When Team Canada enters a near-empty Olympic Stadium to officially kick off Tokyo 2020 on Friday, it will be led by Miranda Ayim and Nathan Hirayama.
The Canadian Olympic Committee announced Monday that Ayim, a basketball player, and Hirayama, a member of the men’s rugby sevens squad, are the country’s flag-bearers for the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony.
The reveal of who would lead Canada into the Games was made Monday morning by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Ayim and Hirayama mark Canada’s first duo from different sports to earn the honour after the International Olympic Committee made an amendment in March to allow each country to designate one male and one female. Ice dancers Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue led Canada into the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
“Seeing two tremendous leaders like Miranda and Nathan now ready to guide the way into the Opening Ceremony for Team Canada is something incredibly special,” Eric Myles, chief sport officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said in a release announcing the flag-bearers.
WATCH | Are Canada’s flag-bearers cursed?:
Anastasia Bucsis sits down with Catriona Le May Doan to discuss what used to be known as the opening ceremony flag bearer curse, and breaking down who’s debunked it. Catriona also gives her prediction on who will carry for Canada in Tokyo. 5:53
Ayim, 33, is one of three Canadian basketball players set to compete at her third Olympics. The Chatham, Ont., native previously announced plans to retire after Tokyo.
Bring on the cheers
Find live streams, must-watch video highlights, breaking news and more in one perfect Olympic Games package. Following Team Canada has never been easier or more exciting.
“I feel incredibly honoured to lead Team Canada alongside Nathan into the opening ceremony and to be representing not only my fellow athletes of Team Canada, but also the greater Team Canada: our nation,” Ayim said in the COC’s release. “The past year and a half demanded a high level of teamwork and Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast demonstrated togetherness, camaraderie and sacrifice — true team spirit.”
Currently ranked fourth in the world by FIBA, Canada fell in the quarter-finals of each of Ayim’s first two Olympics but now seems primed to play for a medal.
“[The podium] has been the objective all along. We went into 2016 wanting to do the same thing and now we’re in a place where we’re expected to do that,” Ayim said recently.
The women’s basketball tournament begins July 26 when Canada takes on Serbia at 4:20 a.m. ET and runs through the gold-medal game on Aug. 8.
WATCH | Breaking down Canada’s women’s basketball roster:
CBC Sports’ Andi Petrillo and Meghan McPeak name some athletes to watch for as Canada Basketball named their roster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 2:23
Hirayama, also 33, has played for the national sevens team since debuting as an 18-year-old in 2006. Fifteen years later, the Richmond, B.C., native and team co-captain will make his Olympic debut. The men’s team did not qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016, when sevens was added as an event.
Hirayama’s father, Garry, earned 12 caps for Canada between 1977 and 1982, making them the first father-son duo to play for the national team in rugby.
“I feel hugely honoured to be nominated to be the flag-bearer alongside Miranda,” Hirayama said in the release. “I’ve been watching the Olympics for my entire life and understand the honour and privilege that comes with being the flag-bearer. It’s something that I’ve never even dreamt of.”
Hirayama sits third in career scoring in the rugby sevens World Series. Canada enters the Olympics ranked eighth, but it placed third in its final tournament of 2020 before the pandemic cut the season short.
The sevens team opens its Games with a pair of matches on July 26 against Rio runner-up Britain and champion Fiji. The tournament is a short one, with medals set to be won on July 28.
Opening ceremony like no other
You can watch live coverage of the opening ceremony on CBC-TV and CBCSports.ca beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET. Broadcasts will be provided in eight different Indigenous languages in addition to English, American Sign Language and described video.
There won’t be any fans at the ceremony — spectators are barred from all venues as Tokyo remains in a state of emergency due to COVID-19 — but a crowd of about 10,000 IOC members, government officials and others is expected to be in attendance in the 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium.
It remains unclear whether the number of participants in the ceremony will be limited for the traditional Parade of Nations, which usually features thousands of athletes walking into the stadium. Athletes are only permitted into the Olympic Village five days before their competition, and many who compete in the days immediately following the opening ceremony prioritize rest over pageantry.
Rowing duo Marnie McBean and Kathleen Heddle were the first Canadian pair to be named flag-bearers when they were awarded the honour at the 1996 closing ceremony in Atlanta. Figure skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier were closing flag-bearers in 2002 in Salt Lake City, and bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse led Team Canada to close the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Canada’s first 21 opening ceremony flag-bearers were men before skier Nancy Greene served in the role at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France.
Since then, Canada has evenly divided the duty between men and women, with 14 each.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
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