Olympic newsletter: Is Canada having its best Summer Games ever? | CBC Sports

This is an excerpt from CBC Sports’ daily newsletter, The Buzzer. Subscribe here to get the latest on the Paris Olympics in your inbox every day.

The medal streak is over.

No Canadians reached the podium on Day 10 in Paris — the first time that’s happened since the official start of competition. Nine consecutive days with at least one medal equalled the Canadian record set in 2016 in Rio and matched at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

A close call came in women’s 3×3 basketball, where Canada lost 16-15 to Germany in the semifinals before falling 16-13 to the United States in the bronze game.

Despite the dry day, Canada still has a good shot at making this its best Summer Olympics ever. The national record for a non-boycotted Summer Games is 24 medals, set three years ago in Tokyo. The record for gold medals is seven — established in 1992 in Barcelona and matched in Tokyo.

With six days of competition left, Canada has 17 medals, including five gold. And even though Summer McIntosh is done, there are still plenty of quality Canadian medal chances to come.

WATCH | CBC’s Meg Roberts tells you what to watch on Day 11:

Perhaps the strongest one arrives Tuesday, when women’s world champion Camryn Rogers tries for a Canadian sweep of the hammer throw golds (more on that below). Other track and field stars coming up include men’s 800m world champion Marco Arop, women’s shot put contender Sarah Mitton and Olympic men’s 200m champ Andre De Grasse, who advanced to the semifinals. De Grasse’s men’s 4x100m relay team will be in the mix too.

Canoeist Katie Vincent has a good shot at two medals — in the women’s single event and the double with Sloan MacKenzie. Breakdancer Phil Wizard is a top contender for the B-Boys gold, and Canada’s artistic swimmers are projected to reach the podium in the team event. Plus, the Canadian men’s basketball team looks like a big-time medal threat heading into Tuesday’s quarterfinal matchup with France (more on that below too).

So, yeah, there’s plenty more to look forward to — including some exciting stuff on Day 11. Let’s dive into that in our daily viewing guide, along with some of Monday’s key results.

Top Canadians to watch on Tuesday

Basketball: Canada vs. France in the men’s quarterfinals

The Canadian men’s team’s first Olympic appearance since 2000 is going really well. Led by NBA MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Canada won all three of its games in a tough group, beating two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece 86-79 before dispatching 2021 bronze medallist Australia 93-83 and holding off always-tricky Spain 88-85.

SGA, as always, is the straw that stirs the drink. The star point guard is averaging an efficient 19 points along with four rebounds and four assists and is the go-to guy when Canada needs a bucket. Toronto Raptors wing RJ Barrett leads the team with 21 points per game (fourth-most in the tournament) while gritty forward Dillon Brooks is chipping in 14 points and four boards.

The only real question mark so far is Jamal Murray, who was supposed to give Canada one of the best starting backcourts in Paris alongside Gilgeous-Alexander. Instead, head coach Jordi Fernandez has brought the fragile guard off the bench for less than 20 minutes per game (tied with Andrew Nembhard for sixth on the team). Murray, who scored 21 points a game this season with the Denver Nuggets, is averaging less than six in Paris, though with a team-high 4.7 assists.

The hope is that Murray’s minutes restriction will be lifted for the knockout rounds. But he struggled in the NBA playoffs, didn’t do much in Canada’s exhibition games and has looked out of shape at times in Paris. So it’s hard to expect a whole lot more from him at this point.

That’s too bad, because Canada faces a pretty tough matchup on Tuesday against France. The host team took silver in 2021 in Tokyo and now boasts a pair of seven-foot-plus NBA award winners in rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama and defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert. Throw in veteran power forward Nicolas Batum and that’s a lot of size for a Canadian team that’s light on quality big men.

However, the French were pretty underwhelming in the group stage. They beat Brazil (congrats), eked out an overtime win over Japan (not exactly known for its size) and lost by 14 points to group winner Germany as Wembanyama and Gobert looked out of sync.

Also, France can’t be thrilled about this matchup either. Canada is one of the best teams in the tournament and is currently neck-and-neck with Germany for second place in the betting odds to win the gold (the United States remains the prohibitive favourite). Oddsmakers are also pretty confident that Canada will beat France: the Canadians are favoured by eight points. “We’re a really good team,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We have a lot of ways we can hurt you.”

The game tips off at noon ET. The winner will face either the second-seeded Germans (3-0) or Greece (1-2), who play at 5 a.m. ET. On the other side of the bracket, it’s reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic’s Serbia (2-1) vs. Australia (1-2) at 8:30 a.m. ET and the top-seeded United States (3-0) vs. Brazil (1-2) at 3:30 p.m. ET.

The semifinals are on Thursday and the medal games Saturday. Read more about Canada vs. France here.

The women’s quarterfinals take place Wednesday, with the undefeated United States still heavily favoured to win its eighth consecutive gold. Canada did not advance after going 0-3 in group play. Read about how the Canadian women are already looking toward 2028 in this story by CBC Sports’ Myles Dichter.

