16 Reasons to watch 2016 Olympics

Leading up to the 2012 Olympics, I shared an article from CTV Olympics that I wished I had written. It was "12 Reasons to Watch the 2012 Olympics".

This time around, I have had fun compiling my own list of 16 reasons to watch the 2016 Olympics. Thanks to CTV for the inspiration.

16. Swimmer Penny Oeksiak (16 years old) and the swim team


The 16 year old may surprise in Rio after breaking the Canadian record in the 100-metre fly which was at the time the 5th fastest time in the world this year. She is also competing in the 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x200m freestyle relay.

Two London Olympic medallists are back aiming for the podium in Rio - Ryan Cochrane in the 400m and 1500m freestyle and Richard Weinberger in the 10k open water marathon. Ryan Cochrane competes on Day 1 and may win Canada's first medal in the 400m.

Another exciting swimmer is 21 year old Santo Condorelli who made his international debut in 2015 and won 4 medals at the Toronto Pan Am Games.

The swim team has a special place in my heart as they were the team I was responsible for during the 2012 Olympic parade in Toronto. Front and center in the photo is returning Olympic medallist Richard Weinberger showing off his bronze medal.

Also really hoping for a great performance by Brittany MacLean who competed in 2012 with her sister Heather. This year she's competing in 4 events and swimming better than ever with a national record at the Olympic trials.

My daughter was thrilled to have her photo taken with her at the send-off party for the 2012 team. We had seen the sisters qualify for the Olympic team when the Olympic trials were televised that year.

15. Frederic Winters (Jersey #15)

Men's Volleyball captain and #15 Frederic Winters leads the team to Canada's first Olympic Games in 24 years.

My sister who was travelling last week was very excited (for me) when she saw Team Canada athletes at the airport. She didn't know who they were, but took photos for me. Even with the first one being blurry, I instantly recognized our volleyball team. Apologies to the team if it was too early in the morning to hear "Go Canada Go" but she was very excited.

14. Athletes from 14 of the 18 medals we won in 2012 are back in Rio.

1. Rosie MacLennan - trampoline gold
2. Men's Eight Rowing (Will Crothers, Conlin McCabe, Rob Gibson)
3. Women's Eight Rowing (Lesley Thompson, Lauren Wilkinson)
4. Ryan Cochrane - swimming
5. Jennifer Abel - diving synchro
6. Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion - diving synchro
7. Antoine Valois-Fortier - judo
8. Tara Whitten and Jasmin Glaesser - cycling team pursuit
9. Derek Drouin - high jump
10. Mark de Jonge - canoe kayak sprint
11. Mark Oldershaw - canoe kayak sprint
12. Adam van Koeverden - canoe kayak sprint
13. Richard Weinburger - swimming 10K marathon
14. Women's soccer - Alysha Chapman, Diana Matheson, Sophie Schmidt, Desiree Scott, Christine Sinclair, Melissa Tancredi, Rhian Wilkinson

13. Children of Olympians

1. Ashton Baumann (Swimming, father Alex)
2. Émilie Fournel (Canoe/Kayak Sprint, father Jean) 
3. Hugues Fournel (Canoe/Kayak Sprint, father Jean) 
4. Kennedy Goss (Swimming, father Sandy)
5. Nick Hoag (Volleyball, father Glenn)
6. Lynda Kiejko (Shooting, father Bill Hare)
7. Kai Langerfeld (Rowing, father York)
8. Amy Millar (Equestrian, father Ian)
9. Mark Oldershaw (Canoe/Kayak Sprint, father Scott)
10. Sergio Pessoa (Judo, father Sergio)
11. Micha Powell (Athletics, mother Rosey Edeh, father Mike Powell)
12. Ben Saxton (Beach Volleyball, father Don)
13. Dori Yeats (Wrestling, father Doug)

12. Christine Sinclair Jersey #12 

  

In 2012, #12 Christine Sinclair led Canada's women's soccer team to bronze. They're ready to compete for a medal in Rio and already won their first game upsetting #5 ranked Australia two days before the Opening Ceremony. They play again on Saturday.

