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Toronto's Crystal Emmanuel wins heat to qualify for 200m semifinals CBC.caAll Olympic athletes arrive at the Games with aspirations to perform their best and hopefully bring home some hardware.
In addition to fierce competition, however, the Olympics are a great platform to show the world the importance of sportsmanship.
On Day 9 of the Tokyo Games, fair play was on full display in the men's high jump final between Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi.
Clearing 2.37m, both competitors successfully arrived at the 2.39m jump without any failed attempts. After Barshim and Tamberi fell short of making the jump three times apiece, an Olympic official approached the two, pitching that they compete in a jump-off to determine the winner.
What happened next, though, was truly a lasting moment of the 2020 Games.
"Can we have two gold?" Barshim asked.
The official green-lighted the request, which sent Barshim and Tamberi into pure euphoria.
"I look at him, he looks at me, and we know it. We just look at each other and we know, that is it, it is done. There is no need," Barshim said, according to CBC.
"He is one of my best friends, not only on the track, but outside the track. We work together. This is a dream come true. It is the true spirit, the sportsman spirit, and we are here delivering this message."
What an amazing moment between two athletes at the absolute peak of their sport.
Belarussian Maksim Nedasekau, who also cleared 2.37, took home bronze via the countback.
The win marked the first gold medals for Barshim and Tamberi at the Olympics, and it created a moment that will last a lifetime.
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Jessie Fleming's goal in the 74th minute has sent the Canadian women's soccer team to the gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics.
Canada prevailed with a 1-0 win over the top-ranked U.S. women's soccer team in the semifinals in a rematch of the London 2012 semifinal match. This is only the fourth time in 62 meetings that Canada has earned a victory over the United States.
This is the first time Canada will play for gold after earning back-to-back bronze medals in 2012 and 2016. They join the U.S. and Germany as the third country to medal at three consecutive women's Olympic soccer tournaments.
By reaching the #Tokyo2020 Final, Canada will become just the third nation to win medals at three successive Women's Olympic Football Tournaments (2012 to 2021), following in the steps of USA (1996 to 2012) & Germany (2000 to 2008).#CANWNT #RiseHigher pic.twitter.com/HwlYyjhlJe
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) August 2, 2021
Canada will play the winner of the second semifinal match between Australia and Sweden. The gold medal game is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET on Thursday.
Fleming scored on a penalty kick after American defender Tierna Davidson was called for a foul on Deanna Rose while chasing for the ball. Ukrainian referee Kateryna Monzul confirmed the penalty after a VAR review.
American goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher was forced to leave the game in the 30th minute after appearing to injure her knee after going up for the ball in the air. Naeher tried to stay in the game after a lengthy seven-minute delay as trainers looked at her knee but was replaced by Adrianna Franch after attempting one goal kick.
Canada's defence was forced to be sharp with the Americans pressuring the ball as the Canadians struggled to advance the ball. Neither Canada or the U.S. were able to get a shot on target in the first half.
This is the second time the United States will not play in the final after the team failed to reach the semifinals in 2016.
EDMONTON -- Despite her historic performance at the Tokyo Olympics, swimmer Penny Oleksiak admits she experienced her fair share of nerves going into the games after the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined athletes for much of 2020.
“Getting those nerves again was like, honestly, kind of a shock to the system. I wasn't as ready for it as I thought because I was getting so nervous and I was like how do I deal with this,” Oleksiak, now the most decorated Olympian in Canadian history, told CTV National News.
“We haven’t really been able to compete on a big level in so long, so I think just getting up there with people who are the best of the best is a little bit intimidating.”
Oleksiak and teammates Kyle Masse, Sydney Pickrem, Maggie Mac Neil captured a bronze medal in the medley relay Sunday, setting a Canadian record and producing a historic seventh career medal for the 21-year-old Oleksiak.
But, like the thousands of other athletes competing in Tokyo, the Games represented Oleskiak’s first opportunity to race on the world stage since the Knoxville Pro Series in January 2020 – more than a year and a half ago. It’s a challenge she says she was better prepared for thanks to the opportunity to focus on her mental health during the months-long lockdown.
