Olympic stock watch: Who's up and who's down on the road to Beijing
Canadian skaters win gold, big-name curler out of Olympic hunt
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Olympic stock watch: Canadian figure skaters up, big-name curler down
It's Monday, which means it's time for our weekly rundown of the most interesting performances by Canadian and international winter Olympic athletes over the weekend. Here's whose stock is pointing up and whose is down as we continue to track those hoping to contend for medals at the Beijing Olympics in February:
Up: Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier
The ice dance duo justified their status as Canada's best hope for an Olympic figure skating medal by winning gold at the Skate Canada International Grand Prix event in Vancouver. Gilles and Poirier took silver at the world championships last season. Neither of the other two tandems on that podium — Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, and Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue — competed at Skate Canada. The competition could be stiffer at Gilles and Poirier's other Grand Prix assignment, in France later this month, where the entries include 2018 Olympic silver medallists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.
Though they missed the podium, Canadians Vanessa James and Eric Radford also had an encouraging performance at Skate Canada, finishing fourth in the pairs event by a margin of less than two points in their first Grand Prix together. Radford, 36, was a two-time world champion and a 2018 Olympic bronze medallist in pairs with former partner Meagan Duhamel. They retired after the Olympics, but Radford decided earlier this year to make a comeback with James.
Up: Nathan Chen
One of the favourites to win men's figure skating gold in Beijing blew away the field at Skate Canada to bounce back from his disappointing third-place showing at Skate America the previous week That result snapped Chen's incredible 14-event winning streak, but it appears the winner of the last three men's world titles is in fact poised to add his first Olympic individual medal in February.
The best result by a Canadian individual skater this weekend was Keegan Messing's fifth-place finish in the men's event. Madeline Schizas (eighth) was the top Canadian in the women's.
Next up on the Grand Prix circuit is the Italian Grand Prix, which starts Friday and is replacing the Cup of China on the calendar this season. Ice dancers Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus are the only Canadians slated to compete. Read more about the takeaways from Skate Canada and watch That Figure Skating Show's Dylan Moscovitch and Asher Hill break it down here.
Down: Glenn Howard
One of the best curlers of all time, Howard owns four Brier and four world titles — two of each as a skip. But he's never played in the Olympics, and it seems like that ship has officially sailed for the 59-year-old. With one of the final two spots in this month's Canadian Olympic trials on the line yesterday in Liverpool, N.S., Howard lost to 23-year-old skip Tanner Horgan, who earned his first trip to the trials. The other men's spot went to veteran Jason Gunnlaugson, while Krista McCarville and Jacqueline Harrison grabbed the two women's trials berths up for grabs.
The trials run Nov. 20-28 in Saskatoon and will decide which teams represent Canada in the men's and women's events at the Beijing Olympics. The other men's skips are Kevin Koe, Brad Gushue, Brad Jacobs, Brendan Bottcher, Mike McEwen, John Epping and Matt Dunstone. The other women's skips are Rachel Homan, Kerri Einarson, Jennifer Jones, Tracy Fleury (Horgan's sister), Kelsey Rocque, Laura Walker and Casey Scheidegger.
The second Grand Slam of Curling event of the season, the National, begins tomorrow in Chestermere, Alta. It's the last Slam before the trials. Fleury and Scotland's Bruce Mouat were the women's and men's winners, respectively, at the opener two weekends ago.
Up: Pascal Dion
Canada's hottest short track speed skater took bronze in the men's 1,000 metres at a World Cup event for the second time in as many weeks. Dion, 27, also teamed with Charles Hamelin, Steven Dubois and Jordan Pierre-Gilles to win the men's 5,000m relay in Nagoya, Japan, giving Canada its first gold medal of the young season. Dion and Hamelin were part of the Canadian foursome that took bronze in this event at the 2018 Olympics.
On the women's side, Kim Boutin had another tough weekend. The 2018 Olympic triple medallist finished fifth in the 1,000m and fourth in the 500. She's missed the podium in all four of the individual events she's entered so far this season. The next short track World Cup stop is Nov. 18-21 in Hungary.
Quickly…
Gary Bettman defended his rulings in relation to the Chicago sexual-assault allegations. Speaking to reporters publicly for the first time since the results of an investigation into the 2010 allegations was released last week, the commissioner called the $2-million US fine the NHL handed the Chicago franchise "significant." He also stood by his decision to allow Joel Quenneville to coach a game for Florida after the report came out (Quenneville, who was Chicago's head coach in 2010, later resigned) and to not discipline Winnipeg general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff (a Chicago assistant GM in 2010) because of his limited role in Chicago's decision to avoid dealing with allegations made by young player Kyle Beach against video coach Brad Aldrich. Read more about Bettman's comments and the latest fallout from the report here.
Canada pulled off a tennis upset. Despite being without the country's two best players, Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu, Canada took down defending-champion France today in its opening matchup at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Prague. Formerly known as the Fed Cup, this is basically the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup. Each matchup between countries consists of two singles matches and, if necessary, a deciding doubles match. After Canada's Francoise Abanda won her singles match and Rebecca Marino lost hers, Marino and Gaby Dabrowski beat Clara Burel and Alize Cornet in doubles. Canada closes the group stage tomorrow vs. Russia. The winner of each of the four three-team groups advances to the semifinals. Read more about Canada's victory over France here.
And finally...
On this day 75 years ago, Toronto hosted the first NBA game. The league was actually known back then as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) before rebranding a few years later. But the Nov. 1, 1946 matchup between the New York Knicks and the Toronto Huskies at Maple Leaf Gardens is still considered the inaugural NBA game. The Knicks won (Bing Bong!) by a score of 68-66 (this was the pre-shot-clock era) in front of 7,090 fans, who paid between 75 cents and $2.50 for tickets. New York's Ossie Schectman made the NBA's first-ever basket (a layup) and Toronto player/coach Ed Sadowski was the top scorer with 18 points. The Huskies finished that season with a 22-38 record and then disbanded. It would take 48 years for the NBA to return to Toronto, with the Raptors expansion franchise beginning play in 1995. To mark the 75th anniversary of the first NBA game, the Raptors are visiting the Knicks tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET. See what that first game looked like here.
You're up to speed. Talk to you tomorrow.