11. Number of Canoe Kayak sprint and slalom Canadians

In 2012, three sprint athletes won medals. Will they repeat? Look out for Mark de Jonge (K1-200m), Adam van Koeverden (K1-1000m) and Mark Oldershaw (C1-1000m).

I'm also particularly excited that Hugues Fournel who I first met during the 2012 Olympic Heroes Tour was added to the team this week with fellow 2012 Olympian Ryan Cochrane (yes there are two Ryan Cochrane's on Team Canada once again). I was responsible for taking athletes to schools for inspirational talks and enjoyed listening to Hugues' story about being the son of an Olympic athlete (1976) to being the brother of an Olympic athlete (2008, 2012) and finally becoming an Olympian himself in 2012.

With kayaker Hugues Fournel and para-judo athlete Justin Karn

10. Number of events in the decathlon and 10 Medal hopefuls in Athletics

I am not saying that Canada will get 10 medals, but there are at least 10 Athletics athletes who have the potential to end up on the podium.

1. Damian Warner (decathlon)
2. Brianne Thiesen-Eaton (heptathlon)
3. Derek Drouin (high jump)
4. Shawn Barber (pole vault)
5. Andre DeGrasse (100m, 200m, 4x100 relay)
6. Melissa Bishop (800m)
7. Christabel Nettey (long jump)
8. Ben Thorne (race walk)
9. Mohammed Ahmed (5000m and 10000m)
10. Brendon Rodney (200m)

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10. Ten athletes on #TeamRefugees

Taking a small break from my typical Canada-focus article to add an extra #10.

More importantly than Team Canada and potential medallists are inspiring stories like the refugees who will be competing in Rio under the Olympic flag.

Click here for Rio 2016 article about the athletes' arrival in Rio.

One of the refugees is Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini who helped save 20 refugees when the motor on their dinghy stopped while fleeing on the Mediterrean Sea. Click here to read more of her story.

NBC has a great website dedicated to Team Refugees including their stories. Click here.

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9. Number of Cycling events in Rio

1. BMX
2. Mountain
3. Road Race
4. Time Trial
5. Keirin
6. Omnium
7. Sprint
8. Team Pursuit
9. Team Sprint

Potential Canadian medallists include

• BMX (Tory Nyhaug)
• Women's team pursuit (Allison Beveridge, Laura Brown, Jasmin Glaesser, Kirsti Lay, Georgia Simmerling)
• Mountain biking (Catharine Pendrel and Emily Batty).

8. Rowing's 8 and 8th Olympics for coxswain Lesley Thompson-Willie

Unfortunately Rowing Canada didn't enter a Rowing 8 team in the Olympic qualifying process for our men's team choosing to focus on teams of 4, but our women's team will be aiming for the podium led by 8 time Olympian Lesley Thompson-Willie. This ties for the most Olympics by a female athlete.

Click here to read the CBC article "Canada heading to Rio Olympics minus storied men's 8 crew".


7. Rugby Sevens

2016 will be Rugby Sevens' first Olympics and is a high paced exciting sport. Canada's men's team sadly didn't qualify for Rio, but a few sources are predicting a medal for Canada's women's Rugby Sevens team.


6. Vasek Pospisil was 6 years old when his doubles partner Daniel Nestor competed in his first Olympics in 1996. Rio will be Nestor's 6th Olympics.

Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau won doubles gold at the Olympics in 2000. Can career golden slam champion Nestor team up with Pospisil who won the doubles Wimbledon championship in 2014 to create some magic in Rio?

5. Five teams have qualified for Rio:

1. field hockey men
2. rugby women
3. basketball women
4. volleyball men
5. soccer women

Canada's women's basketball team is led by #5 Kia Nurse, Canada's 2015 Pan Am Closing Ceremony Flag Bearer.

