Sports

Saturday December 3, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 3, 2022

How Canada can build on World Cup run ahead of 2026 cycle

June 6, 2015

There were still plenty of valuable lessons for Canada despite the losses, though, and Les Rouges can apply those “learnings” – as coach John Herdman refers to them – when the country co-hosts the 2026 World Cup.

The Canadian men’s national team made history, just not enough of it.

As breathtaking as the team’s performances were in various stages, Canada still suffered defeat in all three games. It’s difficult to draw sweeping conclusions based on small sample sizes in tournament settings, let alone in a nation’s first men’s World Cup in 36 years.

Thursday November 24, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 24, 2022

How to talk about the World Cup without kicking it off

We are now two days into the most complicated World Cup in living memory. Held at the wrong time of year, in a country drenched in human rights abuses, as a result of widespread corruption, the tournament could very well be overwhelmed by controversy. At the same time, however, it’s the World Cup. Everyone loves the World Cup. So the question is this: exactly how excited are you allowed to be?

The answer is that it depends on who you’re talking to. As a good and normal human being, your role in life is to socially triangulate with those around you, and this means adjusting your excitement levels according to who you happen to be with. Below are the four types of people you will encounter between now and the World Cup final on December 18, and a quick guide on what to say to them.

Your socially conscious friend here knows all about Qatar’s terrible record when it comes to migrant worker deaths and LGBT rights, and the thick vein of corruption running through Fifa. Logically you should not be excited about the World Cup at all around this friend. That said, they are a bit of a buzzkill and you do need to teach them to lighten up.

Do say: “The entire planet should boycott the World Cup this year.”

Don’t say: “Have you seen the mascot, though? So cute!”

Do say: “This World Cup was the result of widespread bribery and corruption on an unprecedented scale.”

Don’t say: “Hey, have you seen my new car? The Qatari government bought it for me.”

Do say: “Fifa is no longer fit for purpose and should be disbanded.”

Don’t say: “But it is fun when someone scores a goal, though, isn’t it?”

Do say: “In a way, the World Cup has helped to amplify Qatar’s human rights abuses in a manner that wouldn’t have happened if they were denied the bid.”

Don’t say: “Hey, they should hold the next one in North Korea.”

Do say: “I am not going to watch a second of the World Cup.”

Don’t say: “Unless England get to the quarter-finals, obvs.” (Continued: The Times (of London)) 

 

Friday February 18, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 18, 2022

Canada beats rival U.S. to reclaim Olympic women’s hockey supremacy

Canada waited four long years for Olympic women’s hockey redemption.

February 20, 2010

In 2019, it failed to even reach the final of the world championship. That’s when the countdown began — literally.

General manager Gina Kingsbury gave each team member a clock displaying the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the 2022 Olympics.

Now, after the clocks hit zero, there’s Olympic gold medals around Canadian necks once more after beating the U.S. 3-2 on Thursday in Beijing to claim their first title since 2014.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice — including her third career Olympic game-winning goal — while Sarah Nurse’s goal and assist pushed her past Canadian great Hayley Wickenheiser for most points in a single tournament with 18.

It was quite the journey even since the clocks were distributed. Canada won its first worlds since 2010 in August. Last October, it centralized with a group of 29 players in Calgary to prepare for six months for the Beijing Olympics. In January, that centralization became a bubble following a COVID-19 breakout.

Wednesday January 19, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 19, 2022

Athletes to face rigorous tests at Beijing Games with COVID-19 and freedom of expression

August 12, 2021

The Beijing Olympic Committee is using stricter than usual testing for COVID-19, making it harder for Canadian athletes, especially those who have recently recovered from the virus, to pass tests upon arriving in China, CBC Sports has learned.

The cycle threshold (CT) value being used in China to detect an infection is 40, Dr. Mike Wilkinson, chief medical officer for the Canadian Olympic Committee, confirmed Monday. 

The higher the CT value, the less infectious a person with COVID-19 is.

Many places in Canada use a CT value of 35.

The NBA and NHL use 30. The NFL has set its threshold at 35.

“I think what Beijing is doing is that they’re doing everything they can to ensure they don’t have positives coming in,” Wilkinson said. (CBC News) 

Meanwhile, competitors at the Beijing Winter Olympics will face an “Orwellian surveillance state” in China and could put themselves in danger if they speak out in support of the Uyghur Muslims, human rights and athlete advocacy groups have said.

Tuesday January 11, 2022

January 11, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 11, 2022

Novak Djokovic and trying to understand the divisive tennis-Jesus

Why try to explain the anti-vaccine creed of the world’s most-reviled refusenik? I guess because the most radical thing you can currently do is try to see both sides.

December 29, 2021

“A global shift will occur when each individual finds the courage to awaken from the mass amnesia.” Yes, I read the personal manifesto of Novak Djokovic’s wellness guru so you don’t have to.

It is no secret that the world’s No 1 celebrity Covid outlaw, currently awaiting his fate in an agreeably everyday Melbourne hotel, is a long-term student of somebody called Chervin Jafarieh, described, on his own website, as “one of the most respected and influential health experts in the world”. Jafarieh is a familiar type, the magnetic personality, the handsome and piercing spirit guide who accepts all major credit cards and looks like he might smell of musk and whale-song and concentrated human-power while he stands slightly too close to you in the lift.

The manifesto is lush and persuasive and, frankly, bang on about lots of stuff. Novak’s guy is worried about pollution and climate change, also “militarism, urbanization, carbon combustion, mining of metals and toxic materials, manufacturing of chemicals and biological poisons”. Mainly he’s obsessed with intake and the body, and this seems to be the thing about Djokovic’s vaccine hesitancy, at least in public. Djokovic has staged his own super-spreader event, has provided an anti-science role model, but he has also bought ventilators for hospitals, set up a Covid fund and done generous, charitable, believer-type things.