“I was training so much I didn't really have time to focus on my mental health. Once COVID hit, I took it as a chance to really focus on my mental well-being. I was really just trying to make the most of it and really figuring out my priorities and what makes me happy in my life,” she said.
“I think that's really motivating for me going back into training, working with people and making sure that I had ways to help myself.”
Oleksiak exploded onto the swim scene at the Rio Olympics in 2016. She was just 16-years-old at the time.
In Rio, Oleksiak tied with American Simone Manuel for gold in the women's 100-metre freestyle in Olympic-record time, took silver in the 100-metre butterfly and anchored the Canada's freestyle relay teams to a pair of bronze medals.
In Tokyo, Oleksiak added a bronze in the 200-metre freestyle and silver in the four-person 100-metre freestyle relay in addition to the bronze medley relay, making her the most decorated Canadian athlete.
“I don't know if I've been able to totally soak it in yet. I'm honestly just kind of happy that the meet is finally over,” she said.
“It's like the longest week ever and to be able to get that last medal with the relay girls I'm so happy with that. I can't wait to get home and be around my family and my friends and really just soak in every moment of it.”
Teammate Masse echoed Oleskiak’s sentiment, speaking of the bond between the Canadian women.
“Being a part of a relay team is so special and the bond we've formed together, getting the opportunity to train together, is even more special,” Masse told CTV National News.
“Obviously, we had high expectations and we wanted to get on the podium for the last time and bring Penny that seventh metal and create history and create a legacy. So, there was definitely nerves there, but I think it's all about channeling those nerves and pumping each other up and supporting each other, to just really go out there and have fun and race as fast as we can.”
And despite her excitement to return home, Oleksiak already has her eyes set on the next Olympics.
“I'd honestly still say it's only the beginning for us,” she said. “We have a really young team this time around and I'm just excited to see what's going to happen in 2024, 2028 with all the talent that we have on the team.”
Athlete known as the ‘Hulk’ crosses arms in an ‘X’ to show support for ‘oppressed people’.
US shot putter Raven Saunders has risked disciplinary action after making the first podium protest of the Olympic Games.
The 25-year-old athlete, who was nicknamed “Hulk” in high school after the Marvel superhero, crossed her arms in an “X” gesture during Sunday’s medal ceremony at the Olympic Stadium after claiming silver in her event on Sunday.
US media outlets reported that Saunders, who is Black and an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ rights, said her gesture was made in solidarity with “oppressed people”.
After clinching her silver medal, Saunders said she wanted to represent “people all around the world who are fighting and don’t have the platform to speak up for themselves.”
Saunders’s protest is the first test of International Olympic Committee rules which ban protests of any kind on the medal podium at the Olympics.
The IOC tweaked its rules regarding athlete protests ahead of the games, saying that peaceful protests before competition would be allowed.
However the Olympics governing body has maintained a strict rule against protesting on the medal podium.
Let them try and take this medal. I’m running across the border even though I can’t swim 😂 https://t.co/B59N2v9KAk
— Raven HULK Saunders (@GiveMe1Shot) August 1, 2021
The IOC is in contact with World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference on Monday. It is unclear what sanction, if any, Saunders may face.
Updated IOC guidelines released last month say that disciplinary consequences for protests will be “proportionate to the level of disruption and the degree to which the infraction is not compatible with Olympic values”.
The USOPC said before the games it would not sanction its athletes for protesting.
It softened its position on podium protests after a review of rules following nationwide protests in the United States last year in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
Experts say the IOC is unlikely to take a heavy-handed approach against athletes for protesting in Tokyo, mindful of the possible public relations backlash.
The purple-and-green-haired Saunders took the silver behind China’s Gong Lijiao.
“I know that in life it is going to be a dogfight – a lot of things aren’t going to come to you easy, so I was kind of expecting it and preparing for it,” she said of the competition.