After qualifying two teams at the 2012 Olympics, Canada's teams in Rio is partly a result of an influx of funding.

Click here to read "Cash influx revives Canadian team sports for Rio" in the Toronto Star.

4. The Fab IV

Our women's diving team won synchro bronze in 10m synchro (Meaghan Benfeito/Roseline Filion) and 3m synchro (Jennifer Abel/Émilie Heymans) in 2012.

Pamela Ware has since replaced Heymans to pair with Jennifer Abel. Both pairs are aiming to medal in 2016.

3. Andre DeGrasse will compete against Usain Bolt 3 times - 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.

Degrasse was 3rd in the 100m and Canada was 3rd in the relay at the 2015 World Championships. Will they be on the podium in Rio?

2. Teams of 2

Many events have athletes competing with a partner. Canada's teams of 2 are in:

• beach volleyball (2 women's teams and 2 men's teams)
• canoe/kayak (K2-200m men), K2-500m women)
• cycling team sprint (women)
• diving (women 3m synchro and 10m synchro)
• rowing (women lightweight double sculls, women pair)
• sailing (men 470, women 49er FX, mixed Nacra 17)
• synchronized swimming (duet)
• tennis (men's doubles, women's doubles)

1. One defending Olympic gold medallist and Flag Bearer

Rosie MacLennan has been known as our only gold medallist from the 2012 Olympics but that title may change if retired weightlifter Christine Girard is upgraded to gold from her bronze after positive doping infractions by the two competitors who won gold and silver.

MacLennan is back in 2016 and aiming for the podium once again. She has been an incredible ambassador to Team Canada in the last quadrennial and is the perfect choice as our flag bearer for the 2016 Olympics.

My daughter with Rosie MacLennan at the Pan Am Countdown event

2008 Olympic Silver medallist Jason Burnett joins Rosie on the trampoline team.

Who benefits if Russians are stripped of 2014 Olympic medals?

With the WADA report offering even more evidence of the state sponsored doping in Russia, the talk and speculation is whether Russia should be allowed to compete in Rio at all. If they are not, then who should take their place and is there time for those replacements to be made? I look forward to see how the IOC answers these questions.

Of course with the 2016 Olympics less than three weeks away, this should be the priority for the IOC but just as important, what should happen to the 33 medals won by Russia in Sochi?

Without doping, Russia would have won medals and so I am sympathetic to the athletes who would have or could have medalled while competing clean.

Ideally, having the ability to prove sample tampering, those the athletes whose samples are proven to be tampered with should lose their medals.

This is above and beyond WADA receiving "serious information that xenon was being used" at the Sochi Olympics to boost performance but can not be proven.

Although it saddens me to hear about the doping, I am encouraged for the future that perhaps people, organizations and countries will be deterred to cheat.

If every Russian athlete is found to have tampered samples, who benefits?

A better question is perhaps who was cheated out of experiencing their Olympic moment?

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Summary:

China would receive 5 more medals.
Norway would get 4 extra medals.
Italy and Canada increase their total medals by 3.
11 other countries would receive the remaining medals.

How would it affect Canada's results?
Canada would receive gold in figure skating team event.
Marc-Antoine Gagnon would win bronze in the moguls event for a Canada podium sweep.
Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch would win bronze.
Canada would be awarded its first luge medal ever with a bronze in the team relay.
Charle Cournoyer's bronze medal would be upgraded to silver.

Other interesting stories:
4-time Skeleton World Champion and 7-time World Cup overall champion Martins Dukurs would win his first Olympic gold medal. His brother Tomass would be awarded his first Olympic medal with a bronze.

5-time World Champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy would be upgraded to their first Olympic gold medal in Pairs Figure Skating.

5 individual medals were won by Viktor Ahn from South Korea and Vic Wild from U.S.A. who competed for Russia in 2014.

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There are some interesting stories looking back at the medals.

