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The winter Olympic sports season is winding down and we’re starting to see signs of summer. Here’s what Canadian fans should look out for this weekend:
Track: A new league launches
Grand Slam Track, fronted by American sprinting great Michael Johnson, is aiming to bring together the sport’s best athletes for four events each year, a la tennis and golf. The new series is offering more prize money than the Diamond League, the European-based outfit that it’s trying to disrupt, while enticing fans with a fresh format that sees athletes compete twice over the course of each three-day meet, earning points that determine the $100,000 US winner of their event group.
The six groups are: short sprints (comprised of a 100m and a 200m race), long sprints (200m and 400m), short distance (800m and 1,500m), long distance (3,000m and 5,000m), long hurdles (400m hurdles and a flat 400m) and short hurdles (110m hurdles for the men, 100m hurdles for the women plus a flat 100m for both). As the name implies, there are no field events in Grand Slam Track.
In an effort to get stars competing against each other at every stop on the tour, the league has signed 48 athletes (four in each group for both men and women) as Grand Slam Track “Racers” who receive a base salary in exchange for appearing in all four Slams. They’ll be joined by a rotating cast of “Challengers” who are paid only for the Slams they appear in while also competing for full prize money.
Unfortunately, many of the sport’s biggest names have not signed up, including Olympic men’s 100m champion Noah Lyles of the United States, 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, and Olympic and world 5,000m champ Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway. On the women’s side, Olympic 100m gold medallist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia, 100m world champ Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. and three-time Olympic 1,500m winner Faith Kipyegon of Kenya are not on the payroll.
However, a bunch of high-profile Americans are in, including Olympic champs Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (women’s 400m hurdles) Gabby Thomas (women’s 200m), Quincy Hall (men’s 400m) and Cole Hocker (men’s 1,500m), and sprint medallists Fred Kerley and Kenny Bednarek.
The only Canadian full-timer is Marco Arop, the reigning men’s 800m world champion who took Olympic silver in Paris after a thrilling duel with his Kenyan rival Emmanuel Wanyonyi. They’ll face each other in the men’s short distance group this weekend in Kingston, Jamaica.
Arop and Wanyonyi will also be up against Hocker, Britain’s Josh Kerr and American Yared Nuguse — the Olympic 1,500m gold, silver and bronze medallists last summer in Paris — starting on Saturday at 7:50 p.m. ET with the 1,500m, a distance Arop has raced just twice in his career. The 800m goes Sunday at 4:39 p.m. ET. Here’s more on Arop from CBC Sports’ Doug Harrison.
The only other Canadian running this weekend is Charles Philibert-Thiboutot, a Challenger in the men’s long distance group. The 5,000m goes tonight at 7:56 p.m. ET, followed by the 3,000 on Sunday at 4:49 p.m. ET.
You can watch every race in Grand Slam Track’s inaugural meet live on CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app, starting today at 6 p.m. ET. Saturday’s action also starts at 6 p.m. ET, and Sunday’s at 3 p.m. ET. Here’s the full schedule and start lists (note that Kingston is one hour behind ET).
If you missed Wednesday’s newsletter, here’s our primer on Grand Slam Track. For more on the new league, here’s an explainer by CBC Sports’ Justin Piercy and here’s Morgan Campbell on what track nerds will be watching for.
Andre De Grasse is not part of this week’s Grand Slam Track event, but he is competing at the Florida Relays in Gainesville, where he trains. De Grasse is in this evening’s men’s 200m event along with fellow Canadian Christopher Morales-Williams, and also Saturday’s 4x100m.
WATCH | Johnson discusses his new pro track league:
The four-time Olympic champion sits down with host Morgan Campbell just days away from the debut of the Grand Slam Track event in Kingston, Jamaica.
Curling: Jacobs can snap Canada’s men’s world title drought
A year ago, Rachel Homan captured Canada’s first major curling world championship since 2018 when she won the women’s gold in Nova Scotia. Homan and her teammates went back-to-back last month in South Korea, solidifying their status as the clear favourites for Olympic gold next year.
Brad Jacobs is looking to follow a similar path this weekend in Moose Jaw, Sask., where he’s eyeing Canada’ first men’s world title in eight years. The 39-year-old skip, who now curls with Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, took silver at the 2013 worlds with a different set of teammates before leading them to Olympic gold in 2014.
Kennedy, Gallant and Hebert have all won world titles with other skips, and there’s a good chance they help Jacobs earn his first this weekend. The quartet entered the final day of round-robin play with a tournament-best 9-1 record after routing China and Switzerland on Thursday to clinch one of the six playoff spots.
The Canadians’ mission today is to secure a top-two finish, which would give them a bye to the semifinals. They close with a pair of weak opponents, facing Austria (1-10) at 4 p.m. ET and the United States (4-6) at 9 p.m. ET.
2023 world champion Bruce Mouat of Scotland (8-3) has also clinched a playoff spot, while defending champ Nik Edin of Sweden (7-4) was in sixth place at our publish time.
The playoffs begin with a pair of games on Saturday at 11 a.m. ET, with the winners advancing to meet the top two seeds in the semifinals at 5 p.m. ET. The final is Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. Here’s the full schedule, scores and standings.
Snowboard cross: Grondin closes in on another title
After winning gold at the world championships last week, Canada’s Éliot Grondin can secure his second consecutive men’s snowboard cross World Cup title on home snow this weekend as the season wraps up at Quebec’s Mont-Sainte-Anne.
The 23-year-old has a huge lead in the standings heading into the final two competitions of the season. Those will take place Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
Grondin won a pair of Olympic medals in 2022, taking silver in the men’s event and bronze in the mixed team with Meryeta O’Dine. Last Friday in Switzerland he captured his first world championship gold by overtaking a pair of Austrian riders late in the four-man final round.
O’Dine is the top Canadian in the women’s World Cup chase. The 2022 Olympic individual bronze medallist ranks 15th and has not reached the podium this season, though she placed fourth at the world championships last week.
Other stuff to watch:
* The Canadian women’s soccer team hosts a friendly against Argentina tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET at Vancouver’s BC Place. It’s the first home game for Casey Stoney since she was hired as Canada’s head coach in January. Stoney helped the team win the Pinatar Cup last month in Spain, where the now seventh-ranked Canadians tied No. 17 China 1-1 and beat No. 29 Mexico 2-0 and No. 42 Taiwan 7-0. Argentina is ranked 33rd and has lost all six of its previous meetings with Canada.
* Canada’s Olympic silver-winning women’s rugby sevens team is in Singapore for this week’s stop on the global SVNS tour. The Canadians beat France in the bronze-medal match last week in Hong Kong for their best result of the season, moving them up to fourth place in the standings.
* A new diving season begins with the World Cup opener in Mexico, where Canada’s entries include two-time world championship medallist Mia Vallée. The three-event series continues next week in Windsor, Ont., and ends next month in China.
* Canada’s Olympic-class sailors are in Spain for the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, the first major event of the 2028 Olympic cycle. Canadian sisters Georgia and Antonia Lewin-LaFrance are ranked sixth in the 49erFX event heading into Saturday’s medal race, where the points are doubled.
