WHAT TO WATCH
TOP FIVE
1. GRUELLING TEST: Cross-country skier Alex Harvey gets one more chance at an Olympic medal when he competes in the 50-kilometre mass start (midnight ET
Friday, TSN). The 29-year-old from StFerreol-les-Neiges, Que., is the reigning world champion in the gruelling event. He had high expectations coming into Pyeongchang, but his top finish so far is seventh in the 15K freestyle event.
2. AGELESS WONDER: Some 20 years after his Olympic debut, 42-year-old Canadian snowboarder Jasey-Jay Anderson will compete in a record sixth Winter Games. The 2010 gold medallist in parallel giant slalom is not a medal favourite in the event (7:30 p.m. ET Friday,
CBC/TSN), though he did become the oldest rider ever to win a World Cup race just last month. Anderson, from MontTremblant, Que., is the only Canadian to compete at six Winter Games.
3. NO CANADIAN CONTENT: Two high-profile Olympic curling matches go Saturday, without Canadians. The United States will take on Sweden in the men’s gold-medal game (1:35 a.m. ET Saturday, CBC). The Americans beat Kevin Koe’s Calgary-based team 5-3 to advance. The women’s bronze-medal match also goes Saturday, but Ottawa’s Rachel Homan was eliminated in preliminary-round play.
4. MASS CHAOS: The long-track speedskating mass-start event makes its Olympic debut (7:30 a.m. ET Saturday,
Sportsnet) and a Canadian could end up on the podium. Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin is a former short-track speedskater and is comfortable in the head-to-head, elbows-up race, which sees several skaters leave the line at the same time and jockey and jostle for position over 16 laps. Blondin has won world championship gold and silver and a World Cup title in the event.
5. AIRBORNE: Snowboarding big air wraps up with the men’s final (8 p.m. ET
Friday, CBC). Canadians Mark McMorris and Max Parrot will be looking to earn their second medals of the Games. Parrot, of Bromont, Que., and Regina’s McMorris finished second and third, respectively, in slopestyle. Sebastien Toutant of L’Assomption, Que., is also in the final.