Olympic viewing guide: Canadians start strong, figure skating begins tonight
Women's hockey team, Mikaël Kingsbury get going in style
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Three of Canada's top gold-medal contenders are off to good starts
The Canadian women's hockey and mixed doubles curling teams and moguls superstar Mikaël Kingsbury all kicked off their quests to win Olympic gold either last night or this morning. Here's what happened:
Mixed doubles curling
Canada's Rachel Homan and John Morris opened with a tough loss last night, falling 6-4 to reigning world champions Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat of Great Britain in a game that went down to the final rocks. But the Canadians rebounded this morning with a 7-6 win over the Norwegian duo that took Olympic bronze in 2018.
Homan and Morris, who are defending the gold medal Morris won with Kaitlyn Lawes four years ago, return to the ice tonight for a pair of games. They'll face 2018 silver medallist Switzerland at 7:35 p.m. ET, and China at 12:35 a.m. ET.
Women's hockey
Canada came out flying in its opener last night, crushing overmatched Switzerland 12-1. Besides the lopsided score, a few stats stood out for the Canadians: they outshot the Swiss 70-15, eight different players scored goals, and 12 registered at least one point. That kind of depth bodes well for Canada's chances of taking back the gold medal from the United States, which won it in a shootout in 2018 to break Canada's streak of four consecutive titles.
The Americans opened with a 5-2 win over Finland this morning, but they lost a key player: veteran forward and alternate captain Brianna Decker is out for the tournament after being stretchered off with a severe leg injury. Decker, you might remember, was the (unofficial) winner of the passing event at the 2019 NHL all-star skills competition.
Canada's next game is Friday at 11:10 p.m. ET vs. the Finns, who took bronze in 2018. All five teams in this group, which also includes Russia, automatically advance to the playoffs.
Moguls
Kingsbury began his men's moguls title defence in style this morning, posting the top score in the opening qualifying round to advance directly to Saturday's final. The surprise of the day was Japan's Ikuma Horishima, who was expected to challenge Kingsbury for gold after winning three times on the World Cup circuit this season, placing 16th. Only the top 10 skiers advance straight to the final, so Horishima will have to go through the second round of qualifying, which takes place just 90 minutes before the medal round.
In women's qualifying, Canada's Justine Dufour-Lapointe grabbed the last direct ticket to the final by placing 10th. Chloe Dufour-Lapointe just missed out in 11th. The sisters shared the podium at the 2014 Olympics, where Justine won gold and Chloe silver. Justine added a silver in 2018. Chloe is currently ranked 15th in the World Cup standings, and Justine is 16th.
WATCH | While you were sleeping: Mélodie Daoust injured, mixed doubles curling, Kingsbury advances:
Coming up on Thursday night and Friday morning
As we wait for competition to hit full swing on Friday night/Saturday morning in Canadian time zones, there are three things worth paying attention to in the meantime:
Mixed doubles curling
As mentioned above, Canada's Rachel Homan and John Morris are off to a 1-1 start after losing to reigning world champion Great Britain and beating 2018 Olympic bronze medallist Norway. Tonight, they face 2018 silver medallist Switzerland (1-2) at 7:35 p.m. ET and China (2-1) at 12:35 a.m. ET.
Figure skating
The team event begins tonight at 8:55 p.m. ET with the men's short program, followed by the ice dance rhythm dance (10:35 p.m. ET) and the pairs short (12:15 a.m. ET). There's also a women's segment in this event, but that doesn't start until Saturday night. Skating tonight for Canada will be Roman Sadovsky (men's), Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (dance), and Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro (pairs).
Sadovsky is replacing Canadian men's champion Keegan Messing in the team event after Messing was unable to produce the negative COVID-19 tests required to travel to China. Gilles and Poirier are Canada's best hope for a medal in the traditional figure skating events after taking bronze at last year's world championships. Moore-Towers and Marinaro finished 11th in the pairs event at the 2018 Olympics.
Canada won gold in the team event in 2018, but the retirements of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, Patrick Chan and Kaetlyn Osmond depleted the country of most of its best athletes. Read more about the outlook for Canada's figure skaters here.
The opening ceremony
Women's hockey team captain Marie-Philip Poulin and longtime short track speed skating star Charles Hamelin will carry the Canadian flag into Beijing's National Stadium (aka the Bird's Nest). The show starts at 7 a.m. ET, and CBC's live coverage begins at 6:30 a.m. ET. You can watch it on the CBC TV network, CBC News Network, CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBC Sports' Beijing 2022 website.
How to watch live Olympic 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.
You're up to speed. Talk to you tomorrow.
