Olympic newsletter: Alysha Newman saves the day, plus De Grasse’s last chance
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It was shaping up as a rough day for Canada’s track and field athletes. This morning, men’s 5,000m medal contender Moh Ahmed was eliminated when he tripped on another runner with about a lap left in his heat. A few hours later, reigning 200m champion Andre De Grasse lost his title when he failed to advance past the semifinals.
But, just when it looked like Canada might go without a medal for the second time in three days, pole vaulter Alysha Newman won a surprising bronze in her first trip to the women’s final in three Olympic appearances.
Brimming with confidence and radiating joy even when she didn’t get over the bar successfully, the striking 30-year-old athlete/um…internet-modelling entrepreneur cleared a national-record 4.85 metres to become the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic pole vault medal (no Canadian man has done it since 1912).
Nina Kennedy of Australia (4.90) took the gold ahead of defending Olympic champion Katie Moon of the United States (4.85 with one less miss than Newman). Kennedy and Moon shared the gold at last year’s world championships.
WATCH | Newman cashes Canada’s lone medal on Day 12:
Alysha Newman of Delaware, Ont., clears 4.85 good enough for the Olympic women’s pole vault bronze medal at Paris 2024.
Newman’s delightful bronze brought Canada’s medal count to 19 (six gold, four silver, nine bronze) through 12 full days of competition. That’s five
medals away from matching the national record for a non-boycotted Summer Games, set three years ago in Tokyo, with four days left.
Day 13 brings podium chances for Canadians in an array of lesser-followed sports like weightlifting, track cycling and taekwondo. Plus, Canada can clinch its first Olympic beach volleyball medal of this century.
Before we get to that stuff, let’s look ahead to an interesting Thursday in track and field while recapping the rest of a chaotic day at the Stade de France.
Andre De Grasse’s last shot at a medal starts Thursday
It’s been a tough Games for Canada’s biggest track star. Before this, De Grasse had never failed to win a medal in an Olympic event, going 3-for-3 in both Rio and Tokyo — highlighted by his gold in the 200m three summers ago. In Paris, he’s 0-for-2 at even making the finals after being eliminated in the 100m semifinals on Sunday and, today, the 200m semis.
De Grasse finished third in his heat in 20.41 seconds — his worst time of the season and borderline glacial for someone who ran a 19.62 in Tokyo and a 19.76 to win the Diamond League Final just last year.
The silver lining to De Grasse’s failure to qualify for Thursday’s 200m final is it frees him up to go all out in the men’s 4x100m heats earlier in the day. Realistically, the relay was always his best hope for a medal in Paris anyway.
However, De Grasse said he “reaggravated” a hamstring injury during his 200m semifinal. “The pain was too much, so I couldn’t even push,” he told trackside reporter Devin Heroux. But Canada’s top sprinter sounded optimistic about his status for the relay. “It doesn’t hurt as much on the straights,” said De Grasse, who normally runs the less-bendy anchor leg.
WATCH | De Grasse’s 200m Olympic title defence ends in semifinals:
Tokyo 2020 200-metre champion Andre De Grasse of Markham, Ont., finished third in his 200m heat, which was not enough to qualify for the final at Paris 2024.
De Grasse’s relay teammates Brendon Rodney and Aaron Brown also failed to advance in the 200m, placing fifth and seventh in their heats. American Noah Lyles remains favoured to win gold after capturing the 100m title on Sunday. The 200m final is at 2:30 p.m. ET.
The men’s 4×100 heats begin at 5:35 a.m. ET. Canada also has a team in the women’s 4×100 heats at 5:10 a.m. ET. Also in the morning session, women’s shot put medal contender Sarah Mitton competes in her qualifying round at 4:25 a.m. ET.
Later, young Canadian record holder Savannah Sutherland runs in the women’s 400m hurdles final at 3:25 p.m. ET. American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is favoured to repeat as Olympic champion.
Earlier today, Canada’s Moh Ahmed was eliminated from the men’s 5,000m after he tripped on another runner’s foot and went down with a little more than a lap left in his heat. “I ate it hard,” said Ahmed, who won silver in the 5,000 in Tokyo and looked like a contender here after placing fourth in a scorching 10,000 final last week. He appealed for a berth in Saturday’s final, but it was denied by the officials, who allowed four other runners from the heat to advance after they hit the deck in a separate crash with less than 100m to go.
Canada’s Thomas Fafard qualified by placing eighth in that disastrous race. Canadian road 5K record holder Ben Flanagan did not advance after finishing 17th in the other heat, where an oblivious cameraman wandered onto the track and got in the way of several runners.
WATCH | De Grasse says he may have run 200m semifinal with injury:
After being eliminated in the Olympic men’s 200-metre semifinals, Andre De Grasse tells CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux that he may have re-aggravated a hamstring injury.
