Canada Begins its Quest for Gold

Canada opened up their Olympics with Mixed Double Curling, Women’s Hockey and both Men’s and Women’s Moguls.

The Mixed Doubles team of Rachel Homan and John Morris started Canada’s quest for gold opening up against Great Britain, the reigning World Champions. Canada went into the eighth and final end down 5-4 with the hammer, gave up a steal and ended up losing 6-4.

Homan and Morris did play a second game against Norway the same day. They had the hammer again in the eight, this time tied at six and this time capitalized, as one point was all they needed and they got it without having to throw their last rock.

The Women’s National Hockey team opened up their Olympics looking to reclaim the gold medal after the United States put an end to Canada’s streak of four straight gold medals in 2018. With their first game against Switzerland, Canada was nothing less than dominant as they cruised to a 12-1 victory and put up 70 shots on goal.

Canada was led by 21-year-old centre Sarah Fillier who was making her Olympic debut. Another Olympic rookie that had a quietly dominant game was 24-year-old Claire Thompson on defence, tallying a goal and four assists.

Veterans leading the way were Natalie Spooner who had two goals and three assists and Blayre Turnbull with two goals and two assists. Canada had five players with 3+ points.

However, the victory wasn’t all that easy as the status of forward Mélodie Daoust is questionable as she left the game after being hit into the boards and did not return.

In moguls, it was no surprise to see Mikael Kingsbury at the top. The two-time medalist finished first in qualifying, advancing directly to the final with a score of 81.15. Fellow Canadian Laurent Dumais finished 24th but will have one more chance to qualify for the final.

Justine Dufour-Lapointe took the 10th and final qualifying spot in the first round of qualifying with a score of 71.45. Her sister Chloé fell short, coming in 11th and teammate Sofiane Gagnon finished 14th. Both will get their chance to qualify for the final in the second round of qualifying.

Canada still has more action to see prior to the opening ceremony. The next wave of events will have two Mixed Doubles matchups and Mixed Team Figure Skating that will have the qualifications for the Men’s Short Program, the Rhythm Dance and the Pairs’ Short Program.

Canada is already entering Beijing with a new figure skating core as they only have one returning skater from the team that won gold in 2018. However, they will be without Canadian Men’s Champion Keegan Messing, who is still in Canada as he is struggling to make his way to Beijing due to traveling complications with the pandemic.

Canada will look for more success prior to the opening ceremony which is scheduled for Feb. 4 at 6:30 a.m. ET.

Follow @deanmatheos and @CanOlyBlog on Twitter for updates.