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There may be a record number of Canadian teams in the Tokyo Olympics
Canada will be well represented in the various team sports at the Olympic Games this summer. Eight Canadian teams have qualified so far: the rugby sevens, women’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s water polo, women’s softball, men’s volleyball and men’s ice hockey. If anyone else competed, Canada would match its national record of participating in the sports teams at the One Summer Olympics, which was held in Montreal in 1976.
Four Canadian teams still have a chance to qualify for the group sporting events in Tokyo. Here’s a look at who they are and what they have to do:
Men’s basketball
The last Canadian Qualifiers Championship will be held from 29 June to 4 July in Victoria. Six teams will participate, and only the winner will go to Tokyo.
Canada teamed up with Greece and China to play the Robin Tour. The other group includes the Czech Republic, Turkey and Uruguay. The best two teams from both groups qualify for the semi-finals and the winners of those matches play for Olympic position.
The Canadian team has two major advantages: It plays at home and must have more qualified NBA players than any other nation in the tournament. Assuming they want to play – and the NBA teams are disqualified from the qualifiers in time – Canada can be backed by an excellent young team from Shay Gielgos Alexander and Jamal Murray. The supporting cast can include Andrew Wiggins, Le Dort, RG Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Brandon Clark, Kelly Olinik, and Tristan Thompson, and there are other strongmen to choose from.
Greece won NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo twice, but not other NBA stars. Unfortunately for them, the playoffs take place when the NBA Conference Finals are supposed to be held, and Milwaukee Bucks Giannis has a good chance of beating it. The other four teams in the playoffs are very light on NBA talent.
When Canadian men qualify for the Olympics for the first time since Steve Nash led them to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, we know the schedule for the first-round games in Tokyo. Canada starts against Iran on July 25 at 9:00 PM ET, then plays against France on July 28 at 8:00 AM ET, and then plays for the first time against NBA players in the United States on July 31 at 8 AM : 00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Basketball 3 – 3 men
This version of the sport makes its debut at the Tokyo Olympics. Four of the eight spots in both the men’s and women’s championships are still in the making, but Canada is only competing on the men’s platform.
Three locations will be decided in the World Qualifiers with 20 teams from May 26-30 in Austria. Canada ranks eighth in the world and includes Latvia (fifth), the Netherlands (sixth), Croatia (23rd) and Austria (46) in the opening stage. The top two teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals, where the singles match begins. The Olympic spots go to the two teams that reach the final and win the race for third place.
The winner will go to the qualifiers for the so-called “global” in early June. This is only intended for countries that did not have a basketball team (male or female) in one of the last two Olympic tournaments. Canada is ineligible because the women’s team participated in both. Thus, the World Qualifiers in May are Canada’s last chance to participate.
Men’s soccer
The Canadian women’s team will try to win the third consecutive Olympic medal in Tokyo. But Canada has not reached the men’s podium since a team from what is now known as Cambridge, Ontario won the gold in 1904. The only other appearances for Canada were in the men’s tournaments in 1976 (as the host nation) and 1984.
14 of the 16 places in the Tokyo Men’s Championships have already been reserved and only two participants have been identified from the region of Canada (known in football as CONCACAF). The tournament with eight teams will take place from March 18-30 in Mexico. Teams are divided into two groups, and the first two groups of each group qualify for the semi-finals (the top seed in each group plays the second team in the other group). The winners of these competitions go to the Olympic Games.
Neither Mexico nor the United States is part of the Canada group. But this means that if Canada manages to survive its group with Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti, it will likely have to defeat one of the regional powers to secure a place in the Olympics.
The Men’s Olympic event (and qualification for it) is for players born on or after January 1, 1997. It could have been in favor of Canada, as the first two players – Alfonso Davis of Bayern Munich and Jonathan David of Lille – were born in 2000. But Canada will start qualifying for the Cup. World 2022 on March 25th, so David and David will do it instead. Learn more about Canada’s list of potential Olympic qualifiers here.
Basketball
Canada withdrew in the last two strikes. Its next success in qualifying for the Olympic tournament with six teams in the qualifying tournaments for the Americas region. The winner will be the only one to get a direct ticket to Tokyo and the competition will be fierce with competition from strong baseball nations such as the USA, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place last March in Arizona, before it was postponed due to the pandemic. The new data has not been released.
In the (highly probable) event where Canada failed to win the Americas Qualifiers, they can keep Tokyo’s predictions alive by finishing second or third. These teams won a place in the last Olympic qualifiers against China, Taiwan, Australia and the Netherlands. Only the winner goes to Tokyo.
Fast…
Some of the big names will be competing in the Canadian mixed doubles curling tournament this year. Today was announced the 35-team stadium for the March 18-25 tournament, which will take place in Calgary Bubble, where Scotties and Briere have just been founded. Referee Olympic champ Caitlyn Laws and John Morris don’t play together. Morris now competes mostly with Rachel Homan, but the finalist at Scotts is eight months pregnant, so Daniel Schmimann will replace her. Lewis plays with her cousin Connor Luz. Once again, Jennifer Jones plays the six-time protagonist of Scottie’s and her husband, Brent Ling, together. And what it’s like for a strong husband: Keri Einarsson, who just won a second straight win at Scotts, and Briar champion Brad Joshua. You can see the difference here
last but not least …
Mark Stone was an amazing assistant last night. The Vegas winger was the primary assistant to all five of his team’s extra-time goals in Minnesota. It was only the second time this century that a player had scored at least five major passes in a regular season match (Artemi Panarin did that for Columbus in 2017) and it is. Done only 28 times in the history of the National Hockey League, Wayne Gretzky (big surprise) holds the record for most important assistants in a game with seven assists, and Gretzky, Ron Francis, Bernie Nichols, Don Grosso and Elmer Lash scored six goals in one match. The assistant primary attache scored in a match five – shared by Gritsky, who did so twice, and Doug Gilmore, who also had five twice in a regular season match.
From CBC Sports
Figure Skating World Championships: Watch the final match of the 137-foot tall women’s hill event on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. EST on CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app.
CBC Sports U: Anyone who works in the sports media business might want to watch this free and interactive virtual summit on Wednesday. CBC Sports brings together a number of well-known sports media personalities to give students a glimpse into their experiences and pose questions. Get more details and register here
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