  No on ice stuff till October. Now for some baseball, football and the Olympics.

 This went into extra time (because why not). England scores the lone goal in extra time as they beat Denmark 2-1.  They will face Italy for the championship game on Sunday afternoon here (Sunday night in London). Who will win the Euro tournament? Find out Sunday.

 Let's start with canoe/kayak team.  They are: Laurence Vincent Lapointe, Katie Vincent, Courtney Stott, Lissa Bissonnette, Vincent Jourdenais, Brian Malfesi, Roland Varga, Connor Fitzpatrick, Andreeanne Lanlgois, Madeline Schmidt, Michelle Russell, Alanna Bray- Lougheed, Mark DeJong, Nicholas Matveev, Pierre-Luc Poulin and Simon McTavish. Now the full boxing team. They are: Mandy Bujold (first Canadian female boxer to go to two straight Olympic Games), Caroline Veyre, Myriam Da Silva, Tammara Thibeault and Wyatt Stanford. Now the triathlon team.  They are: Joanna Brown, Amelie Kretz, Tyler Mislawchuk and Matt Sharpe.

 This went to penalties (because why not). In the end Italy takes out Spain 4-2 in said penalties after they went through extra time tied at ones. Italy will get either England or Denmark.  That game is tomorrow.

 Let's start with the cycling team. Added are: Peter Desera, Catharine Pendrel and Haley Smith in mountain biking, Drew Mechielson and James Palmer in BMX and Guillaume Boivin in road racing. Now for the equestrian team. Mario Deslauriers with horse Bardolina 2 in jumping, Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu with All In, Chris Von Martel with Eclipse, and Lindsay Kellock with Sebastien in dressage, and in eventing Colleen Loach with Qorry Blue D'Argouges and Jessica Phoenix with Pavarotti. Good luck to all in Tokyo.

 This is a team of one, and he qualified last month. Daniel Gaysinsky is named to the Olympic team.  Good luck in Tokyo.

 Let's start with the beach volleyball team. They've been mentioned here already and now it's official. Sarah Pavin, Melissa Humana-Paradis, Heather Bansley and Brandy Wilkerson are heading to Tokyo.   Now the trampoline team. Samantha Smith and Rosie MacLennan will be heading to Tokyo. Good luck in Tokyo to all.

 Denmark beat the Czech Republic 2-1 and England beat Ukraine 4-0 (although I figured this was going to be much of a doubt). Denmark vs England in the semis on the 7th, Spain vs Italy in the other semi on the 6th.

 A lot here.  They are; Mohammed Ahmed, Bolade Ajomare, Marco Arope, Mathieu Bilodeau, Khamica Bingham, Melissa Bishop-Nriagu, Jerome Blake, Bismarck Boateng, Aaron Brown, Alicia Brown, Lucas Brochet, Alycia Butterworth, Lindsay Butterworth, Kyra Constantine, Brittany Crew, Gabriela Debeus-Stafford, Andre DeGrasse, Evan Dunfee, Georgia Ellenwood, Malindi Elmore, Crystal Emmanuel, Lauren Gale, John Gay, Elizabeth Gleadle, Natalia Hawthorn, Trevor Hofbauer, Matthew Hughes, Madeline Kelly, Pierce LePage, Cameron Levins, Django Lovett, Michael Mason, Brandon McBride, Natassha McDonald, Sarah Mitton, Noelle Montcalm, Tim Nedow, Christabel Nettey, Anika Newell, Alysha Newman, Dayna Pidhoreski, Ben Priestner, Madeline Price, Camryn Rogers, Andrea Seccafien, Julie-Anna Staehli, Luke Stafford Kale Van Buskirk, Damian Warner, Sage Watson, Jillian Weir, Natasha Vodek, Regan Vee, and Genevieve Lalonde. 57 going to Tokyo. Good luck to all.

 First game went to extra time tied at 1-1.  Extra time solves nothing. Spain ends up beating Switzerland 3-1 in the penalty kicks to go to the semis. They will face Italy, who beat Belgium 2-1 (no extra time here). They play on the 6th.  Tomorrow has Denmark vs Czech Republic and England vs Ukraine.  Winners play in the other semi final on the 7th.

 First the diving team. They are: Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu (3m synchro), Jennifer Abel (3m, 3m synchro), Caeli McKay (10m synchro), Meaghan Benfieto (10m, 10m synchro), Nathan Zsombor-Murray (10m, 10m synchro), Vincent Riendeau (10m synchro), Pamela Ware (3m), Ryan Wiens (10m), Celina Toth (10m) and Cedric Fofana (3m). Now the taekwondo team. Team consists of Skylar Park (57kg) and Yvette Yong (49kg). Good luck to all in Tokyo.