[MUSIC] >> Good morning, Joe Sports at 5.9 of the fan, Canada, France in the men's basketball quarter final today at noon. Victor Webb and Yama can shoot it from anywhere, 87 foot four. >> Yeah. >> So, like literally, it doesn't have to fade away. Just shoots over top of you. >> Mm-hm. >> But also, I love like the highlight pack of, and I won't perhaps love it after today. But I love the highlight pack of not just his blocks during the season, but of people driving the paint just against the spurs and I'm deciding, wait a second. No, no, no, no, no, I forgot I can't do this because it's not a normal person. >> Sometimes- >> Pretending the paint. >> Sometimes when a guard will worm their way in there, they almost look like they do the cartoon running thing. We're like, whoa, no, when Ben Yama's coming too close, then they just peel out. It is the, that is actually the biggest sign of a true shot blocker deterrent is not the, I could swat anything I want out of here and he can. It's that guys already, again, this isn't a guy who's played in the league for five years, it's one, and pretty quickly early on, yeah. I've also seen that montage and it gets me laughing every single time. >> Yeah, again, maybe it won't be laughing when it results. >> No, I actually can assure you I won't. >> In France victory over Canada, keeping them from metal possibilities this afternoon. And again, this is a quarter final. So the loser of this game has no chance of a metal. I will say like, yeah, matchup wise, probably not ideal considering size is not this Canadian team strength, but also neither is shooting their strength is getting to the rim. Now again, maybe it's possible that you're able to do it against Victor Wemanyama, but that's the thing that he is good at deterring. It's probably going to result in more outside shooting from Team Canada. Can they continue to make enough shots from deep and RJ Barrett with a huge three against Spain? He's been a revelation offensively for this Canadian team to share Gil just Alexander have to take more threes in this game. It feels like that's going to be the number one difference between what Canada has been able to do through the three group stage matches where they beat Greece, Australia and Spain and this game in that is going to be tough to do the thing that they're so damn good at. I mean, you're going to have mid range SGA, but like RJ and SGA getting to the bucket is their strength tough when there's a seven foot four guy there. >> Yeah, and the international rules just make it differently is allowed to be there more. You mentioned the shooting that is going to have to take over today. RJ Barrett has been able to do it in spades in this tournament and you just look at the way Canada is built and they have a ton of guys that can knock down shots, but they don't necessarily have a ton of guys that are knocked down shooters, like Lou Dort, he's capable of hitting his open shots. Dylan Brooks, same goes for it. RJ Barrett. I mean, we live this experiment here or experience here with the Raptors, right? Obviously a different game, a little different, but he's he is not someone who is just lights out all the time. He's a very streaky kind of player. It's been streaky good in this, but we all know streaks come to an end at some point in time. That's the thing is that there are guys and, you know, like a Linux going to have to play it at times as well. He's a guy who can shoot it, especially when you bring in the fever three point line. So yeah, it's going to have to be a lot of shooting in Canada has guys capable of it. But if you ask them, like, what are the traits of your team that you're most confident in, it's not at the bottom with that size, just to clarify, and that's also a huge problem in this game, but but shooting is not necessarily that something this team was kind of built on either. >> No, it's not. Germany did beat Greece earlier today by 13, so it was a big comeback for them. >> Yeah, and it's got the three fouls in those kind of the game, apparently. >> Yeah, that would do it because Greece is more a one man team than Canada is, for sure. And Germany is the defending World Cup champion. So the winner of this Canada, France game will play Germany in the semifinals, of course, Canada losing to Germany in the semis of the World Cup before Germany beat Serbia in the final of that World Cup, the Canadian speed, the Americans in the bronze medal game. And if we get to that game, we'll have the inverse of what we have with Jordy Fernandez. Like they have our guy. They have a Canadian named Gordon coaching the German team, which I just found out four minutes ago. >> Yeah, pretty accomplished dude, I suppose, has a FIBA World Cup medal, gold medal around his neck. Before we get back to the basketball, which I'll get a USA today, I did spend a lot of yesterday watching track and field, which is my favorite part of the Olympics, just like humans running. It's like great. Yeah, hey, who can run the fastest at different distances? The women's 5,000 kilometer had like a disqualification because they were like punching each other. Like in the final lap of the thing, I saw Andre de Grass in the same heat as the fastest man on earth and Noah Lyles. That was a whole lot of fun. Also got to watch the discus, but I was waiting for the pole vault. >> Mm-hmm. >> Okay. >> Which is the first time you said that in your life or no? >> Well, once I had an idea of what I was looking for, which is one dominant dude, this guy, Mondo de Plantis, the Swede that was born in Louisiana, has an American dad and a Swedish mom spent some time in Sweden growing up. But he's- >> Good work, dad. >> I think his brother went to LSU, like he's a American. >> Yeah, anyways, he was already the world record holder in the pole vault and he made it look easy. Like the medals were decided so early in this thing. >> Yeah. >> Like, so the record previous to yesterday was six meters, 24 centimeters. And the other two dudes, they made it to the final three. They just barely cleared six meters, and that was it. They're done. Like they couldn't do any further. >> Yep. Mondo was like, oh, that's all you got? Like can I keep going? And