)It’s that wondrous time in sport when swimmers, hammer throwers and judokas enjoy the same spotlight on the world stage as their counterparts in basketball, tennis and golf. The Paris Olympics kick off Friday with a unique opening ceremony, flotilla-style down the Seine River.
It won’t be long before Canadians are watching the sport of breaking for the first time and, of course, forming definite views on who should win, arguing with family about the merits of race walking or tearing up over what an unheralded athlete went through just to get to Paris.
The Paris 2024 Olympics, like all those that have come before, are set to be an eclectic mix of incredible athleticism and inspiration alongside dour global realities of money and politics, climate change, wars, human rights and security concerns. Here’s what to expect in sport from Friday to Aug. 11.
New events
Breaking makes its first, and possibly only, Olympic appearance. Breakdancing, as it used to be called, features a field of 16 b-boys and 16 b-girls competing in one-onone battles lasting about a minute. Vancouver’s Philip Kim (b-boy Phil Wizard) is ranked No. 1 in the world and a medal favourite.
In team artistic swimming, an acrobatic routine has been added to the existing technical and free programs so it will take three incredible, breath-holding performances to win a single medal.
A new kayak cross event pits four athletes against each other, not just the clock, as they navigate a whitewater slalom course. Contact is allowed so it’ll be unpredictable as they try to knock each other off their lines to the gates.
Kiteboarding athletes fly a kite overhead and are strapped to a board with a foil that rides out of the water and speeds can reach 80 km/hr. Windsurfing has become a foiling event making it faster and more exciting.
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Disgraceful behaviour on Parliament Hill
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Sports needs characters we can root for, and characters we can blame, writes Edward Keenan. Rogers buying Bell's MLSE stake will supply more of the latter, starting with chairman Edward Rogers.For a sports fan, there’s something satisfying about that. For years with the Leafs in particular, the owner was a pension plan, and it was hard to tell if its controlling executives (never mind the teachers whose money they were spending) cared about hockey one way or the other. And whether they did or not, how could you figure out who was responsible for what they did as a result?
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Dutcher wins second Polaris award
Singer donating prize to school in New Brunswick
