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Jennifer Jones and Canada's Olympic curlers choose their words carefully ahead of Beijing winter Games – The Globe and Mail

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Jennifer Jones delivers the final rock against Team Fleury during the woman’s final of the 2021 Canadian Olympic curling trials in Saskatoon, on Nov. 28.Rick Elvin /The Canadian Press

The road to any Olympics is complicated by logistical problems, but Beijing is turning into the most rutted in recent memory.

Last week: Should we all be going to a party hosted by a country that has maybe disappeared one of its own athletes?

This week: Should we going to a party if someone could arrive at it with a mutated virus in tow?

The people forced to answer most of these questions will be people least in control of the outcomes – the athletes. They don’t make the rules. They don’t call the shots. But they are the ones who act as town crier for the people who do.

On Monday, it was curling’s turn to duck and weave through the PR thicket.

Brad Gushue wins men’s final at Canada’s Olympic curling trials, Jennifer Jones takes women’s berth

Canada’s next men’s and women’s Olympic teams were determined over the weekend. Jennifer Jones (gold medalist at Sochi 2014) leads the women’s side; Brad Gushue (gold medalist at Turin 2006) leads the men.

You don’t need me to tell you how they feel about this opportunity. This is their Woodstock, and both have the rare opportunity to headline it a second time. They were both over the moon.

Though no one’s going to say it out loud, this is a more tempting opportunity because of recent history.

Canada’s curlers imploded at the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Neither the women’s nor men’s team won a medal.

It wasn’t just the results that disappointed. Canadian curling was tight as a drum in Korea.

Every other national team on either side of the gender divide came off as light and fun – which is the essence of curling, even at the most elite level. Whenever you saw Canada in action, either on the sheet or in the scrums afterward, the word that leapt to mind was “robotic.”

You could feel the national hammerlock on this sport – competitively and spiritually – being loosened in real time.

Since then, things haven’t bounced back to normal. Canada no longer wins at the world championships as a matter of course. It is just in the mix.

Beijing represents a pristine opportunity to replant our flag on the biggest stage. Gushue and Jones would seem to be two optimal candidates to do the job.

Neither of them are going to start banging their chests about the quality of Canadian curling – why provide opponents with bulletin-board material? But it doesn’t take much forensic reading to spot the inherent sense of superiority.

“We want to stay at the forefront of being a curling powerhouse,” Gushue said. “If we’re not careful, that could be taken from us in the next 10 or 15 years.”

That long, eh?

As you’d imagine, Monday’s back-to-back quickie pressers featured nothing but good vibes. Gushue felt relaxed enough to mention he felt “a little bit hung over.” Jones was aglow as she talked about how wonderful it is to represent a country as great as Canada.

The only wrinkle came when both were (separately) asked about the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Both gave the same answer, using the same inflections.

Gushue: “I’m sure the [Canadian Olympic Committee] is going to make sure we as athletes are safe. I have full trust in them.”

Jones: “The COC’s doing a phenomenal job ensuring that our health and safety is top of their minds. We have a lot of confidence in the COC and the medical staff.”

You can’t blame either of them for coming well prepped for a question they knew was coming. Expect a lot more of this going forward.

Every Olympics has its themes. Beijing 2022 will be the Scripted Olympics. No one from any country is going to show up there without their talking points well in order.

As more teams are set in the coming months, these introductory exercises will become more fraught.

You’ll have lugers talking about infection risks at a time when infection may be spiralling and figure skaters getting philosophical about freedom of speech. I’d offer rent money to hear from the NHLer who is willing to wade into the Uyghur question, because that’s money I fear no risk of losing.

Mostly this will be an effort at avoidance. You can’t blame the athletes for that – if they have degrees, they tend to be more by way of kinesiology than international relations. They aren’t equipped to have a public argument about what going to China means. They only know that in order to do their jobs, that’s where they’ve been told to go.

We’ve seen versions of this before. People shouted about terrorism at London 2012; politics and terrorism at Sochi; and politics (different sorts) at Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang. But in all those instances, you could turn aside most questions with a “I don’t know a whole lot about that.”

In 2021, that answer no longer flies. If you don’t know a whole lot about that (whatever “that” is), then you are presumed to be part of the problem.

Also, there’s the issue of timing. Usually, these difficult questions don’t pop up until a few days before the start of the Games, because that’s when the general public’s attention becomes focused.

This time it’s already focused. That leaves a lot of column inches to fill between now and February 4.

Avoiding saying the wrong thing will be the competition Beijing’s athletes engage in long before the sort they’re used to begins. And like the real thing, someone has to lose that competition, too.

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David Lipsky shoots 65 to take 1st-round lead at Silverado in FedEx Cup Fall opener

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NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.

Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.

After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.

“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”

Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.

“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”

Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.

Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.

Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.

Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.

Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.

Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.

Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.

Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.

Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.

Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.

That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.

“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”

Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.

Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.

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AP golf:

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic advances to quarterfinals at Guadalajara Open

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GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.

The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.

Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.

The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.

Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.

However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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France investigating disappearances of 2 Congolese Paralympic athletes

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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.

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AP Paralympics:

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