Interesting battles remain for Canadian Olympic spots in Beijing

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Canada's Olympic team isn't settled just yet

With fewer than three weeks until the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, plenty of unknowns remain.

Many athletes, especially those who have recently tested positive for COVID-19, can't even be certain they'll be able to enter China to compete in the first place. CBC Sports' Devin Heroux reported yesterday that the threshold to test negative in China is higher than many places in Canada. And one positive test upon arrival in Beijing could knock an athlete out of competition entirely.

Cyber security also re-emerged as a concern today following a University of Toronto study that revealed a "simple but devastating" flaw in the app that's supposed to be used to report health and travel data from those entering Beijing's "closed-loop system." Many athletes have already been given cell phones that would circumvent Chinese blocks on social-media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Read more about the potential security issues here.

Then there's the matter of choosing the athletes. In Canada, national sport organizations must submit their nominations to the Canadian Olympic Committee by Wednesday. Those names will be handed to Beijing organizers by Jan. 24 for final approval.

And so team announcements have begun flooding in, with more expected over the next week. Speed skaters, women's hockey and all three curling rinks are among the teams to be revealed thus far. You can see the full list of nominations on CBC Sports' tracker.

Here's a look at some of the squads we don't yet know:

Men's hockey

When the NHL announced it was pulling its players from the Olympics, men's hockey suddenly shifted from all-star rosters to an exercise in remembering some guys. Remember Martin Marincin? He's on Team Slovakia. How about Valterri Filppula? He could wind up on the Finnish roster. With Canada having to pull players mainly from overseas and college, guys like Eric Fehr (the 14-year NHL veteran) and David Desharnais (the former Montreal Canadiens winger) could don the Maple Leaf alongside Owen Power, the top pick of the 2021 draft who plays for the University of Michigan.

The most accomplished player in line to make the team is Eric Staal, last seen as part of the Canadiens' run to the Stanley Cup final last season. Staal recorded over 1,000 points in nearly 1,300 career NHL games, mostly with Carolina. He's now on a tryout contract with an AHL team as he seeks a ticket to Beijing. Staal, 37, was on Canada's taxi squad at the 2006 Games before joining the main roster of the 2010 gold-medal team. Read more about his Olympic comeback attempt in this piece by CBC Sports contributor Vicki Hall.

Snowboarding

Canada will send 17 riders to China across slopestyle, big air, halfpipe and snowboard cross events. The biggest decision may come from men's slopestyle and big air, where four total spots have been qualified and five athletes can make solid cases. Max Parrot pre-qualified for nomination based on last season's results. Sebastien Toutant, the reigning gold medallist, and Mark McMorris, a two-time bronze medallist, are still going strong, and it would be a major surprise if either is left out. That boils the decision down to Darcy Sharpe, a 25-year-old looking to make his Olympic debut, and Liam Brearley, the 18-year-old phenom who won medals in three separate disciplines at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games. However the team shakes out, all four riders should make strong podium threats.

Laurie Blouin, who took slopestyle silver in Pyeongchang four years ago, should return for her second Games as the veteran on a youthful women's squad. Speaking of youth, Eliot Grondin made his Olympic debut in snowboard cross at just 16 years old in 2018, placing 36th. But the Sainte-Marie, Que., native won bronze at the world championships last year along with gold at the world juniors. A pair of podium finishes on the World Cup tour in the past month could portend good Olympic things for Grondin.

Bobsleigh

Canada qualified the maximum number of sleds for the Olympics — three each in four-man, two-man and two-woman, plus two in monobob (single-woman sled). Justin Kripps, who won two-man gold in 2018 as well as a Crystal Globe as top racer on the World Cup circuit this season, looms as a threat in both men's events. On the women's side, the three Canadian pilots likely to qualify in the two-woman will have to be pared down to two for monobob. Christine De Bruin, the only Canadian woman to win World Cup gold this season and ranked fourth overall in the discipline, should be one choice. The other spot comes down to Cynthia Appiah, ranked third thanks to three podium appearances, and Melissa Lotholtz, ranked eighth. All three should sport decent medal chances in what promises to be a wide-open event, and where competition should include former Canadian teammate Kaillie Humphries.