“I want to make sure that when I’m competing against the best I’m competing against the best at their best.”
Saunders has talked about having substantial issues with mental health a few years back and suffering bouts of depression.
“For everything I’ve been through mental health-wise, injuries, you know, everything like that … being able to really invest everything I’ve had mentally and physically and to be able to walk away with a medal, and be able to go out here and really inspire so many people … I really just hope that I can continue to inspire and motivate.”
TORONTO — After a running two-seamer got away and clipped Michael Taylor on the elbow, loading the bases with two out in the sixth inning, Jose Berrios pounded his glove and shook his head with frustration. That heavy sinker can get away from him at times, running more than 16 inches in to a right-handed hitter. But giving up free bases like that isn’t part of the deal with Berrios, who entered Sunday’s outing having walked only 2.4 per nine and hit just eight batters all season, after hitting only three in 2020. Taylor was Berrios’s third hit batter of the day.
He was a little too amped up, perhaps. A little over-eager to impress. Maybe the nerves from a Toronto Blue Jays debut before 14,427 at Rogers Centre were causing Berrios — acquired in a trade deadline shocker Friday for two of the club’s top prospects — to fly open in his delivery. Whatever it was, Berrios wasn’t in that spot because he didn’t know how to handle it. You don’t pitch your way to multiple all-star seasons, get the nod in Game 1 of a divisional series, and represent your country at the World Baseball Classic without learning how to overcome a little adversity in stressful situations. The Blue Jays paid such a high price for a reason.
And so, after a quick mound visit from his new pitching coach — Pete Walker, who he’d first met about 18 hours earlier — Berrios rubbed up a fresh baseball while peering back at a runner on each base, took a deep breath, and got back to work. Five curveballs later, he was slapping his glove and pumping his fist as he glided off the mound, having induced three swinging strikes from Edward Olivares for his seventh strikeout of the day.
“I said, ‘you know, I came a long way to get here. I don't want to let them take the game from my hands,” Berrios remembered. “So, I tried to keep focused and make quality pitches. And we did it. The guys came to me, we created a plan, and we executed it.”
That was the toughest moment Berrios faced throughout an outstanding Blue Jays debut in which he went six shutout innings, striking out those seven while walking only one, as Toronto completed a weekend sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 5-1 victory. Leaning heavily on his curveball, as he does, Berrios ran up 11 swinging strikes and earned called ones with all four of his pitches, showing Blue Jays fans just how good he can be even on days when his routine’s significantly interrupted.
José BRRRRíos was out here freezing hitters
@JOLaMaKina pic.twitter.com/wuBekbp1CS
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 1, 2021
“I knew what he can do,” said Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo. “But you know why I'm so impressed by what he did? Because, first of all, he was scheduled to pitch for the Twins on Friday. But in the past 48 hours, he had to relocate to another country, during a pandemic, with all the protocols to go with it, meet new teammates and coaches, and get mentally ready for a start to face the same team that he's faced many times. So, that's why I'm so impressed with what he did.
“He knows how to make an adjustment. That's why he's that good. He’s faced this team many times. In the first inning you could tell that they had an idea what's coming. And what did he do? He went to his breaking pitches more. And then got them off-balance after that. That was a great adjustment in the first inning that he made.”
After stranding a pair of first-inning baserunners, Berrios flashed his athleticism in the second, dodging a shard of Taylor’s broken bat to field a comebacker on the mound before pivoting and firing a dart to Marcus Semien at second, starting a double play that erased a leadoff single. A batter later, Berrios notched his first strikeout as a Blue Jay, sitting down Nicky Lopez with a nasty, back foot breaking ball.
That curveball was just nasty
First K as a Blue Jay for José Berríos! #BlueJaysOnSN pic.twitter.com/tTpFiCGGun
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 1, 2021
Two more strikeouts came in the third, followed by another couple in the fourth as Berrios settled into a groove. The fifth was a breeze, but the sixth required some mettle after Berrios loaded the bases thanks to that elbow-clipper to Taylor. But his emphatic strikeout of Olivares was perhaps his most impressive of the day, as Berrios showed the Royals outfielder nothing but curveballs and still got three swinging strikes. In all, Berrios earned a strike with 64 of his 95 pitches, and allowed only three balls in play with exit velocities north of 93-m.p.h.