Five individual medals were won by two athletes who became Russian citizens in order to compete in Sochi. Viktor Ahn from South Korea in short track speed skating and Vic Wild from the United States in snowboard alpine. Did these two athletes understand what they were signing up for when they chose to compete for Russia? Were they willing to do anything possible including doping in order to medal at the Olympics?

Viktor Ahn won 3 individual medals (2 gold, 1 bronze) plus a relay gold at the 2006 Olympics. Is it feasible that after being left off the 2010 Olympic team and not having many international results since then that Ahn could win four medals at the 2014 Olympics without doping?

Vic Wild was frustrated by the lack of funding and support from the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association. He married a Russian in 2011 and joined the Russian sports program. You can read a 2014 story about his success here. He and his wife both medalled in Sochi. Did Russia provide him with training, coaching, funding and equipment that he didn't receive in the U.S. or was doping also provided? If he was a clean athlete, it's sad that he is now implicated in this scandal.

Anyone who follows skeleton knows how dominant Martins Dukurs is in the sport. He is the overall World Cup champion for every season since the 2009-2010 season. He won the World Championships in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016. A Russian won the World Championships in 2013 and Olympic gold in 2014 (there was no World Championships in 2014). Alexander Tretiakov had already won gold at the 2010 Olympics. He could have won the Olympics in 2014 competing clean (if he was clean in 2010), but did he? Did Dukurs underperform in 2014 or did Russia ensure that Tretiakov would win? If the Russian cheated and is stripped of his medal, Dukurs would be upgraded to gold and his brother Tomass would be awarded bronze, his first Olympic medal after being 4th in 2010 and 2014.

Initially I was surprised to see the hockey results that Russia didn't medal. Shouldn't this have been an important medal to win for them? Looking at the roster, 15 of the 24 players are in the NHL which would be difficult to add to a doping program. Was the women's hockey medal not important enough or did doping not help their performance?

If red flags weren't already raised by some of the Russian performances, the cross-country 50km race on the last day of competition certainly did. Like the Summer Olympics who award the marathon medals at the closing ceremony, the medallists received their medals at the closing ceremony of the Sochi Games with Russia sweeping the podium. If you look at World Championships medals, one Russian has won silver in 2009 and 2011. What are the chances that three Russian athletes sweep the podium without doping?

If the Russian mogul skier had his sample tampered with, the Canadian team would sweep the podium with Alexandre Bilodeau winning gold, Mikaël Kingsbury silver and Marc-Antoine Gagnon promoted to bronze.

Canada was 4th in three luge events including the team relay. The team was heartbroken at how close they came to win their first Olympic medal. At the time, there was speculation that the track had been tampered with after Russia sled down during the team relay. The teams competed in reverse order of seeding.  The dominant German team who won the men's singles, women's singles and doubles were able to overcome the potential tampering by finishing first. Russia finished second. The other teams to slide after Russia did not medal. Add the doping scandal to the speculated tampering and teams were sliding uphill for medals. If one of these theories is accurate, Canada should have won its first ever luge medal in 2014. 

It's not unusual for Russia to win multiple medals in figure skating. Were they competing clean? If so, hopefully it can be proven that their samples were not tampered with. However, questions remain about Evgeni Plushenko's performance while suffering from a back injury to help Russia win gold in the team event, then pulling out of the singles competition too late for a replacement to be named. It's possible that Russia wins multiple medals without doping, but perhaps Russia didn't want to take that chance.

There was controversy over the scoring for the ladies figure skating competition. If Russia loses its gold medal, Kim Yuna would be boosted up to gold defending her 2010 Olympic gold medal.

Russian pairs have a history of success. One of my favourite pairs of all time are Russians. However in 2010 there was no Russian pairs on the podium. In 2014 they won gold and silver. In the years leading up to 2014 these two teams won one silver in 2011 and one gold in 2013. They never shared the podium but are 1-2 at the 2014 Olympics? The German pair Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won the World Championships in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014. They won bronze at the 2010 Olympics and the 2014 Olympics. They would be upgraded to gold if the Russian pairs are stripped of their medals. Canada's Dylan Moscovitch and Kirsten Moore-Towers would be upgraded to bronze after finishing 5th. Moscovitch and Moore-Towers split their partnership a few months after the Olympics. Moscovitch now interestingly skates with a Russian skater.