they're like, yeah, go right ahead. So naturally he goes beyond that and he sets the new Olympic record at six meters, ten inches. And then beyond that, of course, he wanted to set a new world record. >> For sure. >> At six meters, 25 centimeters. Missed the first two attempts, made the third and it was a great moment like in front of 70,000 fans. That was a cool moment. No doubt. You know what it was cool for? The other two dudes that won medals who were cheering him on. So I get it like Olympic sports and you know what? These track and field sports are different than what we're used to watching in North America, right? Like we, the decathloners, man, they're like basically a team. Holy cow, they're super tight and cheering each other on. And if they can't do, somebody setting a personal bass is an incredible accomplishment. So I do apply my North American pro sports sensibilities to something. >> Really so. >> That probably shouldn't be there, but I couldn't help but think like, you guys are kind of embarrassingly like far off from this guy who's the best in the world and the best that ever did it. I just, I cannot imagine another scenario and it's hard in a team sport, right? So like be, well, there is, I don't know, LeBron James cheering on Kevin Durant has a chance for 80 points in a game. There wasn't an element of, yeah, okay, should you really be cheering on a guy that you're competing with and when the Olympics are over, like for us, the pole vault goes away. >> Yes. >> But there is like a World Cup circuit to these things, like these guys are gonna have to battle that guy forever and you're like, yeah, we need to go, buddy, you're so much better than us. >> Ben, I don't love Brady Kachuk cheering on his brother in the Stanley Cup final. I'm like, could you look, could you look a little less happy that it's not you winning it? Would that be so hard? That's the thing I kind of keep, keep coming back to with it. I, I mentioned this to you, it's so different how all these sports are. It's like, I remember at the last one, two guys basically agreed to tie for the gold medal and high jump and one of them was like, okay, cool, we'll tie and the other guy was over the moon. He was crying and like ripping his hair out. He was so happy. It's just the sports are very different. It rubs me the wrong way, but I can also understand that I'm wrong about that, but I'm not gonna change how I feel. >> No, me neither, I also love how like everything happens at once. It's like, oh, that someone's winning a gold medal in, in racing while people are throwing a disc. >> They obviously have it all figured out, but how has no one ever just like, I've seen a javelin impale, a javelin judge, like I've seen that before. >> Yeah, I've seen that video too. >> Yeah, stop. Don't search it out or do. I don't know. You're growing up to what you want. >> Yeah. >> But how has somebody ever not like messed up the configuration and some sprinters getting a hammer throw in the head or something like that, I don't know. >> Or it's like. >> Good job logistics people, I guess. >> At least like very distracting, like. >> I would think. >> Again, like we're from a world of golf where it's like, don't talk. This person's about to hit a ball that's not moving and it's like, some guy is throwing a spear while I'm trying to run the 800 meter here. >> Yeah, it seems very, it would be very distracting. Probably need like a lot of fine motor skills and to be very focused to stick the pole in the thing. >> Imagine. >> You know, the thing. The whole vaulting thing. >> The whole. >> Yeah. >> I watched it for like hours yesterday. I couldn't tell you what it's called. >> I dated a girl in high school who did pole vault and I couldn't tell you what it's called. >> Really? >> Yeah. >> Oh, we'll talk about that. >> Okay. >> All right. Canada, France in a Canadian or in men's basketball quarter final action today, Germany is already through to the semifinals. They will meet the winner of this afternoon's game. Let's talk to Jeff Zilget of USA Today. How's it going, Jeff? >> Hey, I'm good. Thanks for having me on. >> Thanks for doing this. So this is a huge matchup for both of these nations with high expectations leading into this thing. Of course, France, the home nation, the loser will not win a medal. I mean, I've been talking for a couple of weeks now about this being a disappointment for the Canadian men's basketball team. If they don't win a medal, does that still stand despite how difficult a matchup against France would be? >> I think it is, in fact, Canada's favored to beat France, and they've had a great tournament so far. But I think the build-up and what you're talking about is, you know, the way Canada basketball has progressed in a variety of different ways over a course of different periods of time. But certainly this little emergence we've seen, you know, maybe in the past five to eight years with shadills, just Alexander becoming an MVP candidate. Jamal Murray went in a championship with Denver. You start to see the pieces fall into place, and you can understand why expectations are so high. And yet, just like the US team, some of the difficulty that Canada will face is you're throwing together a team, and I know they had some experience playing in the World Cup last year, so that helps. But this isn't a team like Germany who's been playing in the 2019 Peabit World Cup together for the most part, has some international runs, including last year's World Cup championship, and so those are the things that, you know, Canada will have to watch out for. I think more pressure is on France in this game, to be honest, with the game there, in their home country. So much pressure. If you remember last year, Nick Patun said he was afraid to go back home after not meddling at the World Championship, and so I'm sort of imagining what would be the case if they lost here today? Yeah, and he doesn't have a choice, he's already, he's already home that after they'd have to smuggle him out of the country. You know, I do want to continue to dive into this game, but just what's been your experience with this tournament as a whole? There was a belief kind of coming into