The roster will also feature 22 members of Team Canada’s gold medal-winning team from the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championship.
Team Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin, centre, celebrates defeating the United States to win gold at the IIHF Women’s World Championship in Calgary, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Starring on offense will be Poulin, who has proven herself to be a big game performer in addition to being one of the best hockey players in the world.
During her Olympic debut in Vancouver, Poulin was the lone goal scorer in the gold medal game as Team Canada shut out Team USA 2-0. At her next Olympics, she captured the hearts of Canadians forever when she came up clutch yet again in the final against the United States. With just 55 seconds to go in the third, Poulin scored to send the game to overtime and then added the winner to secure Canada’s fourth consecutive Olympic women’s hockey gold. At PyeongChang 2018, she was amongst the team’s top scorers with six points.
Canada forward Marie-Philip Poulin (29) skates during the Ice Hockey Women Play-offs Finals between Canada and USA at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 22, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea (Photo by Vincent Ethier/COC)
This past summer, Poulin worked her magic again at the world championship, notching another gold medal winner to secure Canada’s first world title in nearly a decade.
She’ll be joined on the ice by long-time teammate Johnston, who ranks among the top-10 all-time in scoring for Canada’s National Women’s Team and has made 10 world championship appearances. She came back from a ruptured Achilles tendon to help Canada win the 2021 world title.
Canada forward Rebecca Johnston (6) skates with the puck during the Ice Hockey Women Play-offs Semifinals between Canada and Russia at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 19, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea (Photo by Vincent Ethier/COC)
The MVP of the 2021 World Championships, Mélodie Daoust, is headed to her third Olympic Games. She led all players in scoring with six goals and six assists as Canada won the gold medal in August. Brianne Jenner, who was second in scoring at the worlds with 11 points, and Natalie Spooner, who was named an all-star forward alongside Daoust, will also be making their third consecutive Olympic appearances.
Canada forward Natalie Spooner (24) stands in front of the net during the Ice Hockey Women Play-offs Semifinals between Canada and Russia at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 19, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea (Photo by Vincent Ethier/COC)
Sarah Nurse will be heading to Beijing for her second Olympics after competing in PyeongChang. Despite joining the national team just six years ago, Nurse has become a household name. She made her IIHF World Championship debut a year after her Olympic debut and was part of the gold medal win in 2021.
Others making their second Olympic appearances on offence include Emily Clark, Jillian Saulnier, Laura Stacey and Blayre Turnbull. Also among the forwards are Olympic rookies Sarah Fillier, Emma Maltais, and Jamie Lee Rattray.
Two-time Olympian Jocelyne Larocque will anchor the blueline, a position she’s assumed for over a decade. Over the course of her career with Team Canada, she’s won eight world championship medals, including gold in 2012 and 2021.
Canada defenseman Jocelyne Larocque (3) skates with the puck during the Ice Hockey Women Play-offs Semifinals between Canada and Russia at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Hockey Centre on February 19, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea (Photo by Vincent Ethier/COC)
Also returning on D is Renata Fast, who made her Olympic debut in 2018. One of the touted newcomers is Erin Ambrose, who was centralized with the national team ahead of PyeongChang 2018 but was ultimately cut from the Olympic roster. She’s since represented Canada at the 2019 World Championship where she scored two goals and five assists. At the 2021 Worlds, she was named to the all-star team after putting up an impressive +10 rating along with her two goals and three assists.
Ashton Bell, Ella Shelton, Claire Thompson and Micah Zandee-Hart will also be defending on Olympic ice for the first time.
Canada will have three goaltenders in Beijing – 2018 Olympian Ann-Renée Desbiens, Emerance Maschmeyer, and Kristen Campbell — all of whom were part of the gold medal-winning squad at the 2021 Worlds.
Canada’s goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens, left, blocks a shot from Kendall Coyne Schofield, of the United States, during third period gold medal final IIHF Women’s World Championship hockey action in Calgary, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
After leaving PyeongChang heartbroken, the women of Team Canada have their sights set on restoring their former Olympic glory.
“It’s a new journey. It’s centralization. We’re focusing on the Olympic Games and we’re going to go one day at a time,” Poulin told Olympic.ca in early December. “For us, it’s that gold medal we want to achieve.”
Larocque says there’s been a new level of confidence that has been the difference maker this year – something she hopes can carry Canada to the top of the podium.
