What to watch this weekend in Canadian sports | CBC Sports

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From winter Olympic sports to the golf course to the gridiron, there’s a wide variety for Canadian fans to enjoy this weekend. Here are some things to watch:

Football: Vanier Cup and a Canadian star in a big U.S. college game

Last weekend’s Grey Cup may have marked the spiritual end of the Canadian football season, but fans north of the border should know about a couple big games on Saturday afternoon.

The first is the U.S. college game of the week between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 5 Indiana, which kicks off at noon ET at the Buckeyes’ famed 100,000-seat Ohio Stadium (aka the Horseshoe).

That sentence might not sound very Canadian, but Indiana’s quarterback is. Kurtis Rourke (the brother of 2022 CFL Most Outstanding Canadian Nathan Rourke) has the third-best passer rating in all of college football and is a top-five Heisman Trophy candidate after leading Indiana (normally thought of as a basketball school) to a shocking 10-0 start. The Hoosiers are 10-point underdogs against perennial contender Ohio State, but if they at least keep it close it should cement their place in the playoff bracket, which is expanding to 12 teams this year. Here’s more on Rourke’s big test. 

At 1 p.m. ET, the Canadian university national championship will be decided as second-ranked Wilfrid Laurier faces No. 3 Laval in the Vanier Cup game in Kingston, Ont. Laval beat defending champ Montreal twice this year, including in the Quebec conference final, while Laurier is undefeated and features Hec Crighton Trophy winner Taylor Elgersma at quarterback. 

You can watch the Vanier Cup live on the CBC TV network or stream it on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. Read about Laurier coach Michael Faulds’ journey to the title game in this story by CBC Sports’ Myles Dichter. 

WATCH | CBC Sports previews the 2024 Vanier Cup:

Golf: Brooke Henderson can cash in

A women’s golf record $4 million US will go to the winner of the LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship in Naples, Fla. For context, that’s $1.6 million more than the champion received at this year’s U.S. Open, the richest of the five women’s majors.

Henderson was the only Canadian to qualify for the 60-player field, decided by a season-long points system. She did not win a tournament this year — the first time she’s gone trophy-less since Covid-shortened 2020 — and has fallen to 24th in the world rankings after taking a two-month break during which she had eye surgery. 

At our publish time, Henderson was tied for ninth at 5 under par (three shots off the lead) after completing her second round. Here’s an updated leaderboard.

Speed skating: Canadians roll into a new World Cup season

2023-24 was a great season for Canada’s long track speed skaters. They broke the national record by winning 10 medals at the single distances world championships in Calgary (trailing only the powerhouse Netherlands) and captured 23 medals across the six World Cup stops to finish fourth in the total standings. At the season-ending sprint world championships in Germany, Laurent Dubreuil added the men’s bronze to his gold in the team sprint and silver in the solo 500m from the worlds in Calgary.

Dubreuil was at it again last night, taking silver in the 500 on the first day of the World Cup season opener in Japan. American phenom Jordan Stolz won the race and added another gold in the 1,500. The 20-year-old looks poised to dominate again after sweeping the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 at the single distances worlds for the second straight year and adding his first allround world title.

Racing continues late tonight and Saturday night on CBC Sports’ streaming platforms.

WATCH | CBC Sports tells you who, what to watch in Canadian sports this weekend:

What to watch: Speed skating & Vanier Cup

Our CBC Sports team shares what and who to watch this weekend on CBCSports.ca.

The top Canadian on the women’s side is Ivanie Blondin, who won three medals at the Calgary worlds — including gold in the team sprint with Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais (the trio that won gold at the 2022 Olympics). Blondin racked up four medals (two gold) at last week’s Four Continents championships — a World Cup warmup of sorts for non-Europeans.

If you missed yesterday’s newsletter, we took a wider look at the Canadian and international skaters to watch this season. Read it here. 

Figure skating: Grand Prix Final spots are on the line

This week’s Cup of China is the last of the six regular stops on the Grand Prix tour. When it’s over, the top six in each discipline will be invited to France for next month’s Grand Prix Final — the most prestigious annual event in the sport apart from the world championships.

Canadian ice dancers Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha are among those trying to get in. They took silver in their other Grand Prix assignment (Skate Canada International), so another strong finish could do it. They’re in second place heading into Saturday’s free skate.

The other Canadians competing in China are the pairs team of Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (third after their short program), and Madeline Schizas (eighth in the women’s event). Wesley Chiu withdrew from the men’s competition. Here’s a full recap of today’s short skates. 

You can watch Saturday’s free skates live on CBC Sports’ streaming platforms. Here’s the schedule. 

Other winter Olympic sports:

* Olympic ski jumping bronze medallists Alexandria Loutitt and Abigail Strate are competing in the World Cup opener in Lillehammer. They were part of Canada’s mixed team that reached the podium at the 2022 Games in Beijing, and Loutitt won an individual world title in 2023. She placed third in the women’s World Cup standings last season while Strate was sixth.

* The alpine skiing World Cup tour continues in Austria with another set of women’s and men’s slaloms. Laurence St-Germain was the top Canadian in last week’s slalom openers in Finland, placing 10th in the women’s event. American star Mikaela Shiffrin won that for her 98th World Cup victory.

* In freestyle skiing, the first World Cup slopestyle events of the season are also happening in Austria. Canada’s Olivia Asselin and Max Moffatt finished seventh in their respective standings last season. Three-time world championship medallist Megan Oldham is back after missing the entire season due to injury.

* The second stop on the skeleton World Cup tour is happening in China. Reigning world champ Hallie Clarke had Canada’s best result last week in South Korea, placing sixth in the first of two women’s races.

You can watch this weekend’s skeleton and alpine races and a lot more on CBC Sports’ digital platforms. Here’s our full streaming schedule.