Who could have won medals and didn't? (Full details follow)

Some sports are not as simple as others. With some athletes being eliminated in early rounds or preliminary races, some athletes did not advance to semi finals or finals because they were beaten by alleged doping athletes.

Looking only at fourth place finishes (not medals that would change colour), China would be awarded 5 medals (one of which is in figure skating and three in short track speed skating). This would increase their total medals to 14.

Norway was fourth 4 times behind Russians at the Olympics. This would increase their total medals won to 30.

Italy and Canada would increase their medal count by 3 increasing their total to 11.

Five countries would get two extra medals (Austria, Latvia, France, USA and Germany) and six countries would get one (Czech Republic, Great Britain, Japan, Belarus and Netherlands).

Who would be upgraded to gold if the Russians were stripped of their medals?

Germany - Men Biathlon Relay
Switzerland - Bobsleigh - 2 Man
Latvia - Bobsleigh - 4 Man
Martin Johnsrud Sundby - Norway - Cross-Country 50km
Kim Yuna - South Korea - Figure Skating - Ladies
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Germany - Figure Skating - Pairs
Canada - Figure Skating Team
Wu Kajing China - Short Track Speed Skating Men's 500m
Sjinkie Knegt - Netherlands - Short Track Speed Skating Men's 1500m
USA - Short Track Speed Skating Men's 5000m relay
Martins Dukurs Latvia - Skeleton (his brother would be awarded the bronze)
Žan Košir Slovenia - Snowboard Men's Parallel Slalom
Nevin Galmarini Switzerland - Snowboard Men's Giant Parallel Slalom

Who won the Russian medals and who finished behind them? 

Biathlon - Men Individual
Bronze Evgeniy Garanichev
 4th Simon Eder - Austria --> Bronze

Biathlon Relay - Men 
Gold Russia
 Silver Germany --> Gold
 Bronze Austria --> Silver
 4th Norway --> Bronze

Biathlon - Women Sprint
Silver Olga Vilukhina
 Bronze Vita Semerenko - Ukraine -->Silver
 4th Karin Oberhofer - Italy --> Bronze

Biathlon Relay - Women
Silver Russia
 Bronze Norway --> Silver
 4th Czech Republic --> Bronze

Bobsleigh - 2 Man
Gold Russia
 Silver Switzerland --> Gold
 Bronze USA --> Silver
 4th Russia --> DQ
 5th Latvia --> Bronze
 (Canada 6th, 7th, 9th -->4th, 5th, 7th)

Bobsleigh - 4 Man
Gold Russia
 Silver Latvia --> Gold
 Bronze USA --> Silver
 4th Russia --> DQ
 5th Great Britain --> Bronze

Cross-Country Skiing  Men 50 km freestyle
Gold Alexander Legkov Russia
Silver Maxim Vylegzhanin Russia
Bronze Ilia Chernousov Russia
4th Martin Johnsrud Sundby - Norway -->Gold
5th Sergei Dolidovich - Belarus --> Silver
6th Robin Duvillard - France --> Bronze

Cross-Country Skiing Men 4x10 km Relay
Silver Russia
 Bronze France --> Silver
 4th Norway --> Bronze

Cross-Country Skiing Team Sprint
Silver  Russia
 Bronze Sweden --> Silver
 4th Norway --> Bronze
 (plus Japan make the final if Russia is DQ'd from semi-final)

Figure Skating Ladies
Gold Adelina Sotnikova Russia
 Silver Kim Yuna - South Korea  --> Gold
 Bronze Carolina Kostner - Italy  --> Silver
 4th Gracie Gold USA --> Bronze

