Going for gold under the cloud of COVID-19 makes the Tokyo Summer Games an Olympics like no other. This newsletter is here to help you make sense of it all, with original stories from Globe reporters in Canada and Tokyo, tracking Team Canada’s medal wins, and past Olympic moments from iconic performances. Tokyo Olympics Update is sent every Friday in June and July and twice daily during the Games, which run from July 23 to Aug. 8. You can sign up here. Let us know what you think by e-mailing audience@globeandmail.com.
Good morning, here’s the latest Olympic news:
For one Canadian sailing pair, Olympic success is in the family
Ali ten Hove of Kingston (left) and Mariah Millen of Toronto (right) Credit: Sailing Energy/World SailingSailing Energy/World Sailing
Three decades ago, Ali ten Hove and Mariah Millen’s fathers, Martin ten Hove and John Millen, raced across the waters separately for Canada at the Los Angeles, Seoul and Barcelona Olympics.
A month from now, the former Olympians’ daughters will team up to sail in the women’s 49er FX class. Coming together as they were both searching for a new sailing partner in 2016, ten Hove and Millen clicked instantly, subsequently opting to race in a boat neither had used before. The first-time Olympians, authoring the next chapter in their own athletic careers, have their eyes set on one day surpassing their parents.
“My dad has always been my inspiration of what the job of crew should look like. I joke with him that hopefully someday I’ll get a silver or gold so I can one-up him,” Mariah Millen, whose father won bronze at the 1988 Calgary Games, told The Globe’s Rachel Brady.
How Team Canada is shaping up
The Tokyo Games are 28 days away. Here’s how Team Canada is looking:
- 223 athletes have been named to Team Canada, getting closer to the mark of 314 athletes it sent to Rio in 2016.
- Canada named its 26 swimmers – 16 women and 10 men – who will represent the country in Tokyo. Among them are reigning Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak and 14-year-old Summer McIntosh, who will be one of the youngest Olympic swimmers Canada has seen. The team won six medals – one gold, one silver, and four bronze – at the 2016 Rio Games.
- Christine Sinclair, gearing up for her fourth Olympics at 38, will captain the eighth-ranked women’s soccer team, which opens its campaign on July 21 against No. 11 Japan. In tennis, Canada’s top-ranked Denis Shapovalov pulled out of the Games earlier this week. The Olympics, wedged closely between Wimbledon and a busy hard-court season, often sees a number of top players not participate.
- Canada’s men’s basketball team tips off at a six-team Olympic qualifying tournament in Victoria on Tuesday – its last chance at securing a flight to Tokyo. NBA players Andrew Wiggins, R.J. Barrett and Cory Joseph are on the roster, though all-star Jamal Murray is off the roster due to an Achilles injury sustained earlier this year.
- The Canadian Olympic Track and Field trials got off to the races on Thursday and will wrap up on Sunday. Unlike the U.S. trials, which started last Friday and end this weekend, competing in the Canadian iteration isn’t required for Olympic hopefuls. But for many, it’s their last chance at hitting Olympic standards before the qualification window closes on June 29 and Athletics Canada begins its selection process.
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One month out, Tokyo organizers lay out the rules
If there was any previous uncertainty over the Games being held, those lingering doubts were likely quashed over the past week.
Media got their first picture of the Olympic village last Saturday, including its 23 residential buildings set to house 12,000 athletes and a temporary shopping area made from 40,000 pieces of timber donated by 63 Japanese municipalities. Organizers then confirmed on Monday that up to 10,000 domestic spectators will be allowed into venues, a decision welcomed by some Canadian athletes, but decided on Wednesday to ban the sale of alcohol at venues. The decision – which the Games’ president defended on Tuesday – was made after hearing ongoing concerns from the public on Japan’s ability to hold a safe Olympics during COVID-19. Also part of the spectating rules: masks will be required and cheering won’t be allowed.
Efforts to cool local concerns haven’t been aided by the news of a member of Uganda’s Olympic team testing positive for COVID-19 after landing in Japan last weekend despite being vaccinated and having a negative test beforehand. Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, a symbolic figure in the country, with no political power, echoed the widespread public sentiment of concern on Thursday that the Games could be a mass superspreader event.
And, after the Canadian government gave NHL teams leniency on self-isolation measures when travelling between Canada and the U.S., it made a new exemption for Olympic athletes to train in one of four bubbles in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Victoria without facing a required 14-day quarantine.
Olympic moment
Fanny Rosenfeld, second from left, runs in the women’s 100-metre race at the Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928.NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA/The Canadian Press
Aug. 25, 1928: Fanny Rosenfeld silver at the first women’s 100-metre final in Olympic history
Fanny Rosenfeld’s silver at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics was more than a personal accomplishment – it was a first for Canadian women in track and field. At the ‘28 Games, the first in which women were allowed to compete in track and field, Ms. Rosenfeld was just beaten to the line by American gold medal-winner Betty Robinson in the 100 metres. Ms. Rosenfeld, nicknamed “Bobbie” for her bobbed haircut, one-upped her silver medal shortly after while running for the Canadian 4x100-metre team. Holding down the first quarter of the race, she helped the team to gold in a world-record time of 48.4 seconds.
Her career was derailed a year later after a harsh attack of arthritis, prompting her to shift careers. Coaching women’s track and field in Canada for six years, Ms. Rosenfeld later pivoted to journalism and started working for The Globe and Mail in 1936 as a sports journalist. Her “Feminine Sports Reel” column in The Globe rose her to prominence across Canada, writing on women’s sports and advocating for women’s participation in sports all the way until 1958, when her column was retired, but Ms. Rosenfeld continued to work at the paper until 1966.
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