Paris Olympics digest: Historic day for Canada as women’s rugby sevens play for gold and men’s basketball poised for knockout round

Olympic highlights for July 30

• Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team will play for gold for the first-time ever at 1:45 p.m. ET against defending Olympic champions New Zealand. The Canadians beat Australia 21-12 in a shocking and hard-fought semi-final Tuesday morning, their second upset victory in as many days at the Games.
• Canada’s men’s hoops team beat Australia 93-83, all but assuring the team will advance to the knockout round for the first time in a quarter century. And twin sisters Katherine and Michelle Plouffe led Canada to a 22-14 victory over Australia in 3×3 women’s basketball.
• The International Olympic Committee has pressed for a quick decision on Canada’s appeal for a figure skating bronze medal from the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, where Team Canada finished fourth behind the Russian team that was later disqualified over a doping scandal. Japanese and American teams are set to receive their medals in the event in Paris next week.

In photos: Day four of the Paris Olympics

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Here’s what’s happening today, July 30, at the Olympics

• Gymnastics: Olympic veteran Ellie Black and Team Canada’s women’s artistic gymnastic team have joined Simone Biles and the U.S. in the women’s team final starting at 12:15 p.m. ET. Black, from Halifax, led the Canadian team to an eighth-place finish in the all-around standings.
• Swimming: Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm are swimming in the women’s 100-metre backstroke final at 2:56 p.m. ET, hoping to add to the gold and silver medals Summer McIntosh has already earned. Josh Liendo and Maggie Mac Neil also both advanced to the 100-metre freestyle semi-finals starting at 2:30 p.m. ET for the men and 3:33 p.m. ET for the women, with Ilya Kharun racing in the men’s 200-metre butterfly semi-finals at 2:44 p.m. ET.
• Tennis: Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime roared into the third round of the men’s singles tennis competition at the Paris Olympics with a decisive victory over Germany’s Maximilian Marterer on Tuesday. The 23-year-old will join Gabriela Dabrowski for a first-round mixed doubles match later in the day.
• Judo: Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard fell to Slovenia’s Andreja Leski in the under-63-kilogram judo quarter-finals this morning, dashing her hopes to add to Christa Deguchi’s historic judo gold medal for Canada yesterday in the under-57-kilogram event. Both Beauchemin-Pinard and Canadian under-81-kilogram men’s competitor Francois Gauthier-Drapeau lost to their opponents in repechage matches before noon ET.
• Triathlon: Olympic officials have postponed the men’s triathlon, set to begin Tuesday morning. It’s now scheduled to take place on Wednesday due to E. coli and bacteria levels above acceptable limits in the Seine River in Paris.

What to watch for tomorrow, July 31, at the Olympics

• Soccer: Canada takes on Colombia in women’s soccer at 3 p.m. ET, coming off a nervy 2-1 win against New Zealand. The Court of Arbitration for Sport also says it will decide Wednesday morning Canada Soccer and the Canada Olympic Committee’s appeal of FIFA’s six-point deduction from the women’s team during the Olympic tournament, amid the ongoing drone spying scandal, just hours before the game is set to begin.
• Swimming: Summer McIntosh swims in her heat for the women’s 200-metre butterfly at 5:59 a.m. ET. The 17-year-old Canadian phenom has secured two Olympics medals in Paris so far. Blake Tierney will also swim at 5:39 a.m. ET in the men’s 200-metre backstroke, and Kelsey Wog and Sydney Pickrem will compete in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke starting at 5 a.m. ET.
• Water polo: Canada’s women’s water polo team faces China at 9:35 a.m. ET after being bested by Hungary 12-7 on Monday.
• Triathlon: Team Canada’s Emy Legault competes in the triathlon at 2 a.m. ET. Legault of L’Ile Perrot, Que., helped Canada win a Pan American Games bronze medal in the mixed team relay and placed sixth in women’s triathlon in Santiago, Chile, in 2023. Tyler Mislawchuk and Charles Paquet will also compete in the men’s event postponed from Tuesday, though both triathlons are still subject to delay again if water quality in the Seine River does not improve.

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