this, that this was going to be a, you know, I don't know exactly what the right wording is, but almost a resetting of international basketball, you know, with America still clearly at the top, but there is now this pile of teams that I think are in kind of a dogfight to be considered the second best team in the world. I mean, Canada, we look at our roster and we say, ah, why can't that be us? But Germany is going to hold up their gold medal and a chance to play for another one in this Olympics and say it's them, you throw in, you know, Serbia and plenty of other great nations. What have you made of the tournament as a whole is kind of a resetting of basketball in the world stage? And I think Australia wants to have a say for sure, for sure, you game today with the amount of NBA players on that roster and so I think we've been talking about this idea that the rest of the world has been catching up bit by bit. Look, let's just be honest, it is hard when you're Serbia, say a country of, you know, 3 million, you have quite the same basketball talent as a country of 333 million. And so we understand that, but in the international setting where it's not a 82 game season and then a best of seven playoffs is that a team like Serbia that plays with discipline and seeing with Australia, they're well coached, they've been together for a little bit. They can reset that order that you're talking about now. At one of these games, you know, and go back to sort of what we saw, not quite as dramatic as 2004. But one of these Olympics, someone will beat the U.S. in the U.S. won't win gold. It very well could be this one because all we're talking about is it requires one game, the U.S. to have a bad game, a team like Canada to have a great game or a team like Serbia to have a great game, and that, you know, resets the order a little bit. But that next group of teams that you're talking about, they're right there. And again, for those who aren't used to watching international basketball, it's a lot of fun. The styles are different. The way you need to operate in a 40 minute game, utilize the paint a little bit differently in the physicality. It's not quite the same game that we're used to watching. And that's why some of these international teams that play in these tournaments, you know, year after year after year and together, are able to come here and make a little bit of noise that you otherwise wouldn't expect. Canada played the United States in one of those pre-Olympic games, and it started off close, but the Americans have, like, at least a couple of top 10 players in the history of the sport playing on this Olympic team right now, Jeff, and they've run roughshod through the group stage, obviously, and just a hammered Serbia. And it's a Serbia team that does have nickel, a yogurt, which they didn't at the FIBA World Cup. Is there a chance that they're beatable? Like, it would take Canada getting all the way to a gold medal match, but like how much of a shock to the system would it be for the United States, honestly, at this point to even be tested in this tournament. I think they will be tested at some point. Now, let's, I don't put tons of stock into every friendly that's played. What we saw was South Sudan did against the United States, but we also saw Germany gave them a run in one of those five exhibition games. So I do think it's possible. It's one of these things where you ask if I, yes, I would be stunned that they lost, and yet if you can sort of balance that with, it's not surprising, because something like that can happen in a one-game scenario. Look, they're heavily favored for lots of the reasons you're talking about. But can I envision a scenario? And I don't think it's going to be Serbia, but could it be a Canada? Could it be a Germany who pulls it off? I do think it's possible. I thought the bracket or the draw worked out favorably for the U.S. to get to the gold medal game. And so that helps them out a little bit. They won't have to see France, Canada, or Germany until a medal game. And so that helps them out. But yeah, look, when you talk about the Alabron, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, I mean, you know, let's stretch it. Top 15, 20 players all time right there. It's hard to see them lose me. I will say this, though, that lack of continuity, they don't have time in a 40-minute FIFA game to search for Steph Curry to find a shot. You have to move on to the next guy. But the one thing that helps out the U.S., the next guy is Anthony Edwards, who can give you 26 points? So, Canada beat the United States in the bronze medal match of the FIFA World Cup. Obviously, that's not the same cast of characters. It's pretty good players on that American team, though. No question. And Canada, they haven't shown up on the world stage until very recently. Of course, it's their return to the Olympics for the first time in over 20 years. But is there a scenario where, you know, we have this in hockey, where it's the United States and Canada. It's like one of the best international sporting rivalries we have. Is there a scenario in which we get a legit rivalry between the Canadians and the Americans when it comes to international basketball? I think for that to start, it would have to be in a gold medal game here this year. And that's where it would be a carryover. I know you mentioned last year, the FIFA World Cup. But it wasn't quite the same U.S. team that they have this year. And so if you can get into a gold medal game here between those two teams, and then it's a tight game, then I think you're on to the start of something in that regard. But the thing that happens here and, you know, I'm not as well versed in some of the international hockey as I am is that the U.S. and Canada moving forward, just because of the nature of the NBA season, they have a harder time getting their top players to play in every international event, especially when the FIFA World Cup now is lined up timing lives to be one year before the Olympics. They're asking a lot for NBA players to give up two consecutive summers, and especially when they play deep into the playoffs, I know it happens in hockey. So I don't have the great comparison that you guys would have some context to, but it's just clear that, you know, you're not going to get Anthony Edwards playing in that FIFA World Cup. You'll get him playing in the 2028 Olympic. And so I think that detracts from some of the rivalry that you're talking about establishing. Yeah, no, it's a good point. Yeah, we haven't seen best on best in hockey in a while. And that's a good thing because the Americans seem like they're getting much better at hockey. But we'll see it in February. They play a four nations thing. Anyways, Jeff, enjoy the basketball this afternoon in France. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, you guys. Jeff Zilget, USA, today. So Canada, France, this afternoon at noon, the United States play Brazil, Germany already through to the semi-fitals Serbia in Australia on the American side of the bracket. So I mentioned the golf. Oh, the golf. You thought it was going to deprive you of your opportunity to talk about it. I did. I actually did. I thought you were like, no, I'm just going to tease it and then Brent's just going to leave here and be like, what? We didn't talk golf. That's where the thought was going. No. No. I did. Scotty Sheffler take. Took a big hit. Oh, it's not a major, but I will say like you win the players and the Olympic gold medal in the same year. So that's like 90% of a major. I'm shocked. I thought you would have like tripled down on like who even cares. Look at the Americans. They sent Wyndham Clark as one of the guys representing America here. Bryson wasn't there. The guys won a major like I would have thought there was if this was ever a time to double triple quadruple quintuple, all of the ones you can do on your Scotty Sheffler only wins limited field, not like it's a limited field mode, but he shot 62. I don't have Sunday look, then I don't have the tape, so you don't have to convince me of your take. He was five back going into the back nine. No, conversely, John Rahm had a four stroke lead Scotty Sheffler shot 29 on the back nine on Sunday. That's very good. John Rahm shot 39 on the back nine. It's 10 worse on Sunday. So Scotty Sheffler and super emotional winning that gold medal, as it always is, guys just a cryer like no judgment, but it's just like, you know, we don't see the full bluff. Like we get it. We get the tears from guys who win one thing. Like I won the title and I'm going to retire or I could never believe that he wins every six minutes he's alive on earth and he still is just crestfallen or well, not crestfallen, but he's incredibly happy every time. Yeah. The opposite. Yeah. I mean, I just rewatched Shawshank for the 700th time to last week to make sure you could find all the breadcrumbs of Andy Dufresne killing his wife. Good. Good job. No, not that. But I watch it in like five different snippets, but like I don't care like every time I watch it, just like in tears, like ugly crying, like I, yeah, not ashamed to admit it. Love love me some good cry watching the end of Shawshank. Anyways, Scotty Sheffler, he cries when he wins many millions of dollars, although that was not the result of 36 grand Sunday. That's fine. Hey, better than nothing. It covers the pool. It's not about the money at the Olympics, despite the IOC raking it in. Yes. That legitimized, to me, what is going to be a player of the year when for Scotty Sheffler. To me, that that cements it. I know we got the FedEx cup still to come. So Eastlake, who doesn't think about Eastlake? Like lots of people, unless Tiger Woods is returning to the winner circle for the first time in a decade, then Eastlake is super important, even though he didn't win the FedEx cup when he won. We're Justin Rose. It's actually the funniest thing of all time of, well, we're all like, Oh my God, Tiger's going to win a tournament. Justin Rose hit a great lag putt for 10 million bucks and he did the Kobe fist bump. It was really weird. Yeah, they changed it now. So we don't have to do that anymore. Yeah, they do the thing that they did on American gladiators for the eliminator where it's like, you build up your lead and then you get the advantage in the eliminator. Seems fair. And whoever crosses the finish line in the eliminator wins American gladiators. Whoever wins the tour championship wins the FedEx cup as it should be. Anyways, I don't care about that. Yes, I'm aware. Olympic gold is certainly more important than the stupid FedEx cup. Disagree. Oh my God. Really? Like, okay. The singular event of winning an Olympic gold medal, of course, just in sports carries more weight. Of course, of course, of course. We cannot sit here and say, well, all the golf they played all year doesn't matter. All those tournaments that's got each other that that all culminates to him winning it. This isn't a, this isn't a, it's not like the rig. It's not like playoffs for other sports where it completely resets. Like Scotty Sheffler has his lead of the FedEx cup standings that he carries into the playoffs and Xander Schofley is going to be right there. And the other reason why I don't think this is done is again, does it carry as much weight from a sports fan perspective? Not even close, but you're telling me if Xander Schofley wins the second to last playoff event and then wins the tour championship that that's not going to feel like he just stamped home a season in which, let me remind everyone, he won two majors. I, I, right now, if you're asking me who the player of the year is, I think a Scotty Sheffler, that was enough to tip the scales back to him. But if Schofley wins a playoff event and then goes and wins the tour championship, guess what? I'm back to him because everyone's been telling me and trust me, I know I'm a Rory guy. Majors are the only thing that matters. So that's why I look at it is sheff, sheffler has done enough to kind of get it back in, but this is a very tight race for me. And yeah, I'm, I, I don't, I can't believe I have to do this, but yeah, I'm sorry the playoffs of the sport matter. I'm sorry, man. Yeah. I mean, they're contrived. Okay. I mean, so we're all contrived. It's like, what's our goal tournament? But I, but like, we don't, we just don't have as long a history with it. Like we just said, the rules changed, like in the last couple of years, mark the champ. Agreed. Yeah. But it's, come on. It's also, we don't have history with Olympic golf. It started, it started six minutes ago, honestly. The trophy needs a rebranding, like I'm sure FedEx paid a quadrillion dollars for the naming rights of the FedEx Cup. It sounds like a joke, like the FedEx Cup. You know what? What are we talking about? Fair take. That's a fair take. Anyways, we have to take a break. Yeah. But I gotta wrap it up with this, John Romm now with Rory and the Finnish and the US Open. Point might have been a bigger joke. Yeah. Didn't have the singular like, here's a, here's a millimeter long. Pots. There's some short pots mess. There were, but it was just so easy to put a pinpoint on. Look at this. There's six feet of pots that he missed. 