Figure Skating Pairs
Gold Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov Russia
Silver Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov Russia
 Bronze Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy Germany  --> Gold
 4th Pang Qing and Tong Jiam China  --> Silver
 5th Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch Canada --> Bronze

Figure Skating Ice Dancing
Bronze Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov Russia
 4th Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat --> Bronze

Figure Skating Team Trophy
Gold Russia
 Silver Canada  --> Gold
 Bronze USA  --> Silver
 4th Italy --> Bronze

Freestyle Skiing Men's Moguls
Bronze Alexandr Smyshlyaev Russia
 4th Marc-Antoine Gagnon Canada --> Bronze

Luge Men's Singles
Silver Albert Demchenko Russia
 Bronze Armin Zöggeler Italy --> Silver
 4th Andi Langenhan Germany --> Bronze

Luge Team Relay
Silver Russia
 Bronze Latvia --> Silver
 4th Canada --> Bronze

Short Track Speed Skating Men 500m
Gold Viktor Ahn Russia
 Silver Wu Kajing China  --> Gold
 Bronze Charle Cournoyer Canada  --> Silver
 4th Liang Wenhao China --> Bronze

Short Track Speed Skating Men 1000m
Gold Viktor Ahn Russia
Silver Vladimir Grigorev Russia
 Bronze Sjinkie Knegt - Netherlands  --> Gold
 4th Wu Dajing China  --> Silver
 (Penalized in Final Sin Da-woon South Korea classified as 7th)
 B-Final winner Han Tianyu China (classified as 5th) --> Bronze
 B-Final 2nd Russia

Short Track Speed Skating Men 1500m 
Bronze Viktor Ahn Russia
 4th J. R. Celski USA --> Bronze

Short Track Speed Skating Men 5000m Relay
Gold Russia
 Silver USA  --> Gold
 Bronze China  --> Silver
 4th Netherlands --> Bronze

Skeleton Men's
Gold Alexander Tretiakov Russia
 Silver Martins Dukurs Latvia  --> Gold
 Bronze Matthew Antoine USA  --> Silver
 4th Tomass Dukurs Latvia --> Bronze

Skeleton Women's
Bronze Elena Nikitina Russia
 4th Katie Uhlaender USA --> Bronze

Snowboard Men's Parallel Slalom
Gold Vic Wild Russia
Žan Košir Slovenia Gold
 Bronze Benjamin Karl Austria  --> Silver
 4th Aaron March Italy --> Bronze

Snowboard Men's Parallel Giant Slalom
Gold Vic Wild Russia
 Silver Nevin Galmarini Switzerland  --> Gold
Žan Košir Slovenia Silver
 4th Patrick Bussler Germany --> Bronze

Snowboard Cross Men's
Silver Nikolay Alyunin Russia
 Bronze Alex Deibold USA  --> Silver
 4th Paul-Henri de le Rue France --> Bronze

Snowboard Women's Parallel Giant Slalom
Bronze Alena Zavarzina Russia
 4th Meschik Austria --> Bronze

Speed Skating Women 500m
Silver Olga Fatkulina Russia
 Bronze Margo Boer Netherlands  --> Silver
 4th Zhang Hong China --> Bronze

Speed Skating Women 3000m
Bronze Olga Graf
 4th Claudia Pechstein Germany (2002 Olympic record holder) --> Bronze

Speed Skating Team Pursuit
Bronze Russia
 4th Japan --> Bronze

One Month To Rio!

In one month, athletes will walk into the Maracanã Stadium in Rio for the opening of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad.

Many athletes already know that they will be there but there are still many more who will punch their ticket to Rio in the coming weeks and in particular Canada's track and field trials are this weekend in Edmonton.

Prior to most Olympic Games, the media will focus on the negatives and uncertainties. The Rio Olympics are getting their fair share of negative stories but once the Games start in one month, there will be many more positive stories to focus on.