“The last three days for me was crazy. A lot of things going on. But we finally come here today and do what we love to do — play baseball. Go out there and compete,” he said. “It was different, for sure. I've never been in this position in my career. But every day there's always a first time for everything. So, we have to handle it and work around it. I did my best to try to get through my routine. Had good rest, good food. And then today come to the park and do my work.”
Meanwhile, early run support came off the bats of George Springer, who doubled the game’s opening run home in the third, Semien, who crushed a two-run shot later that inning, and Santiago Espinal, who snuck a solo shot over the left field wall in the fourth. Espinal walked with the bases loaded in the fifth to cash another, continuing a quietly strong season in which he’s now hitting .312/.362/.428 with a 118 wRC+ in limited playing time.
But Sunday was all about Berrios, who completed six innings for a fifth consecutive outing, giving an immediate boost to his new club. Reliably pitching deep into ballgames is one of the biggest factors that drew the Blue Jays to Berrios, who ought to provide trickle-down impact to the club’s beleaguered bullpen by regularly taking three full trips through the opposition lineup and chewing up innings.
“I take a lot of pride in that. Because this is my work. That's the only thing I can do. Just be ready every five days and go out there and do my work,” Berrios said. “So, I take that really, really seriously. Those days between every start, I try to do my best between recovery, nutrition, working, all that stuff. Also, we have to make adjustments on the field, too. Those kinds of things help me to stay strong and healthy between every start.”
Top-10 in starts and innings pitched since he established himself as a big-leaguer in 2017, Berrios has paired durability with effectiveness — he has a 116 ERA+ over that span — to make himself one of the game’s most dependable starters. He’s thrown at least six innings in 14 of 21 starts this season, and has failed to complete five only five times since 2019, a span of 65 outings. The 10.8 WAR he’s posted over that time is a top-20 mark among MLB pitchers, as is his 87.5-m.p.h. average exit velocity allowed — an important number for a pitcher who doesn’t strike out batters at an elite clip.
And he appears to be getting better. His strikeout rate has progressively increased over the course of his career, reaching a high of 25.7 per cent this season, while his 2021 walk rate — 6.5 per cent — is just a shade off his career low and ranks among MLB’s 75th percentile. Entering his prime at 27, Berrios is throwing both his four-seamer and sinker harder than he was in his age-24 and 25 seasons — the two years he was an all-star — while using them more confidently, throwing his four-seamer in the zone nearly 60 per cent of the time.
Of course, Berrios’s biggest weapon isn’t either of his heaters — it’s a big, sweeping curveball he’s used more than any other pitch over the last two seasons, generating a whiff more than 35 per cent of the time hitters offer at it. Berrios’ curveball breaks so much horizontally — 60 per cent more than a league-average curve — that it often looks like a slider, or a slurve at best.
A lot of player development staffs might look at a pitch like that and try to inch it more towards a true 12-6 curveball or a proper slider. But Berrios has proven he can make his unconventional breaking ball work at the big-league level, using it as his primary offering this season and holding batters to a .263 wOBA against it.
He’ll sail it away from right-handed hitters for swing-and-miss and he’ll drive it at the back feet of lefties. Or he’ll backdoor it to those left-handers and drop it on the inner half to righties who think it might hit them. It’s a heavy-duty weapon, and when he’s tunnelling off a sinker that runs in the opposite direction, a four-seamer with decent ride, and a sneaky changeup that left-handers have to respect, Berrios makes for an incredibly uncomfortable plate appearance.