39 on a golf course that it's, it was not Pinehurst. No. The golf nationale. Okay. 39, like at Pinehurst? That's 59. Mm hmm. That's a little extreme. Yeah, it does. 42. But that, you're right there, John Romm. You're on, on, boy, imagine we had a Choca of the Year award. Why don't we? Well, we can make one up. Okay. We will. Aso, write that down. Remind us in December. Okay. Who's leading the Choca of the Year award? It's, it's still Rory McElroy because of the, the very definitive moment. Like there's a difference to me between a meltdown of a long, prolonged thing, a choking to me. And this is a bit of semantics, but it's an instant, it's a thing that happens right like that. And it was two flashpoint moments for McElroy, whereas Romm, it wasn't, it was a choke, but it was more of a meltdown than it was a choke. You're parsing jokes to melt down. Yeah. Well, do you not agree? Like I think a choke is a thing that happens in the moment. I don't think a choke can happen over two hours. Here's why it's more of a choke for Romm is that Rory will have plenty of opportunities to, to overcome this. Mm hmm. And John Romm, like in the short term will, but unless they figure out this world golf rankings thing. Mm hmm. He's running out of time. Yeah. And that's actually something he cares about. Sorry, live unlike all their events. No kidding. Yep. All right. More, more from me on that on the golf show, recording later today with McElroy. All right. When we come back, the 200 meter semi-finals going tomorrow for Andre de Grasse. Does he have anything in the tank? Can he back up his Olympic gold from three years ago? We'll talk to Felicia George, Olympic track athlete and Bob Sledder and CBC analyst next as the fan morning show continues bananas, Brent Gunning sports net 590 the fan. Unrivaled insight, analysis and opinions on all things blue jays, Blair and Barker. Be sure to subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning shows for 759 the fan man and his friend Gunning. Repishage is the word we don't say enough. Only in Olympics. Yeah. Good news for Aaron Brown. The Canadian has qualified for the 200 meter semi-final after getting through on the Repishage. Again, just a wonderful word that we hear every two years tomorrow. We'll see the semi-finals. All right. Turn out for our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit donvalleynorthlexus.com. Felicia George, Olympic track athlete and Bob Sledder, CBC analyst, kind enough to join us online right now. How's it going Felicia? Good. Thanks for having me. Thanks for doing this. Okay. I got to start with some little off the beaten track because we talked about this earlier. I was watching the track and field yesterday. I was watching Mondo DiPlantis win the gold medal and set the world record. But like all the while while the runners are also running, like is it not distracting for anybody that all this is happening at the same time? But he's just running out, you know, celebrating, no, I mean, that's track and field. That's the beauty of it. There's like a billion things going on, the spectators are well entertained. Yeah. And they were. I also want to start with something kind of off the beaten path. We were talking about this as well and like, you know, like with this job that we do here, we obviously love having the Olympics on. But generally speaking, our focus is kind of on North American team sports. There could not be a different seeming feel around the Olympic events versus what we watch. What is it like? And again, like you've, you've competed the idea of you. Yes, you're competing against whoever is going against you in the event, but there really does seem to be a camaraderie among all the competitors as well. Like Decathlon is the one that shines through the most for me, but I feel like it exists in all of these Olympic events. And it's just, it's so different from what we see in kind of, you know, the team sports that we follow kind of throughout the year. Yeah, most definitely, I mean, I can speak to track and field like, you know, the track world is quite small. Like I feel like you know, so as all the different athletes, we're traveling to different competitions together. And we know what, how hard it is. And so I think there's just a level of respect for your competitors out there and they're able to pull the best out of you. And I think you're right. You see so well, so much into the cathlon where, you know, at the end, they're really cheering each other on. So Noel Lyles, the fastest man on earth, despite the fact that he only won the 100 meter final after review and he won by five, 1000s. Is there anything that like, you know, we do call the winner of the 100 meter final, the fastest man or woman on earth. But yeah, is there anything to the fact that it was so close? Do you, do you get any of the bragging rights taken away from you that you don't even know in the moment that you won that race? I think it's all even more impressive to me. I was such a competitor. I love that person is going to grind it up to the end and come from behind. And that's what no, it to me was like, he just willed himself to the line. And I thought that was so cool. And I also just want to shout out Julian Alfred from St. Lucia with a man's 100 like just taking it out and just like dominating that race. And that was famous for