1. Who will carry the Canadian flag at the Opening Ceremony?

Looking at the past flag bearers, Canada alternates with women carrying the flag at the Winter Olympics and men at the Summer Olympics. Repeating sports doesn't seem to be a problem with ice hockey, speed skating and kayak being represented twice in the past 16 years.

2014 Hayley Wickenheiser (ice hockey)
2012 Simon Whitfield (triathlon)
2010 Clara Hughes (cycling, speed skating)
2008 Adam Van Koeverden (canoe/kayak)
2006 Danielle Goyette (ice hockey)
2004 Nicolas Gill (judo)
2002 Catriona Le May Doan (speed skating)
2000 Caroline Brunet (canoe/kayak)
1998 Jean-Luc Brassard (moguls)
1996 Charmain Crooks (athletics)

I would vote to switch it up and have a woman carry the flag for the Summer Games and have a man in 2018. I would love to see Rosie MacLennan who won our only gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. and won Pan Am gold in 2011 and in Toronto last year.

Looking at the most obvious choices, many are competing too close or too far to the Opening Ceremony to be considered. Rosie competes one week after the Opening Ceremony. The same day as the Athletics competition starts. Will they want to be in Rio that long?

In the past, Canada has chosen a flag bearer with previous Olympic success and with Rosie being front and centre in the media since her gold medal at the London Olympics, she is an easy choice. I will be happy with whoever we choose and can't wait for the announcement.

2. Who is competing for medals on Day 1?

The following events have medals being awarded on Day 1 (local time GMT-3):

• Shooting Women's 10m Air Rifle Final 10:30-11:30am (no Canadian)
• Men's Road Race 9:30am-4:15pm (Antoine Duchesne, Hugo Houle, Mike Woods)
• Shooting Men's 10m Air Pistol Final 3:30pm-4:30pm (no Canadian)
• Archery Men's Team 2pm-5:45pm (no Canadian)
• Judo Women's 48kg and Men's 60kg  3:30pm-6:10pm (Sergio Pessoa)
• Fencing Women's Individual Epée 4pm-6:30pm (Leonora Mackinnon)
• Weightlifting 7pm Women's 48kg (Jasmine Mian)
• Swimming 10pm 
• Men's 400m IM (no Canadian)
• Men's 400m Freestyle (Ryan Cochrane)
• Women's 400m IM (Sydney Pickrem, Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson)
• Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay  (Penny Oleksiak, Chantal Van Landeghem, Sandrine Mainville, Michelle Williams)

3. Who will win Canada's first medal?

If it's not Ryan Cochrane in the 400m freestyle on Day 1, then it may be Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware in the synchro 3m springboard diving competition on Day 2.


4. Who will win Canada's last medal?

Ariane Fortin (boxing) could win the gold on the last day of competition or bronze the day before on August 20th.

Melissa Bishop could win a medal on the evening of August 20th in the 800m.

There are many more medal contenders competing on the second last day including Women's Mountain Bike with Emily Batty and Catharine Pendrel,  Brooke Henderson' in gold,  Mark De Jonge in the K2 200m as well as the Women's K4 500m, Men's K4 1000m and Men's C2 1000m.

The Women's K4 team won Canada's first gold medal at the 2015 Pan Am Games.

6 Months to Rio 2016 Olympics

In 6 months, athletes will walk into Maracanã stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Part of me is very excited while another part of me is feeling ... uneasy may be the best word to use.

I was just reading my thoughts the week before the 2008 Olympics. I was not excited at that time and it's reassuring to read those thoughts and know that once the Games began, my feelings changed.

Then came the 2010 and 2012 Olympics that I completely looked forward to.

In December 2012, I attended the Dew Tour where 2014 Olympic Qualifying began for the athletes I saw compete in halfpipe and slopestyle. Although I had issues with Russia hosting the Olympics, like I did with Beijing, working with SportCafé leading up to the 2014 Olympics got me an inside view of the excitement. I attended CBC's 100 days to go event and the unveiling of the Team Canada uniforms. I was interviewing athletes as well as the personalities who would be presenting the Games. The 2014 Olympians were the ones I knew the best prior to a Game. Although I was as excited as ever about the medals won, I felt the hurt and disappointment for those athletes who didn't perform up to their expectations more than perhaps I had ever done before.

