By Andrew Mitchell and Adam Daff
Canada got off to a slow start in Athens this week, with just one bronze medal in the women’s 10-metre synchronized diving event won by Emilie Heymans and Blythe Hartley. Heymans, who hails from St-Lambert, Quebec and Hartley, who is from North Vancouver, were underdogs heading into the synchronized diving finals, although they are both strong contenders in the individual diving events.
Unfortunately for Canada, the biggest splash so far was caused by professional event crasher Ron Bensinhom of Montreal, who climbed out of the stands and dove into the pool wearing a blue tutu and white leggings. He had the logo for GoldenPalace.com painted on his body, but the popular online casino denies sanctioning this particular publicity stunt.
Bensinhom refused offers of legal aid from the Canadian embassy and a day later was hit with a five-month jail sentence, which was suspended, and a 2,0000 Euro fine ($3,225 Cdn).
He also was released sporting a black eye and chipped teeth, claiming he was beat up by police officers while in custody.
At the end of the day on Wednesday, Canada stood tied for 38 th place on the medal list with just the one bronze medal after five days of competition. Some of the countries ahead of Canada this year include the United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, India (winning its first Olympic medal), and Indonesia.
Still, low medal counts don’t tell the whole story for Team Canada. Put in a bit of context, and it’s not as bad as it looks.
For cycling fans, it looked as if Quebec’s Lyne Bessette would be bringing home a medal in the road race after catching up to the lead group with a strong break. Then defending Olympic champion Leontin van Moorsel clipped the wheel of the rider ahead of her after the eighth lap of the course, crashing and taking out several riders. Bessette was one of them, injuring her knees, hip and shoulder and damaging her bike.
After she was back on her feet, Bessette was forced to wait for her support vehicles to replace her wheels, something that took far too long. After several minutes went by she gave up waiting, and pulled out of the race to seek medical attention.
Canada blamed the late assistance on the fact that the team was forced to share its support vehicle with Brazil and China. At the last minute teams discovered that only the top-ranked racers would get their own cars in the race.
Sue Palmer-Komar tried to pick up where Bessette left off for Canada, and had worked her way into the front before the elite group caught her and left her behind on the final climb. She finished in 11 th place.
The win went to Australia’s Sara Carrigan, followed by Germany’s Judith Arndt, who caused a sensation by giving the crowd the middle finger at the finish line to protest the fact that her close friend Petra Rossner was left behind by the German cycling federation. Third place went to Olga Slyusareva of Russia.
The men’s road race wasn’t as controversial, and only one of three Canadians, Michael Barry, managed to finish. Barry was 32 nd . The win went to Paolo Bettini of Italy, the favourite going into the race, followed by Sergio Paulinho of Portugal and Axel Merckx of Belgium.
Some of the highlights for the Canadians so far include:
The men’s baseball team went 4-0 in pool play with wins over Greece, The Netherlands, Italy and Thailand.
Swimmer Mike Brown was sixth in the semi-finals of the men’s 200m Breastroke, setting a new Canadian record. The men’s 4X200m freestyle relay team came a disappointing fifth, but smashed the previous Canadian record by more than three and a half seconds.
The women’s water polo team beat the U.S. in round-robin play, coming back from a five-point deficit. The U.S., the favourites to win gold, had not lost to Canada in three years.
Vancouver’s Kate Richardson qualified for a spot in both the all around and floor finals this week with a strong performance in the team gymnastics event, where the Canadian women were 10 th . Melanie Banville of Ontario also qualified to compete in the all around finals. At one point the women’s team was in fifth and the men’s team in sixth, although neither team qualified for the finals.
The Men’s 8, Men’s 4 and Women’s Pair teams qualified for the finals in rowing. The men’s pair team of Dave Calder of Victoria and Chris Jarvis of Ontario, were disqualified after leading in the semi-final in the 2000-metre after they drifted into a neighbouring lane.
Boxer Benoit Gaudet pounded the defending Olympic champion, Somluck Kamsing of Thailand in the featherweight category by a score of 32-17, moving on to the medal rounds.
Some of Canada’s top contenders have yet to make an appearance, with David Igali defending his wrestling gold next week, and Simon Whitfield defending his triathlon title on Aug. 26. The mountain bike events, where Canada has contenders in both the women’s and men’s races, take place on Aug. 27 and 28 respectively.