schools, which is pretty cool. Yeah, the images from St. Lucia were awesome as she wins their first ever gold medal. That was really cool. So no, Noliles wins the 100 meter. It's not his best event. I think he was like seventh at like the 50 meter mark in that event, 200 meter is his event as is Andre de Grasse's. He's the defending Olympic champion. Obviously, it's it's that's a while ago and the World Cup circuit didn't exactly make him one of the favorites. He finished second in that heat with Noliles. Does he have any chance? If Andre has showed me anything over the years, it's just don't count him out because he's been such a game time performer time and time again. And the 200 is his better event. And so for me, it's just like you that's the beauty about sport. You got to show up on the day and you got to perform. It doesn't matter what your season's best is. So I mean, I'm just going to go out there and do what Andre does. Yeah, I think I think he is certainly kind of showing a propensity for that. You'd love to have him have a moment here coming into the games as the as the or one of the two opening opening ceremony flag bearers there, you know, just sticking with with Lyles. It's it's always interesting in track. I mean, all Olympic events are fleeting. You know, we'll see these athletes for, you know, a couple Olympic cycles. Some people obviously are stretching out longer than that, but track it's so hard to kind of stay elite for for so long. You know, the feeling I kind of had coming into this was almost like somebody who watched Jordan play in the NBA and now I'm like, okay, this is interesting. But it's different to wrap my head around because I remember a world where you same bolt to exist. What do you think it's done to the sport to have him kind of vacate the stage? And you know, no, Lyles could have been as fast as he wanted to. But if you say bolt was still there, he still would have been the kind of center of of all track conversations, it feels like, do you think it's allowed us to kind of dive into some of these other stories now that we don't have the kind of one person at the at the epicenter of it all? And I realize that's a little unfair to to know Lyles, but sorry, you're not your same bolt, man. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, different times have different, you know, stories. So you say and bolt was that about domination. And I think that brought a lot of eyes to track and feel that the story of the games right now is it's competitive. There's like, we saw that mentioned did you do not know who's going to win? And I think that's just as exciting. And we get to know so many more different, you know, people who are lining up and I like that. It feels like you need like a different personality to be a sprinter and Felicia, you were a short distance sprinter and you were a hurdler, like, can you talk to me about the difference in mentality? It feels like you need to have a bigger personality, honestly, to be a sprinter. I felt in percent like I'm going to say, I usually just thought I had that kind of ego. There has to be something in you that has just like unwavering self-belief that you believe you can almost run through a brick wall. And like, you know, when you're standing, then you have to believe I'm going to win and that level of confidence, even if it's big, if it's quiet, but you have to have that level of like confidence and self-beliefing yourself. Dude, the athletes think about who's going to be the flag bearer for the closing ceremonies because Summer McIntosh won three gold and a silver. It's hard to imagine her not being it, but there's still so much of the Olympics to play out. She went home, but yeah, she could easily jump on a plane and come back. Like, is there a talk among the athletes as to like, who's going to be the closing ceremonies flag bearer? I mean, usually the athletes are kind of just, you know, focused on their competition. But I wouldn't say I necessarily would have heard lots of talk around that. But I would agree. Summer definitely is in the front running to be there. I've always loved walking, kiss, closing ceremonies, so that would be a really big honor for her. We saw Aaron Brown and again running well today in the 200 meter, but in the 100 getting disqualified with the with the false start, it looked like the runner next to him flinched before Brown kind of got charged with the with the false start. Is there anything we can do about that rule in track? Because, you know, I understand the idea of we don't want to sit there and watch 15 false starts in a row. We want to watch a race. But to be over, you know, not not quickly, but we want to, you know, to see it start on time kind of what do you make of the the false start rule in track and, you know, just just Aaron Brown getting disqualified there. Yeah, I mean, it's so challenging. And I think that, you know, it speaks to, you know, what's being asked of track athletes. It's almost like mere perfection, where we're not even allowing one false start. And you know, to think I'm thankfully Aaron also has a 200 and he also has a four by one. But what if that was an athlete who that was all they came for? So I definitely think there needs to be, you know, something changed about that. Because we still want to see that the best people competing, right? So something needs to be done. Yeah. You know what? Sorry. Let me just jump in. Correct me if I'm wrong. We used to it used to be there was one false start and then the next one would be disqualified. Like, do you think that makes more sense than what we have now? Do you have the kind of, I mean, if you did, I imagine you would have told somebody, but do you have the perfect solution for this? Did you, the problem with it is, yeah, I mean, as athletes do, everybody was using things to their advantage, right? So before it was like one false start and then charge the field so then the next person gets disqualified. So the problem with that one was people were false starting on purpose to make other people fit into the box because nobody wants to be that second person to false start. So I'm not really sure what the solution is. But yeah, I