“So much of a successful part of our journey this year is that true belief, regardless of the score… it’s that genuine belief that we can win or just play really good hockey. We’ve really focused on the process and the things we need to do in order to be successful.”
Larocque added: “This is the best team that I’ve ever been a part of.”
Canada’s Natalie Spooner, centre, celebrates a goal with teammates as Switzerland’s goalie Andrea Braendli, right, looks on during third period semi-final IIHF Women’s World Championship hockey action in Calgary, Alta., Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Women’s hockey will take place at the National Indoor Stadium and Wukesong Sports Centre. Canada will open against Switzerland on February 3 and then face Finland two days later. After playing Team ROC on February 7, the most anticipated match of the round robin will come against Team USA on February 8. The women’s quarterfinals will be played February 11 and 12, with the semifinals on February 14. The bronze medal game will be on February 16 with the gold medal game on February 17.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
An investigator gave the World Anti-Doping Agency a pass on its handling of the inflammatory case involving Chinese swimmers, but not without hammering away at the “curious” nature of WADA’s “silence” after examining Chinese actions that did not follow rules designed to safeguard global sports.
WADA on Thursday released the full decision from Eric Cottier, the Swiss investigator it appointed to analyze its handling of the case involving the 23 Chinese swimmers who remained eligible despite testing positive for performance enhancers in 2021.
In echoing wording from an interim report issued earlier this summer, Cottier said it was “reasonable” that WADA chose not to appeal the Chinese anti-doping agency’s explanation that the positives came from contamination.
“Taking into consideration the particularities of the case, (WADA) appears … to have acted in accordance with the rules it has itself laid out for anti-doping organizations,” Cottier wrote.
But peppered throughout his granular, 56-page analysis of the case was evidence and reminders of how WADA disregarded some of China’s violations of anti-doping protocols. Cottier concluded this happened more for the sake of expediency than to show favoritism toward the Chinese.
“In retrospect at least, the Agency’s silence is curious, in the face of a procedure that does not respect the fundamental rules, and its lack of reaction is surprising,” Cottier wrote of WADA’s lack of fealty to the world anti-doping code.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and one of WADA’s fiercest critics, latched onto this dynamic, saying Cottier’s information “clearly shows that China did not follow the rules, and that WADA management did nothing about it.”
One of the chief complaints over the handling of this case was that neither WADA nor the Chinese gave any public notice upon learning of the positive tests for the banned heart medication Temozolomide, known as TMZ.
The athletes also were largely kept in the dark and the burden to prove their innocence was taken up by Chinese authorities, not the athletes themselves, which runs counter to what the rulebook demands.
Despite the criticisms, WADA generally welcomed the report.
“Above all, (Cottier) reiterated that WADA showed no bias towards China and that its decision not to appeal the cases was reasonable based on the evidence,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said. “There are however certainly lessons to be learned by WADA and others from this situation.”
Tygart said “this report validates our concerns and only raises new questions that must be answered.”
Cottier expanded on doubts WADA’s own chief scientist, Olivier Rabin, had expressed over the Chinese contamination theory — snippets of which were introduced in the interim report. Rabin was wary of the idea that “a few micrograms” of TMZ found in the kitchen at the hotel where the swimmers stayed could be enough to cause the group contamination.
“Since he was not in a position to exclude the scenario of contamination with solid evidence, he saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities,” Cottier wrote.
Though recommendations for changes had been expected in the report, Cottier made none, instead referring to several comments he’d made earlier in the report.
Key among them were his misgivings that a case this big was largely handled in private — a breach of custom, if not the rules themselves — both while China was investigating and after the file had been forwarded to WADA. Not until the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported on the positives were any details revealed.
“At the very least, the extraordinary nature of the case (23 swimmers, including top-class athletes, 28 positive tests out of 60 for a banned substance of therapeutic origin, etc.), could have led to coordinated and concerted reflection within the Agency, culminating in a formal and clearly expressed decision to take no action,” the report said.
WADA’s executive committee established a working group to address two more of Cottier’s criticisms — the first involving what he said was essentially WADA’s sloppy recordkeeping and lack of formal protocol, especially in cases this complex; and the second a need to better flesh out rules for complex cases involving group contamination.
The French league’s legal commission has ordered Paris Saint-Germain to pay Kylian Mbappé the 55 million euros ($61 million) in unpaid wages that he claims he’s entitled to, the league said Thursday.
The league confirmed the decision to The Associated Press without more details, a day after the France superstar rejected a mediation offer by the commission in his dispute with his former club.
