Tokyo Olympics Day 10: Canadian women’s basketball team fails to reach quarterfinals; Canada beats U.S. in women’s soccer semifinal
The latest Olympics news from Tokyo and around the world on Monday. Web links to longer stories if available:
10:35 a.m (updated).: A day of nervous scoreboard watching ended in heartbreak for Canada's women's basketball team.
The squad didn't get the help it needed on the final day of group play to advance to the quarterfinals of the Olympic basketball tournament.
The dagger came when Australia defeated Puerto Rico 96-69 in Monday's final game, dropping Canada to ninth in the combined rankings. Australia's 27-point margin of victory eclipsed the 24 it needed to move on and eliminate Canada.
Canada and Australia finished with 1-2 records, but the Aussies' margin of victory over Puerto Rico gave them a better point differential than Canada.
8:48 a.m.: Spain and Greece won their respective groups Monday to advance to the quarterfinals in men's water polo.
The last day of group play finalized the matchups for the quarters on Wednesday. Spain takes on the U.S., and Greece faces Montenegro. Italy-Serbia and Croatia-Hungary are the other two matchups.
8:42 a.m.: A Belarusian Olympic sprinter plans to seek asylum in Poland, an activist group said Monday, after the athlete alleged that her team's officials tried to force her to fly home, where she feared she wouldn't be safe from an autocratic government that recently was accused of diverting a plane in order to arrest a dissident journalist.
Athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya received a humanitarian visa from the Polish embassy in Tokyo, according to a Polish Foreign Ministry official. The Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, an activist group that is helping the runner, told The Associated Press that the group bought her a plane ticket to Warsaw for Aug. 4.
8:30 a.m.: Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made her mark by competing in the women's weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics, but couldn't complete a lift.
Hubbard is not the only transgender athlete competing at the Tokyo Games, but she has been the focus of attention as a medal contender in weightlifting.
The New Zealander overbalanced on her opening weight of 120 kilograms on Monday night, taking the bar behind her shoulders.
Hubbard's second effort of 125 kilograms was ruled invalid on a majority decision by the referees. The third attempt was almost a repeat of the first, ruling Hubbard out of medal contention in the women's over-87-kilogram division.
6:42 a.m.: Canadian gymnast Ellie Black will compete in Tuesday's balance beam final, the Canadian Olympic Committee confirmed Monday.
Black pulled out of last Thursday's women's all-around final after she sprained her left ankle during training.
She said at the time she had hoped to recover in time for the beam final.
5:57 a.m.: Canada holds on to beat the U.S. 1-0 in the women's soccer semifinal. The Canadians now advance to the gold medal final Friday against either Australia or Sweden.
It was the first win for Canada over the American in more than 20 year in women's soccer.
Canada is guaranteed a third straight Olympic medal after claiming bronze at both the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Games.
5:38: a.m.: Jessie Fleming scores on a penalty to give Canada a 1-0 lead at the 75-minute mark in the second half vs. the U.S. in women's soccer semifinal.
The Star's Laura Armstrong wrote on Fleming earlier this year.
4:40 a.m.: Simone Biles feels good enough again to give it another go.
USA Gymnastics announced that Biles would do the last event final, balance beam, scheduled for Tuesday night. It will be her first competition since she withdrew from the women's team final Tuesday night, citing concerns for her mental health and physical safety.
She also withdrew from Thursday night's all-around competition.
3 a.m.: Canada's women's basketball team has one last chance to advance to the quarter-finals.
Canada's goal was medal or bust" but it will be eliminated unless Australia beats Puerto Rico by 23 points or less later Monday morning. (8 a.m. ET)
2 a.m.: The Canadian women's soccer team will get its rematch against the U.S. in the semifinal - a replay of London 2012, where the team lost 4-3 in a match dubbed the greatest game of women's soccer ever played."
The game is scheduled for 4 a.m. ET.
1:53 a.m. (Update): The standoff over free speech between the International Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic officials continued Tuesday, as the IOC grappled with what to do if the Americans refused to penalize an athlete for violating rules limiting demonstrations on the medal podium.
On Sunday night, Raven Saunders, a U.S. shot putter, delivered the first political demonstration on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics when she raised her arms and crossed them in the shape of an X shortly after receiving her silver medal.
12:24 a.m.: Toronto sisters Lucia Stafford and Gabriela DeBues-Stafford will both move onto the women's 1,500-metre semifinals after placing seventh and eighth in the qualifying round, respectively.
Lucia set a personal best with a time of 4:03.52.
11:50 p.m.: Atsushi Muramatsu's handmade flyers are the size of a business card, written in several languages. Welcome to Miyagi Stadium, one reads. "The gymnasium next door was the largest morgue for tsunami victims."