Skiing

Upward of 30 Canadian skiers will hit the slopes in Beijing across the same disciplines as snowboard, plus moguls, aerials and alpine (downhill, slalom, super-G) events. The most interesting competition in the bunch may be ski cross, the notoriously fickle event featuring a deep field of Canadians. However, only four men and four women will race in Beijing. Olympic gold medallists Brady Leman and Marielle Thompson, along with silver medallist Brittany Phelan, seem like safe bets to make the team. But good luck choosing the rest when skiers like Kevin Drury and Kris Mahler can rise from the middle of the rankings onto World Cup podiums as they did this past weekend.

In ski halfpipe, the Canadian field is nearly as strong, but not quite deep enough to make for too many tough decisions. Reigning champion Cassie Sharpe should be joined by rising star Rachael Karker, while the men's team could feature as many as three legitimate medal threats in Brendan McKay, Simon d'Artois and Noah Bowman. The moguls squad should boast familiar faces in Mikaël Kingsbury and sisters Chloé and Justine Dufour-Lapointe.

Returning Champions: Justin Kripps

3 years ago

Duration 3:28

Canadian bobsleigh athlete Justin Kripps looks back on his Olympic gold in Pyeongchang including his historic tie for gold, the passing of his grandmother just days before his race in 2018, and his outlook heading into Beijing 2022.

Quickly...

One Canadian was upset at the Australian Open, while another narrowly avoided the same fate. Leylah Fernandez, playing in her first major as a seeded player and her first since reaching the U.S. Open final last September, fell in straight sets to 133rd-ranked Maddison Inglis of Australia. It's the third straight time Fernandez, ranked 24th, has lost in the first round in Melbourne. Fellow Canadian Rebecca Marino, who reached the main draw through qualifying, also dropped her first-round match. In the men's draw, Felix Auger-Aliassime found himself down two sets to one against 90th-ranked Emil Ruusuvuori before rallying to take the victory despite winning 13 fewer points than his opponent. He'll meet the unseeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round. Read more about the nervous night in Canadian tennis here.

The Premier Hockey Federation is receiving a major boost. To the tune of $25 million US over the next three years from its board of governors. The money will send the salary cap soaring to $750,000, up from $300,000 per team this season. It'll also fund an expanded 28-game schedule, updated facilities and expansion into Montreal and one other city. Maybe even more importantly, it could help unify the PHF with the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association, the union featuring most of the top Canadian and American skaters that's been holding out for a sustainable league. The latest splash of cash can only help in moving towards that goal. And with the Beijing Olympics around the corner, both sides are hoping to take advantage of the once-every-four-years showcase. Read more about the latest investment in women's hockey here.

The CEO of Athletics Canada is under fire for sexually suggestive tweets. David Bedford is now apologizing for the posts while waving them away as comments on "funny" things. "It's apparent others didn't feel the same way, so I removed them," he said. The organization's board held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss next steps and did not rule out requesting Bedford's resignation. The resolution of that meeting has yet to emerge. Bedford has served as CEO since 2019 after previous stops in leadership positions with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Football League and Toronto Argonauts. Read more about Bedford's posts and potential fallout in this piece by CBC Sports' Jamie Strashin.

And finally...

The Montreal Canadiens have a new general manager. He has plenty of work ahead. Kent Hughes, a bilingual Montreal native who previously represented the likes of Patrice Bergeron and Darnell Nurse as a player agent, was tabbed to work under vice-president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, who was hired just after former GM Marc Bergevin was dismissed in November. Gorton and Hughes face a tall task as the Habs are dead last in the NHL just one season after making the Stanley Cup final. Meanwhile, their star goalie hasn't played a single minute and their leading scorers are tied with just seven goals — only two more than Sharks forward Timo Meier scored yesterday alone. The optimistic take: it's all uphill from here. Read more about Hughes here.

You're up to speed. Talk to you tomorrow.