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?:
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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.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
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