guess we just got a brainstorm on that. Really you go, want to get to the story of the day, which is like off the track for the Canadian track team. And that is Andre deGrasse's coach having his accreditation revoked and yeah, I don't think anybody has the details, the exact details is there's some investigations that are still pending has not been charged with a crime. But yeah, his accreditation is pulled. I just want to get into the idea of the relationship between the coach and the athlete and what kind of an impact that might have on Andre. Like once you get to the competition, how much coaching actually happens? Yeah, I mean, for me, honestly, I just think the focus needs to stay on the athletes. The athletes are there to compete. We want to make sure we're putting them in the best situations that they can be at their best and just keeping our eyes focused on doing what's best for our athletes to be competing at their best. So you can't tell me like what a coach would do for a track athlete at the event? I mean, I mean, your coach is coaching you while you're there for sure. Okay. All right. Thanks, Felicia. Appreciate it. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Felicia George, Olympic track athlete and bobsledder, CBC analyst. Our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit DonvalleyNorthlexus.com. We always have that conversation like we had it about Bev Priestman with the women's soccer team, right? It's like, okay, like the coach isn't there. But there's been obviously a lot of, you know, like the coaching has happened leading up to the tournament. What is the difference? We've seen this like, I don't know why this is popping into my head now, but it's like did Bobby Valentine really need to sneak back into the dugout when he got tossed and he put on his fake mustache. Like what difference does it make that he's there? And I think that we just with team sports have them, shouldn't say much clear, but some centilla of thought of like, okay, we've all played on teams before. What does a coach do? But with such an individual sport, I don't think it's something that people do have a like good insight into exactly what is what the relationships like, what they're helping with. Obviously, they're doing something, but I think it's just we have a less clear picture of it. >> Yeah, I would guess would have been nice for Felicia to answer the question, I here's what I would have liked to have heard from Felicia, which was like bizarrely like, okay, I'm not talking about like, no offense to Felicia, but like, why you can't answer the question about the coach and what he does. >> Anyways, what I would have liked to have like, seems like a third rail didn't want to get anywhere near. >> Yeah, I'm not asking her to break down what he did. >> Hey, I didn't not answer the question. Don't yell at me. >> I know. That's just frustrating when you have a guest on who's a track analyst who doesn't answer a pretty simple question about what the coach does and how impactful that would be not having your coach around, not asking you what Raina writer, writer, I've had him on the radio before. >> Yeah. >> This is before any allegations. >> Yeah. >> I'm not asking you what he did, which like might be horrible. Seems like there's pretty good indication that it's not good considering his accreditation was revoked and he's already been a under investigation by Safespore. >> Yes. >> Whatever. Anyways, what I would like to know is like, after each race, like what is the coach doing? Is he like, going over film? Like how much technical analysis goes into it or is it more like, hey, he's there helping you train. Here's the program that you go through to get you in peak physical condition. But when you're at the event, it's just like you got to apply all those things. There's nothing the coach can do. >> Yeah. >> What a nice to hear that from the track athlete that we had on the radio. >> Yeah, I don't disagree. Wow. I didn't have you getting more frustrated. >> Well, that's just like, buddy. What are we doing here? >> I don't know, to be perfectly honest. I think, again, I would imagine, but I don't know because this will shock everyone out there. Not a track athlete, myself, not particularly fast, a little too gangly for all that. Like, you wonder how much of it is technical versus how much of it is strictly kind of mental. She talked about the ego aspect of it, the personality part of it, how much? Because again, we see this all the time again in team sports. There are two. We'd see the NBA inside the huddle stuff all the time. And sometimes you have a Frank Vogel who's actually sketching something up. And it's like, we want to do this one. And sometimes we got a guy going, let's go, boys, let's go. You got to get their face hit. Like, defense hard. And depending on the team you have, one is useful, one is not, and I would be curious as to, is it a, hey, you kind of pushed out of the block a little later again, like whatever the very fine night technical thing is versus just a, hey, you got this, be strong. Because that's part of coaching too. Sometimes we dismiss that part of it. But especially in an event like that that is over in the blink of an eye. And you've already had the, quite frankly, failures in the Olympics based on what he would have wanted to accomplish at this point in time. But yeah, I'd imagine it's just as much kind of mental as it is physical. Yeah. Getting a raw, raw running. You know what we good? Like getting a head coach that would have you running through a brick wall in the running event. So you think like Dan Campbell, Lions coach? No. Okay. So again, I spent a lot of yesterday watching Dragonfield. I think it's awesome. I really enjoyed it. Athletics. They call it at the Olympics though. So don't disparage it. Sure. Dragonfield. Athletics. Again, the pole vault, I guess saw this guy, Mondo. Yeah. Um, you know what he was doing? He's going over to his coach who had an iPad and he's like, see, like what part of your body hit the thing? And you know what happened? They like adjusted the pole again. I wish I had the terminology. Oh, I think it was called the depth, the depth of the bar sounds