Over a decade after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, the Tokyo Games were supposed to offer a chance to showcase how much has been rebuilt. They were even billed as the Recovery and Reconstruction Games, and the Olympic torch relay started from Fukushima prefecture, the heart of the nuclear disaster area.
But the coronavirus pandemic means few spectators are coming to any of the Olympic events, including soccer and baseball, being held here. That leaves some Olympic volunteers having to find their own ways to recount their experiences to those rare fans who pass through, as well as members of the media.
11:12 p.m. (Updated): In the morning, Raven Saunders of the United States captured the silver medal in the shot put.
At night, Saunders delivered the first political demonstration on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics when she raised her arms and crossed them in the shape of an X" after receiving her medal, setting the stage for a standoff between the International Olympic Committee and U.S. Olympic leaders.
10:03 p.m.: World champion Sifan Hassan made an incredible recovery from a fall at the final bell to win her 1,500-meter heat at the Olympics on Monday.
Hassan picked herself up after getting in a tangle with Kenyan runner Edinah Jebitok at the start of the last lap. She sped around the outside of the pack on the back straight and ended up crossing the line first in 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to qualify for the semifinals.
It kept alive the Dutch runner's bid for a rare distance-running treble at the Tokyo Games.
9:47 p.m.: Canada has sent its second team to the quarterfinals of the women's beach volleyball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics.
Toronto's Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan of Kitchener, Ont., downed Spain's Liliana Fernandez Steiner and Elsa Baquerizo McMillan 2-0 in a round of 16 match on Monday.
The Canadians overpowered the duo from Spain 21-13, 21-13.
8:50 p.m.: Sydney Pickrem proved some Olympians are just like us after winning her first medal as part of the women's 4x100-metre medley relay Sunday.
The 24-year-old Canadian-American doesn't specialize in the breaststroke - she typically swims the individual medley - but stepped up as Canada's second swimmer in the pool. Kylie Masse opened with the backstroke and Pickrem's role was to keep Canada in contention so that Maggie Mac Neil and Penny Oleksiak could close things out in the butterfly and freestyle legs.
Catch up on Olympic notables with Laura Armstrong: Now streaming from Tokyo: Canadian swimmers say the darndest things
8:35 p.m.: Micah Christenson gave coach John Speraw a long, tearful embrace as his U.S. men's volleyball teammates slumped on the floor and the victorious Argentinians celebrated.
Instead of building on the bronze medal won in Rio de Janeiro five years ago, the Americans are going home early from the Olympics for the first time in more than 20 years.
7:00 p.m. Some day, that thick chain Andre De Grasse always wears around his neck will be swinging a hunka-chunka gold. Just you wait.
Perchance Wednesday, after the sprinting ace from Markham, Ont. races the 200 metres that is his stronger distance. For now, he must content himself - and delighted indeed he was Sunday night - with being the third-fastest 100-metre man.
The latest from the Star's Rosie DiManno in Tokyo: Olympic bronze is cool, but Andre De Grasse - Canada's first male medallist in Tokyo - might be just getting started
11:00 a.m.: On Tokyo Daily, host Brendan Dunlop talks with the Toronto Star's Dave Feschuk in Tokyo after Andre De Grasse's bronze medal run in the men's 100-metre dash.
Watch the latest Tokyo Daily: Team Canada learning you win some, you lose some at the Olympics
10:15 a.m.: US shot putter Raven Hulk" Saunders raised her arms in an X" gesture upon mounting the podium to receive her silver medal in women's shot put.
She said the demonstration signified the intersection of where all oppressed people meet."
The IOC has strict rules against podium protests. No disciplinary actions have yet been announced against Saunders.
10:10 a.m.: A Belarus track sprinter alleged her Olympic team tried to remove her from Japan in a dispute that led to a standoff Sunday evening at Tokyo's main airport.
An activist group supporting Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she believed her life was in danger in Belarus and would seek asylum with the Austrian Embassy in Tokyo.
10:00 a.m.: If grasping the many nuances of Olympic-level sailing requires years spent in a boat learning to read the whims of the wind and the water, Toronto's Sarah Douglas also trained for her debut at these Tokyo Games in the living room of her apartment in the Canary District.
When she wasn't travelling the world racing on the World Cup circuit in the laser radial class, Douglas also spent time sweating through workouts on what's called a hiking bench. Hiking," in sailing jargon, is the technique sailors use to balance a boat in full sail, essentially dangling themselves over the edge of the boat, leaning out over the waves.
Dave Feschuk has the story: Sarah Douglas took medal or nothing' approach, finishes sixth in Tokyo Olympics regatta
Previously: Canadian women's swim team took bronze in medley relay, springing Penny Oleksiak to become Canada's most decorated Olympian; Andre de Grasse finishes third in 100 metre sprint, becoming Canada's first male medallist this summer.
For a full write-up of what you missed on Day 9 of the Tokyo Olympics, click here.