Things went more smoothly for Canada’s Marco Arop in the first round of the men’s 800m. The world champion placed second in his heat to move on to Friday’s semifinals. Arop’s main rivals — Djamel Sedjati of Algeria, Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya, Gabriel Tual of France and Ben Pattison of Great Britain — all won their heats.
Also today, Canada’s Evan Dunfee and Olivia Lundman finished 20th in the mixed race walk relay, while Olympic rookie Jean-Simon Desgagnes placed 13th in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase final. There was a frightening scene near the end of that race when world-record holder Lamecha Girma clipped his leg on a late hurdle and crashed incredibly hard. The Ethiopian was taken off on a stretcher, motionless. Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali won his second consecutive Olympic gold.
American Quincy Hall stole the men’s 400m with a devastating kick to nip Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, whose European-record time of 43.44 seconds was bettered by Hall’s personal-best 43.40.
Other Canadians to watch on Thursday
Weightlifting: Maude Charron in the women’s 59kg event
Charron won gold three years ago in Tokyo, becoming just the second Canadian to capture an Olympic weightlifting title. But that came in the 64kg division, which was eliminated from the program, forcing Charron to drop down in weight.
Canada’s co-flag-bearer for the opening ceremony in Paris remains a contender in her new weight class. She took bronze at the 2022 world championships and, after missing the 2023 worlds with a knee injury, returned to take silver at the Pan Am Games later in the year. The competition starts at 9 a.m. ET. Here’s more on Charron.
Track cycling: Kelsey Mitchell, Lauriane Genest and Dylan Bibic in two events
Mitchell and Genest advanced to the women’s keirin quarterfinals at 11:18 a.m. ET. They’ll try to qualify for the semis an hour later and the medal race for the top six riders at 1:11 p.m. ET. Genest was the bronze medallist in this event at the 2021 Olympics, while Mitchell won gold in the sprint.
Bibic is a contender in the men’s omnium, a gruelling four-stage event starting at 11 a.m. ET. The 21-year-old won gold in the men’s scratch race at the 2022 world championships and took silver in the elimination race at last year’s worlds. Those events are not in the Olympics as separate competitions, but they’re both part of the omnium. Watch this video for more on Bibic.
Taekwondo: Skylar Park in the women’s 57kg event
Park is seeded fourth in her 16-fighter bracket after winning her first gold on the prestigious Grand Prix circuit last year and adding the Pan Am Games title. She’ll face 13th-seeded Czech Dominika Hronova at 3:09 a.m. ET.
The medal bouts are at 2:34 p.m. ET (bronze) and 3:37 p.m. ET (gold).
Beach volleyball: Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson in the women’s semifinals
Canada’s top beach duo got off to a rough start in Paris, losing two of their three group-stage matches. But they’ve been lights-out ever since, winning three straight elimination games at Eiffel Tower Stadium. Today, the seventh-ranked team defeated a 16th-ranked Spanish pair in straight sets to become the first Canadian women’s beach volleyballers to reach the final four at the Olympics.
Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson will face the ninth-ranked Swiss team of Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner at 11 a.m. ET. Win or lose, they’ll go on to play for Canada’s first beach volleyball medal since John Child and Mark Heese won the men’s bronze in the sport’s Olympic debut in 1996.
WATCH | Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson hunt for medal in beach volleyball semis:
Watch women’s beach volleyball quarterfinal action as Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson take on Spain’s Daniela Alvarez Mendoza and Tania Moreno Matveeva at Paris 2024.
Something else to know
A Canadian is near the top of the leaderboard in women’s golf — just not the one you think.
Brooke Henderson is the top Canadian playing this week at Le Golf National. She’s a two-time major champion with 13 LPGA Tour titles to her name and is ranked a Canadian-best 17th in the world. But Henderson had an up-and-down opening round today, to say the least. She carded six bogeys, a double bogey and four birdies before draining an 48-foot eagle putt on the final hole to end up with a 2-over 74 — tied for 30th in the 60-player tournament.
Meanwhile, 248th-ranked Alena Sharp birdied the final two holes for a 1-under 71 — tied for seventh. France’s Celine Boutier fired a 7-under 65 for a three-shot lead on the field. Here’s more on today’s golf.
How to watch the Olympics
Live events are televised on the CBC TV network, TSN and Sportsnet. Or choose exactly what you want to watch by live streaming on CBC Gem or CBC Sports’ Paris 2024 website and app.
Highlights of CBC Sports’ digital coverage include Paris Tonight with host Ariel Helwani, live every night at 11 p.m. ET from Canada Olympic House in Paris; Rise and Stream with host Meg Roberts, identifying the key events to watch each day; Hot Takes with host Dale Manucdoc, highlighting must-see moments; and Paris Pulse with Meg and Dale, discussing trending stories from the Games.
You can also test your Olympic knowledge and win prizes on The Game, a nightly trivia contest with host Craig McMorris. Read more about CBC’s multi-platform Olympics coverage here.
