Olympic viewing guide: Can speed skater Dubreuil deliver a much-needed gold?
What to watch on Friday night and Saturday morning
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Canada did not win a medal today, keeping its total at 12 — one gold, four silver, seven bronze — through seven days of full competition in Beijing.
Day 8 should be better. One of Canada's best speed skaters has a good shot to win the country's second gold of the Games, and Canada's third snowboard cross medal is in play in a brand-new event.
We'll preview that stuff first in our daily viewing guide, then explain the latest on the two spiciest stories of the Games right now: the doping case involving 15-year-old Russian figure skating sensation Kamila Valieva, and two Canadian snowboard medallists arguing over who really deserved to win gold. Plus, the Canadian women's hockey team continues to look unstoppable, the men's team takes on a rival tonight, and Canada's best hope to win a figure skating medal hits the ice.
Here's what to watch on Friday night and Saturday morning:
Can Laurent Dubreuil deliver a much-needed gold?
If you sort the standings by total medals, Canada looks great. Only Norway and Austria, at 14 each, have won more than Canada's 12. But the official table is far less flattering. Here, where gold medals are the first criterion, Canada is way down in 14th place with just one gold.
That's not to diminish the accomplishments of the Canadian athletes who have reached the podium. An Olympic medal of any colour is worthy of celebration. And Canada will almost surely rise in the official standings with several more gold-medal opportunities still to come over the final nine days of competition. But still, another gold would be awfully nice right now.
Laurent Dubreuil might be just the guy for the job. The 29-year-old speed skater is one of Canada's strongest gold-medal contenders in these entire Games. He's the reigning world champion in the men's 500 metres and the current World Cup leader in this distance. Dubreuil has reached the podium in all eight of his international races so far this season, winning two of them. He also skated the best time in the world this season. It would be pretty shocking if he doesn't win an Olympic medal.
However, Dubreuil is not the betting favourite. That would be Tingyu Gao, who took bronze in this event in 2018 to become the first Chinese man to win an Olympic medal in speed skating. Gao owns the second-best time of the season, and he has home-ice advantage in Beijing. But he's also something of a black box, having skipped three of the eight World Cup races and crashing in another. He won one of the four races he completed, but finished behind Dubreuil in the other three. The uncertainty around Gao is reflected in the odds. He's listed at around +180, which, for those of you who aren't degenerate gamblers, is quite a high payout for a favourite. Dubreuil is next at +350.
The event starts at 3:53 a.m. ET, but Dubreuil doesn't skate until the 15th and final pairing. Gao is in the seventh pairing — an unusual spot for a favourite, reflecting his low ranking in the World Cup standings.
WATCH | Becoming a father changed everything for Laurent Dubreuil:
Other Canadian medal chances tonight and tomorrow morning
There's one more solid one:
Snowboard cross: mixed team event
Teams in this new Olympic event consist of two riders — one man, one woman. Just like in the individual snowboard cross events, four riders go down the course together at the same time. The men go first. Their times determine when their teammate can leave the start gate. The first woman to cross the finish line wins the race for her team. The top two teams in each quarter-final heat (9 p.m. ET) advance to the semis (9:30 p.m. ET), and the top two in each semi race for medals in the "big" final just after 9:50 p.m. ET.
Canada is listed as just the No. 6 favourite in the betting odds. But it has two teams in this event, and the top pair — Éliot Grondin and Meryeta O'Dine — each won an individual medal this week. Also, Canada has won surprising medals in two of the other new mixed team events, in ski jumping and aerials.
Some other interesting stuff you should know about
The Canadian men's hockey team will try to keep up with the women's. The latter looks like an absolute buzzsaw right now, slicing through Sweden 11-0 in this morning's quarter-final. The Canadian women have now outscored their opponents 44-5 in five games. All signs still point to another gold-medal showdown with the defending-champion United States, which actually trailed in the second period of its quarter-final vs. the Czech Republic (for less than a minute, but still) before coming alive for a 4-1 win. Canada will learn its semifinal opponent after the quarter-finals are completed Saturday morning. Tonight at 11:10 p.m. ET, the Canadian men's team looks to build on its tournament-opening 5-1 win over Germany when it takes on the U.S.
Canada's curlers will try to bounce back from a tough day. 2014 women's champion Jennifer Jones saw her 12-0 lifetime Olympic record finally blemished with today's loss to Japan, the silver medallist four years ago. Jones (1-1) faces defending champ Anna Hasselborg of Sweden (1-1) tonight at 8:05 p.m. ET. In the men's event, Canada's Brad Gushue fell to 2-1 with an upset loss to 2018 bronze medallist Switzerland. Gushue faces reigning world champ Nik Edin of Sweden (3-0) at 1:05 a.m. ET.
Canada's best hope to win a figure skating medal hits the ice tomorrow morning. They're not favoured to reach the podium, but ice dancers Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier at least have an outside shot after taking bronze at the world championships last year. The favourites are France's Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who took silver behind Canadian greats Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in 2018 after Papadakis' wardrobe malfunction in the short program. Speaking of Virtue and Moir, they'll be doing colour commentary for CBC Sports when the event opens with the rhythm dance segment Saturday at 6 a.m. ET. Watch Tessa and Scott's breakdown of the top medal contenders here.
WATCH | Canada pots 11 in big quarter-final win over Sweden:
Now let's get you caught up on the two spiciest stories
Two Canadian snowboarding medallists are arguing over who really deserved gold. Earlier this week, Max Parrot won the men's slopestyle event and Mark McMorris took bronze for the third Olympics in a row. But replays showed Parrot missed a grab on one of his jumps — a mistake unnoticed by the judges. And the head judge has admitted that Parrot should have received a different score. Parrot concedes this, but believes his run was still worthy of the gold based on its overall quality. McMorris disagrees, and argues that he in fact had "the run of the day." They'll square off again in the suddenly-more-interesting big air event, which begins Monday. Read more about the slopestyle controversy here.
We finally have a clear(er) picture of the Russian figure skating mess — and it's even worse than it seemed. After Russia won gold in the team event, the medal ceremony was delayed because of a mysterious "legal" issue that figure skating officials refused to talk about. We now know that Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old star who was instrumental to that victory and is also favoured to win the women's event, tested positive for a banned heart medication in a sample taken on Christmas Day by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency. Because Russia does not have an accredited anti-doping lab (a consequence of its getting caught running a massive doping scheme during the 2014 Sochi Olympics), the sample was sent to Sweden. For whatever reasons, the result didn't arrive until the day after Russia's victory in the team event in Beijing. RUSADA suspended Valieva, then (because of course) promptly reinstated her after she appealled. Now the International Olympic Committee is fighting that move in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will decide whether Valieva can compete in the women's event starting Tuesday. A ruling on the team event could take a lot longer. If Russia (competing under the name Russian Olympic Committee as part of the punishment for that aforementioned doping scheme) is disqualified, fourth-place Canada would move up to the bronze medal. Read more about the situation here.
How to watch live events
They're being broadcast on TV on CBC, TSN and Sportsnet. Or choose exactly what you want to watch by live streaming on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBC Sports' Beijing 2022 website. Check out the full streaming schedule (with links to live events) here and read more about how to watch the Games here.
If you're located outside Canada, you unfortunately won't be able to access CBC Sports' coverage of the Games on the app or the website. That's due to the way the Olympics' media rights deals work. But if you're in the northern United States or other international regions, such as Bermuda, that regularly offer the CBC TV network, you can watch the Games there.