“It's hard to key in on one pitch when he's throwing strikes,” said Semien, who’s faced Berrios 11 times in his career. “It's tough. With a breaking ball like that, you want to try and get it starting closer to you. But he also runs that fastball in there, as well. It's similar to what (Alek) Manoah's been doing. I think he's going to be a guy who can help Manoah get even better, too. Just because they have similar arsenals. I'm excited for that.”
And with his strong outing Sunday, he fit right into a Blue Jays rotation that has been churning out strong starts over the last five days. Wednesday at Fenway Park, Robbie Ray grinded his way through a determined, one-run-over-six-innings outing, before Hyun Jin Ryu capped a long road trip with six shutout innings the next day. Friday, Ross Stripling gave his club exactly what it asks of a No. 5 starter, completing 5.1 innings while allowing only two runs. And then Saturday, in only his ninth big-league start, Manoah demonstrated the frontline potential he could one day reach from what has thus far been a mid-rotation floor, spinning seven shutout innings.
Add Berrios into that mix and suddenly the Blue Jays have a formula to be competitive night in and night out, with a top-five offence it hopes will offset any hiccups. Ray, Ryu and Berrios are a stellar top-three; Manoah’s relatively unproven but rich with upside; Stripling and Steven Matz are solid back-end options; and Thomas Hatch and Anthony Kay provide a decent layer of insurance at six and seven.
You can certainly do worse. And the Blue Jays will hope that starting rotation stability will help the club finally take the next step in a season mostly spent hovering just north of .500. With this weekend’s sweep of the Royals, the Blue Jays have now won four in a row, and six of seven, matching the season’s high-water mark at six games above .500 and pulling themselves out of a brief tailspin that hit during last week’s road trip through New York and Boston.
Of course, we’ve seen this from these Blue Jays before. The reason why the club has merely hung around in the AL wild card race rather than taking a lead in it is because strong stretches like these have reliably been followed by a string of tough results. Quality of competition is a factor, as well. The Blue Jays have reliably beaten up on ordinary clubs like the Royals, going 27-10 against teams below .500. The difficulty has been replicating that success against tougher tests, as the Blue Jays are 27-38 against clubs at .500 or above.
Ultimately, if this team’s going to go on the run it needs over the next two months and make a post-season push, it will have to perform better against good teams. Will Berrios and an overhauled bullpen be enough to get the Blue Jays over that hump? With 51-51 Cleveland and 63-43 Boston passing through Rogers Centre for a pair of four-game sets this week, we’re about to get an indication.
“The pitching has been outstanding. And that's what's going to let us keep going,” Montoyo said. “That's how you keep winning. When you have a chance to win every day, that's all you can ask. Our starters have been great. And like I always say, if we pitch and play defence, we're going to have a chance. Because you know we’re going to swing the bats.”
As reported by CapFriendly, young offensive defenseman Brennan Menell signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs yesterday. Menell’s contract calls for him to earn $750,000 if he plays in the NHL or $400,000 if he plays with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
What makes Menell such an interesting signing is that he had such success last season in the KHL when he scored five goals and 38 points in 47 KHL games. He had moved to the KHL when he couldn’t find a spot on the Minnesota Wild’s roster. But, then, it seems that Menell has had a history of proving people wrong.
Related: Maple Leafs News & Rumors: Andersen, Hyman, Ho-Sang & Bunting
Menell was an undrafted player who showed his ability to be a strong offensive defenseman in three seasons with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants and Lethbridge Hurricanes. He was then signed by the Minnesota Wild in September 2017.
Moving to the AHL with the Iowa Wild in the 2017-18 season, for the next three seasons he continued to put up strong numbers. However, the NHL’s Wild had a logjam of young defensemen and Menell decided to sign with the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk for 2020-21, a team based in Belarus. There he finished the season with 38 points in 47 games, which ranked him second for all KHL defencemen.
Last week, the Wild’s general manager Bill Guerin decided to trade Menell’s negotiating rights to the Maple Leafs for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2022. At the time, Guerin noted that Menell needed a change, and it wasn’t the organization’s policy to get in the way of a young player.