Following our summer athletes for the past few years leading up to the Pan Am Games and now to Rio, my knowledge of our national team athletes has grown. As wonderful as it is to have followed someone rise up the ranks to become an Olympian, I am starting to recognize that I am cheering for more athletes than there are spots on the Olympic team.

A decade or two ago, we knew the athletes once they were Olympians or perhaps even only when they were medallists. It's much easier today with the coverage given year round for amateur sports fans to know the athletes who are competing at the Olympics and those who just missed making the team.

I attended the trampoline competition at the Pan Am Games. I was excited to see Rosie MacLennan and Karen Cockburn compete and medal at the Games but sad that Sam Sendel who I had followed with the other CIBC Team Next athletes did not qualify. I knew that going into the 2016 Olympics that one of the three wouldn't qualify so if Sam is in, someone else is out. What I did not expect was for two to be out. At the World Championships in the fall, Rosie finished in the top 8 to qualify a spot for Canada at the Olympics. Olympic silver medallist and 2015 Pan Am silver medallist Jason Burnett finished 18th and earned him an opportunity to qualify at the next Olympic qualifying meet. Pan Am gold medallist Keegan Soehn did not make the semi-final and will not compete in Rio (as far as I understand it).

Canada will have one woman and hopefully one man in Rio. In 2012 we had 3 athletes in the top 8 (one medal). In 2008 we had 3 in the top 7 (two medals). Canada winning 4 medals in trampoline at the 2015 Pan Am Games gave me high hopes for our team qualifying 4 athletes for 2016.

After the World Championships, the media celebrated Rosie's qualification and of course they should, but I felt more heartbreak for the others. This is just one example but there are others.

I wrote a blog post last fall about some of the disappointments. You can read it here.

As Olympic qualifying tournaments and meets happen and are scheduled to happen in the months to come, I am almost feeling more nervous for these events than the Games themselves.

I am not saying that going to the Olympic Games is the dream. Of course the athletes want to go and compete for the medals, but I find not going when you are good enough to qualify is heartbreaking.

Posting Old Posts

In case you're following Olympic Hearts on RSS and are seeing "new" old posts popping up, I have so many drafts that I never posted.

Many of them were at the 95% complete stage, so rather than leave them as drafts, I am letting go of my perfectionism and posting them with the original date to have as a record on the blog.

If you're interested in the links, I will add them to this post as I continue to catch up.

Lessons in Sportsmanship -  June 2013 - click here.
Do sports organizations and athletes want us to follow them year round or just during the Olympic Games? - September 2013 - click here.
1000 Days to Rio - November 2013 - click here.
Paralympic Games Announcement - 100 Days to Sochi - December 2013 -click here.
Boycotting the Paralympics is a ridiculous conversation to be having - March 2014 - click here.
Torch Relay and Cauldron Lighting -  July 2015 - click here.
Pan Am Opening Ceremony - in photos - July 2015 - click here.
Pan Am Opening Ceremony - July 2015 - click here.
Beach Volleyball at the Pan Am Games - July 2015 - click here.
Archery at the Pan Am Games - July 2015 - click here.
Trampoline at the Pan Am Games - July 2015 - click here.
Track and Field at the Pan Am Games - July 2015 - click here.
Closing Ceremony in Photos - July 2015 - click here.
Win Canada Win -  October 2015 - click here.
It's not about OHCanada Sports but about the athletes - written October 2015 - click here.
Athlete Fundraisers: Ben Hayward aka VanStarter - December 2015 - click here.
My Pan Am Coverage Rant - December 2015 - click here.
6 Months to Rio 2016 Olympics - February 2016 - click here.