For the second time in five days, a world championship in Canada for a major winter sport was cancelled because of the spread of COVID-19.
One week before the start of competition, Quebec officials on Wednesday announced the cancellation of the world figure skating championships. The event was scheduled to run March 18-22 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
The decision was similar to the one made by the International Ice Hockey Federation in cancelling the world women’s hockey championship on Saturday. That event, which was scheduled to start later this month in Nova Scotia, was called off after the province recommended it not be held.
The figure skating announcement came hours after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann made the announcement at the legislature in Quebec City. McCann said a number of factors went into the decision by the province.
WATCH | Danielle McCann confirms cancellation of figure skating worlds:
Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann says the event has been cancelled because of the spread of COVID-19. 0:59
A third world championship in Canada remains on schedule, however. The women’s world curling championship is slated to start on Saturday in Prince George, B.C.
B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Tuesday that the province and the Northern Health authority have been working with the event’s organizers to limit the risk of novel coronavirus transmission.
Major sports
As of Wednesday, the major professional teams in Canada had not followed some of their American counterparts in cancelling any games or banning fans from attending events. The NBA’s Golden State Warriors will play a home game in San Francisco on Thursday without fans and Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners announced Wednesday they will not play home games in March. Later Wednesday, the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets announced they will play home games without fans after Ohio announced a ban on public gatherings is forthcoming.
NCAA bars fans from March Madness
The other big American development Wednesday was the NCAA announcing Division I basketball tournament games will be played without fans in arenas.
“My heart hurts for all of the seniors whose last shot at a National Championship and for some their last career game ever is going to be played in an empty arena,” tweeted Canadian national women’s basketball team star Kia Nurse, who won NCAA titles with Connecticut in 2015 and ’16.
“Big crowds in March, there’s really nothing like it.”
Back in Canada, Dr. Alon Vaisman, a resident at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine who specializes in infection control, said it’s not a high-risk move as of now to attend a major pro sports event in Toronto — as an example. But he said when there is a clear case of community transmission, things change.
“And once that happens, then we have lost the epistemological link back to any travel [and] that means that the virus is free floating in Toronto,” he said. “So going out and attending a public event with lots of people, all of a sudden your risk just shoots up of acquiring the virus.
“Whereas up until now, we could say there is not likely anyone who randomly can have the virus, you’d have to have contact with somebody. So, right now, we don’t have that situation. But any second now that [could happen]. Attending the Raptors game, it’s probably not that bad today, but you know, in a week, two weeks, three weeks, that’ll change.”
WATCH | Canada’s chef de mission preparing for Olympics to be in July:
Marnie McBean, Canada’s Olympic chef de mission for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games is advising athletes to prepare for the Olympics, but also be ready to adapt to schedule changes if necessary, due to the spread of COVID-19. 6:51
It was a busy day for coronavirus developments in Canadian sport. Among the developments:
WHL
The Western Hockey League, one of Canadian major junior hockey’s three leagues, will have at least one game without fans. The Everett Silvertips announced they will play their final regular-season home game without fans after Washington State banned large group events in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. The Seattle Thunderbirds also announced their next two home games will be played without fans before a determination is made on their final home contest. The move came after Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced a ban of gatherings and events of more than 250 people in three Western Washington counties, including the greater Seattle area.
Overwatch League
The Toronto Defiant esports team cancelled its planned Overwatch League event in the city next month because of concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Americas (Olympic boxing trials)
The Americas Olympic qualifying boxing event in Argentina was cancelled, leaving 13 Canadian boxers in limbo.
Woodbine
Woodbine Mohawk Park and the Central Ontario Standardbred Association implement new screening measures for paddock entry in Campbellville, Ont. Starting on Thursday, anyone entering the paddock will be subject to questioning by security. Once cleared, people will receive a sticker on their Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario licence upon entry that will excuse them from the screening process for seven days.
Some domestic events remain on.
CFL
The CFL announced it’s going ahead with its regional combines as well as its national combine in Toronto this month.
Olympic wrestling trials
A wrestling Olympic qualifier in Ottawa this weekend also remains on schedule, along with Canadian university championships in curling, volleyball and hockey.
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.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
