Canada’s medal rush halted
Day 10 yields no podium finishes, a first at this year’s Games
End of a streak: This is something you don’t see, well, ever.
Tuesday’s daily Olympic briefing topped with this news: “Canada failed to win a medal on 15 August. It had won at least one every day so far.”
This is the deepest Canada had ever gone into an Olympics — winter or summer — without missing the podium. Canada was one of just three countries to win a medal on days 1 through 9. The others: The U.S. and China.
Winds of change: So they finally solved the green water problem at the outdoor diving pool in Rio and then the winds hit. While sailing was cancelled Monday and athletics faced multiple delays, the men’s three-metre springboard went on.
“I was blown away, literally,” said Ukrainian diver Illya Kvasha. “I raised my hands and a gust of wind blew me away.”
“The wind really distracted me,” said Russian Evgeny Kuznetsov. “It kept blowing me sideways. When you’re in a state of flight, a strong gust of wind can take you sideways and then it becomes very hard to dive.”
Reigning world champion Chao He of China blamed the wind after he scored just 27.75 points on his third dive and failed to advance to the next round.
Great Britain’s Jack Laugher, who won gold in the three-metre synchro event, said it was like a hurricane: “When you’re bouncing on a 45-centimetre-thick piece of steel, it definitely has an effect.”
Booing, Part XII: French pole-vaulter Renaud Lavillenie apologized late Monday for comparing booing Brazilian sports fans to those in attendance at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, which were overseen by Adolf Hitler.
“I did nothing to the Brazilians,” he said of the boos he received while competing for gold against (and losing to) Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva. “In 1936, the crowd was against Jesse Owens. We’ve not seen this since. We have to deal with it.”
Addressing the comparison later, he said: “I made a big mistake with that. It was just my first few words. Just my feeling. But in my whole life I have never seen a crowd like that in track and field athletics. But you cannot compare with the German public at that time.”
Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada reiterated Tuesday efforts to educate fans about booing are ongoing. Tweet of the day: @martinstarke Text: ‘Hey, what you up to?’ Me: ‘Nothing’. Truth: Watching a horse dancing to Bon Jovi on tv.
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