Tokyo Olympics Day 5: Penny Oleksiak moves on in 100-metre freestyle; 4 x 200-metre swim relay team advances; Simone Biles drops out of all-around final, Canadian Ellie Black also out due to injury
The latest Olympics news from Tokyo and around the world on Tuesday. Web links to longer stories if available:
8:45 a.m.: In swimming, Canada (Katerine Savard, 27.38; Rebecca Smith, 2:24.77; Mary-Sophie Harvey, 4:20.82; Sydney Pickrem, 6:18.97), came second in their 4 x 200 m freestyle relay heat. They advance.
Also, Penny Oleksiak advances to semifinal of 100 metres freestyle after finishing second in her heat.
8:40 a.m.: In rowing, Conlin McCabe of Brockville, Ont., and Kai Langerfeld of North Vancouver, B.C., came back from a tough start to finish third in their semis in the men's pair.
Perhaps Canada's best medal hope in rowing, Victoria's Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens of Surrey, B.C., were also third in their semi of the women's pair.
Both boats will race in Thursday's finals, while the women's eight wound up second in its repechage to book a ticket in Friday's gold-medal race.
8:30 a.m.: In round of 16 action in mixed doubles tennis, Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greece, defeated Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Canada, 6-3, 6-4.
8:25 a.m.: In Badminton, Michelle Li of Markham defeats Slovakia's Martina Repiska 21-18, 21-16, in Group F play. She's now 2-0 at the tournament.
6:05 a.m.: Canadian gymnast Ellie Black has withdrawn from Thursday's all-around final event at Tokyo Olympics with an ankle injury.
Canadian Olympic Committee chief sport officer Eric Myles said in a release that Black sprained her ankle during a training session Tuesday.
Myles said he hopes Black will recover in time for the balance beam final on Aug. 3.
3:55 a.m.: Canada lost 26-7 to Australia in men's rugby sevens to finish eighth in the tournament.
3:05 a.m.: Canada's Haley Daniels made history just by stepping into her boat on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old from Calgary didn't advance out of Wednesday's qualifying heats of the women's C-1 canoe slalom at the sun-drenched Kasai Slalom Centre.
But women's canoe is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo - finally - 85 years after men's canoe was added to the Olympic program, and Daniels was among a group of female athletes who had been fighting for its inclusion for years.
2:35 a.m.: Simone Biles, the four-time Olympic gold medallist, will not compete in Thursday's all-around competition after withdrawing from the team finals because of a mental health issue, according to an emailed statement from USA Gymnastics.
Simone will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether or not to participate in next week's event finals," the statement said.
Biles, 24, had qualified for all four event finals next week and was expected to win gold in at least three of those events. In the all-around, she was hoping to repeat her title from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games to become the first woman to win back-to-back titles in the all-around in 53 years.
2:30 a.m.: America's Katie Ledecky has done it again. The most versatile swimmer at these Olympic Games won a gold medal in the first-ever women's 1,500-metre freestyle, a little more than an hour after finishing fifth in the 200.
Ledecky finished the 1,500 in 15:37.34, followed by U.S. teammate Erica Sullivan, 4.07 seconds back. Germany's Sarah Kohler took bronze.
2 a.m.: Canadian boxer Tammara Thibeault's Olympic quest will continue after she won her middleweight bout against Nadezhda Ryabets of Kazakhstan by split decision.
Thibeault obtained higher scores from four of the five judges following a hard-fought match during which the more compactly built Ryabets displayed a much messier style.
11:40 p.m.: A little more than 20 years ago, it would have been nearly impossible for the Sevick family to imagine Wednesday's scene at the Olympic rowing course: Jessica Sevick, holding back tears in her Team Canada singlet, had just finished competing in her first Olympics at age 32.
As difficult as it was to fathom, there was a moment two decades ago when doctors couldn't be sure she'd make it past 12. That's the age that Sevick, as an aspiring competitor in the harrowing sport of luge, suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident during a training run at Calgary's Olympic Park. The horrific spill on the icy chute left her in a coma for two weeks. There was grave concern that she might not survive the damage, and that even if she did, she'd be saddled with a serious disability. At the very least, it seemed as though those childhood dreams of being an Olympian - and before the accident, Sevick was supposed to attend the national sports school as part of that pursuit - were surely dead.
Read the full story from the Star's Dave Feschuk
9:49 p.m.: Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak has won a bronze medal in the women's 200-metre freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.
It's Oleksiak's sixth career medal, making her Canada's most decorated summer Olympian.
The Star's Bruce Arthur has the story from Tokyo
8:38 p.m.: Officials at Fuji International Speedway apologized to the Dutch team after world time trial champion Anna van der Breggen was pulled from her bike by security during a recon of the Olympic course for Wednesday's race against the clock.
The guard apparently did not know that van der Breggen was a competing athlete. She wound up falling in the incident - she was not hurt and will still compete - and video showed the Dutch riders surrounding an official's car at the track.
8 p.m.: Canada has a busy night ahead and medals are on the table. Eyes are on Gabrielle Smith and Jessica Sevick as they row towards a gold in women's double sculls starting at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Later, Penny Oleksiak will race in the 200 metre freestyle swimming finals at 9:30 p.m. ET. Karol-Ann Canuel will pedal for a medal at the women's individual time trial at 10:30 p.m. and Hugo Houle will follow at 1 a.m. for the men's individual time trial.
6 p.m.: If there's going to be a surge in viewership interest in the Tokyo Olympics, NBC Universal is still waiting.
For three straight nights, viewership for the Tokyo Games has been down more than 30% compared to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, and the network has been hit by a steady stream of bad news regarding American competitors.
4:20 p.m.: On a new episode of Tokyo Daily, host Brendan Dunlop chats with Canadian Olympic swimmer Brent Hayden in the Olympic Village a day after his men's 4x100-metre relay team set a national record time and narrowly missed the podium.
Check out the full interview with Hayden here.
4:15 p.m.: With the Tokyo Olympics in full-swing, the conversation over what women in sports are allowed to wear has been reignited.
A Norwegian women's beach handball team was recently fined for choosing to wear shorts instead of the regulated bikini bottoms.
Read the full story from the Star's Cheyenne Bholla here.
Previously: Canada's Maude Charron scores gold in the women's weightlifting 64-kilogram while Kylie Masse flew to a cool silver. Meanwhile, Team Canada bested Mexico for bronze to land its first Olympic softball medal and Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard scored the nation's second judo bronze. For a full write-up of what you missed on Day 3 of the Tokto Olympics, click here.