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BEIJING, China – Canada’s Olympic sports fans won’t be short of storylines Friday at the Beijing Games.
The country can hope for medals in two separate freestyle skiing events, Quebec skater Laurent Dubreuil will try to get on the podium in long track, the curling tournament is entering a crucial segment and in men’s hockey, we will make way for the semi-finals.
Here are five events to watch during the 14and day of the Beijing Olympics.
Dubreuil looking for a better result (Friday, 3:30 a.m.)
Laurent Dubreuil finished fourth in the 500m long track speed skating event earlier in the Games after he was caught out for a false start.
The Quebecer will be hoping for a better result in the 1,000 metres, a competition he will enter as the reigning bronze medalist from last year’s world championships. Friday in Beijing, he will want, at the very least, to match this performance.
Curling: men’s battle for bronze (Friday, 1 a.m.)
In the men’s curling tournament, two countries will compete for the bronze medal. Unfortunately, we will find the quartet of Canadian skip Brad Gushue who lost 5-3 to Sweden in the semi-finals on Thursday. For the bronze, the Canadian formation will be opposed to the United States which lost the flag 8-4 in front of Great Britain.
Medal hopes in the women’s halfpipe (Thursday, 8:30 p.m.)
Alberta’s Cassie Sharpe is seen as a serious contender for a second Olympic gold medal in freestyle skiing halfpipe.
Dominant for the past four years, Sharpe won gold at the PyeongChang Games in 2018 and at the X Games in the winter of 2019.
You will also have to keep an eye on Rachael Karker, a 24-year-old Ontarian, who won a silver medal at the 2021 World Championships and who has reached the podium on several occasions at the X Games.
Another Canadian qualified in the top-12 for the final, Amy Fraser.
Leman defending his ski cross title (Thursday, 10:45 p.m.)
Brady Leman, the reigning Olympic champion in men’s ski cross, will be chasing another gold medal.
The 35-year-old Leman is competing in his fourth and possibly last Olympic Games. If these are indeed his last Games, there is no doubt that he will want to end on a very positive note.
In 2019, Leman, who hails from Calgary, earned a silver medal at the World Championships.
Europe in the spotlight in men’s hockey (Thursday, 11:10 p.m.)
The two semi-final games of the Men’s Olympic Hockey Tournament will be played.
Canada and the United States were eliminated in the quarter-finals, but North American hockey fans will no doubt be familiar with some of the players who will play in these semi-finals.
We will see, among others, Valtteri Filppula and Markus Granlund, for Finland, Artem Anisimov and Mikhail Grigorenko, for the Russian Olympic Committee, as well as Marcus Kruger and Joakim Nordstrom, in the Swedish uniform. There remains the amazing formation of Slovakia, which counts on Simon Nemec and Juraj Slafkovsky, two hopes for the next draft of the NHL.
In addition, Canadian Christine de Bruin won bronze in the monobob and will be back on the track in the 2-man bobsleigh with Kristen Bujnowski, a good hope for medals.
Two other Canadian duos will be at work during the first two rounds (out of a total of four), those of Melissa Lotholz with Sara Villani and Cynthia Appiah with Dawn Richardson Wilson.
Jules Burnotte, Christian Gow and Scott Gow will take part in the men’s 15 km mass start biathlon event on Friday at 4 a.m.
Two Canadian couples will present their short program to begin the figure skating competition at 5:30 a.m. They are Vanessa James with Eric Radford, as well as Kirsten Moore-Towers with Michael Marinaro.