Track and field: Camryn Rogers in the women’s hammer throw final

On Sunday, Ethan Katzberg became the first Canadian ever to win Olympic gold in this sport with his dominant victory in the men’s event. On Tuesday, Rogers has a great chance to complete a Canadian sweep of the hammer throw golds.

After placing fifth in her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Rogers took silver at the 2022 world championships (her debut there) to become the first Canadian woman to medal in this sport at the worlds. Last summer in Budapest, she won the gold a few days after Katzberg captured Canada’s first hammer throw world title.

This year, Rogers owns the second- and third-farthest women’s throws in the world. And the athlete with the best toss, 2022 world champion Brooke Andersen, was eliminated when she fouled out at the U.S. trials. That makes Rogers the clear favourite for gold, ahead of American DeAnna Price, the bronze medallist at last year’s worlds and the title winner in 2019. The final begins at 1:57 p.m. ET.

Other Canadians competing in track and field on Tuesday include men’s 400m phenom Christopher Morales Williams and women’s 400m hurdler Savannah Sutherland in their semifinals, and men’s sprinters Aaron Brown and Brendon Rodney in the men’s 200m repechage round as they try to join De Grasse in Wednesday’s semis.

Tuesday’s marquee men’s event is the 1,500m final at 2:50 p.m. ET. The mile-ish race will be a showdown between defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and his British rival Josh Kerr, who upset Ingebrigtsen for the world title last year.

The day culminates with the women’s 200m final at 3:40 p.m. ET. American Gabby Thomas is the new favourite after back-to-back world champ Shericka Jackson of Jamaica pulled out of the event for unexplained reasons. Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred looks to challenge Thomas after upsetting Sha’Carri Richardson for the 100m gold — her country’s first Olympic medal. Richardson did not make it through the U.S. trials in the 200. Canada’s Audrey Leduc and Jacqueline Madogo were eliminated in the semifinals. Here’s the full track and field schedule and results.

In Monday’s best track final, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet upset her countrywoman Faith Kipyegon in the women’s 5,000m, outsprinting the world champion down the home stretch. Kipyegon was later disqualified for making contact with another runner, giving defending champ Sifan Hassan the silver as the versatile Dutchwoman pursues a rare triple in the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon. In the women’s 800m, Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson finally won gold after taking silver at the 2021 Olympics and two world championships.

On the field, Swedish pole vault sensation Mondo Duplantis secured his second straight gold with an Olympic-record jump that electrified the crowd at the Stade de France. Then he really brought the house down, breaking his own world record with a leap of 6.25 metres on his third and final attempt. Here’s more on Monday’s track and field.

Diving: Caeli McKay in the women’s 10m platform final

McKay took bronze in this event at the 2023 world championships. She placed seventh in the semifinal round Monday, and was fourth in the 10m synchronized event with Kate Miller last week. The solo final starts at 9 a.m. ET.

Chinese divers have won all four events so far in Paris, while Canada has one medal: a bronze by Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray in the men’s 10m synchro.

Skateboarding: Fay De Fazio Ebert in the women’s park event

She might be hard-pressed to advance through the prelims and reach the eight-skater final at 11:30 a.m. ET, but De Fazio Ebert gets a thumbs-up for being the youngest Canadian athlete in Paris. She’s only 14.

Age really is just a number in this sport, it seems: De Fazio Ebert will compete against an 11-year-old Chinese athlete, while British men’s skater Andy MacDonald is 51. Read more about De Fazio Ebert here.

Some other things to know

Canada’s top beach volleyball duo advanced. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson upset Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth, the bronze medallists at last year’s world championships, in the round of 16 Monday at Eiffel Tower Stadium. The Canadians, currently ranked eighth in the world, will face 16th-ranked Spaniards Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Another photo finish: this time in the triathlon. After Sunday’s incredible .005-second victory by American Noah Lyles over Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in the men’s 100m final, the race for second in Monday’s triathlon mixed relay seemed just as close. Great Britain initially looked like the runner-up behind Germany after a thrilling three-way sprint to the finish. But, upon further review, the United States was upgraded to the silver.

And finally…

Is that it for Simone Biles?

The gymnastics superstar’s final day in Paris did not go as planned. Biles fell off the balance beam and missed the podium, then settled for silver in the floor exercise — her signature event — after some costly steps out of bounds helped her Brazilian rival Rebeca Andrade steal the gold.

Still, Biles picked up her 11th Olympic medal and fourth in Paris after winning the individual all-around and vault golds and leading the U.S. to the team title. That’s a wonderful comeback from her disastrous Tokyo 2021 Games, where no-nothing critics accused Biles of quitting on her country when she pulled out of the team final and most of her solo events due to a dangerous mental block. Biles is now tied for the second-most Olympic medals in women’s gymnastics history with Czechoslovakia’s Vera Caslavska. The Soviet Union’s Larisa Latynina is the all-time leader with 18.

And Biles might not be done yet. She’ll be 31 by the time the 2026 Los Angeles Olympics roll around, but she’s clearly still performing at an elite level and might not be able to resist the pull of a home Games. “Never say never,” Biles said.

How to watch the Olympics

Live events are televised 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.