Perhaps Menell’s signing is a minor deal. At first, it seemed to me that way; and, in a recent post announcing the Maple Leafs’ trade for his rights I even suggested that “Menell was probably a long-shot to make the team.” However, my recent research suggests that I might have been hasty making that assessment.
Related: Phantom Sniper Fires Up Red Wings’ “Terrible Ted”
I’m coming to believe the 24-year-old right-shot defenseman might have a bigger upside than I expected. It’s obvious that Maple Leafs’ general manager Kyle Dubas has used his KHL pipeline to scout this youngster, just as they did with Mikko Lehtonen. In fact, this is the second year in a row that the Maple Leafs have signed the KHL’s top young defenseman. It’s obvious the organization is looking for that elusive right-shot defenseman to quarterback their power play.
Getting Menell from the Wild for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2022 draft might turn into something down the road for the organization. According to Earl Schwartz of theleafsnation.com, Menell averaged the most minutes of any player in the KHL last season and really knows how to run a power play. When Schwartz compared Lehtonen and Menell as power-play quarterbacks, he noted that Lehtonen has a big slap shot while Menell is an excellent passer who makes the most of the ice around him.
Related: Behind the Mask with Riveters Goalie Tera Hofmann
Schwartz believes Menell’s value will been seen mostly on the power play. However, at even strength, he’s also able to drive the tempo of the game with fast transitions. As Maple Leafs’ fans know, such uptempo offensive suits the Maple Leafs’ philosophy well.
Currently the Maple Leafs have four defensemen who are a lock going into the 2020-21 season. The first-pairing is Morgan Rielly and T.J. Brodie; and the second-pairing is Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl. Outside these top four, four young defensemen are competing for the last three spots on the roster. Most Maple Leafs’ fans believe Travis Dermott and Rasmus Sandin will become the third pairing, with Timothy Liljegren being the seventh defenseman.
Then, there’s Menell. Is it possible he might be able to beat out either Sandin or Liljegren? Because both are waiver exempt, it would be an easy move to return either to the Marlies. The question is whether Menell could sneak through waivers at the start of the season if he didn’t make the team. I think there’s a chance he wouldn’t.
I heard a rumor that Menell would be highly sought after, and the Maple Leafs might have difficulty signing him. But that didn’t seem to be the case. So, it’s iffy what other teams think about him.
What we do know is that Menell could end up on the Maple Leafs’ or the Marlies’ rosters. If his KHL time is an indication, he can eat up big minutes and quarterback a power play. His strong skating gives the team a right-shot defenseman who can effectively jump into the rush.
Related: Maple Leafs News & Rumors: Chynoweth, Thornton & Player Development
In short, Menell might be an NHL-ready player who can play the kind of offensive style the Maple Leafs desire. Depending upon what happens with Rielly after this season, perhaps there’s more in store for the un-drafted Minnesota native. Is there a chance we might be looking at the next full-time Maple Leafs’ power-play quarterback?
The Old Prof (Jim Parsons, Sr.) taught for more than 40 years in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta. He’s a Canadian boy, who has two degrees from the University of Kentucky and a doctorate from the University of Texas. He is now retired on Vancouver Island, where he lives with his family. His hobbies include playing with his hockey cards and simply being a sports fan – hockey, the Toronto Raptors, and CFL football (thinks Ricky Ray personifies how a professional athlete should act).
If you wonder why he doesn’t use his real name, it’s because his son – who’s also Jim Parsons – wrote for The Hockey Writers first and asked Jim Sr. to use another name so readers wouldn’t confuse their work.
Because Jim Sr. had worked in China, he adopted the Mandarin word for teacher (老師). The first character lǎo (老) means “old,” and the second character shī (師) means “teacher.” The literal translation of lǎoshī is “old teacher.” That became his pen name. Today, other than writing for The Hockey Writers, he teaches graduate students research design at several Canadian universities.
He looks forward to sharing his insights about the Toronto Maple Leafs and about how sports engages life more fully. His Twitter address is https://twitter.com/TheOldProf