like a thing. They moved it back. They're like, Hey, your body's going here. Like, what if we just like move the pole, which you're allowed to do in pole vault? See, that seems like pretty clear understanding of what a coach can do. You analyze the footage of what happened and then apply it to your next attempt. I just like with running, like obviously there's technique to running for sure. Can you change it like in the middle of an event? Like, and you know what? It's difference. There's a difference between sprinting and longer distance running. Like obviously your coach can talk to you about pace. Yes. I don't know if you're allowed to get like an indication from your coach during the race, but obviously like you're allowed to see what pace your ad, like there's a clock that everybody can see. At the very least though, it's got to be distracting for Andre to grass to have his head coach no longer with him at all during the proceedings. Yeah. How can it not? Right? You wouldn't have this person as your coach as part of your team if you didn't feel like they were helping you in some kind of way, shape, or form. And I also do wonder if it's kind of almost like like a golf coach would work with somebody in that it's more of a feel you're talking about or a thought than a true heart and fast of like, put your arm in here, right? How often do you like when you're talking swing tips with somebody? It's not like you want to actually lock yourself like you don't want to get super deep down in the weeds of more of a thought that you're sharing. And I do wonder if that's it as well. Have you ever watched the sprint show on Netflix? No. So they have, I mean, now every sport is jumping on board. And now that's kind of the problem we've reached a oversaturation of these days. Yeah. NHL coming soon. Yeah. It's the last day to leave to do it. Well, no, it hasn't done it like we we punished the Leafs and we made fun of them and now the whole league will do it. Right. Yeah. That's right. I mean, the NHL was doing 24/7, but it's a different deal than honestly, this production company box to box productions, which did the drive to survive program, which followed Formula one. And basically, for a lot of North Americans invented Formula one for them, myself included. It's like one of the biggest, most profitable sports in the world. But until five years ago, I never before told you three things about it. Before five years ago, it was the thing that I complained most about being on TV as a kid because I was just like, God, do I have to watch Michael Schumacher win every weekend? Yeah. Do I have to? Like we don't we couldn't put on highs. It was confusing to me that people were as into it as they were. It's like, great. The guy in the red car going to win again. Yeah. And guess what? Nothing's changed except the color of the car. Incorrect. It's tension. Oh, God. Max Verstappen is like no longer the dominant force anymore. Like did he just win the championship last driver's championship? Yeah, that was last. He won. So we won two. Yeah. Okay. This year, he hasn't won in like a month now. Oh, okay. No, it's bad. It is up for grabs. But do you know how my boys Ferrari are doing? They're my fake team. Not as well. McLaren's like the Nando Norris for him. Oh, yeah. See, I know. Yeah, good for you. I watched the show. I mean, it was so impactful for that sport to have the exposure that that program gave them. So there's a similar program sprint, which I only just started watching. But yeah. Guess what? No allows a big part of it. Shocker. Because he's a huge personality. I actually feel like that's the one you would have most wanted to do from the jump. Yeah. They all have huge personalities, although like F1, they are more likely to snipe at each other, right? Like there's a lot. And like we keep saying track, like Olympic athletes, athletics, there is more of a cam rotary. And I haven't gotten deep enough to know if there's actual like serious rivalries between these sprinters. I feel like some of them probably hate each other probably. But I will say, so I say this every time the summer Olympics come around, I love watching running so much. And I was like, hey, there should be more of it. Even though there is more like there's the diamond league and there's the world championships. Could we get to a point with like the Noel Liles of it all and the knowledge of some of the key figures in sprinting that all of a sudden like the diamond league is something we care about? Because like there are people that are sprinting hardos, why not? Because this is the way it'll actually happen. I'm sorry. I hate to do this to the diamond league. But I think that what's going to happen is like you get some like disruptor for some rich guy is like, I want to make my and you have the New York summer sprint class. Or something like it is a rebranded thing. The diamond leagues is forever. We do this every Olympic cycle and no one ever cares. There needs to be some big American event. Like I'm sorry. I hate to break it to everybody. But that's happened in Formula One. There's more American races than ever before, one in Vegas in Miami. Those are huge huge. But that was a that was a thing already going on that they added into. I think you need to have something that feels differently in North America, no one's broken through. You need to have like, honestly, the Usain Bolt Classic every summer. And that is that is effectively sorry world championships. That's the new world championships. It needs a flat out rebrand. And I think people would grab ahold of it if the branding, the marketing, whatever you want to say it is right. And I actually think that Bolt is the only name that kind of resonates in that way. Sorry, Noah Lyles. I still think that. Yeah, I think no allows is enough of a self promoter and a guy that he's talking about wanting his own. Right. Right. Good. You should. Yeah. The fastest man in the world. You can ask for these things. I mean, it is just so easily digestible. Well, the other problem, and I don't know if Diamond League runs into this, but this is what the Olympics as well is, the only thing that would make sprinting better is if it was like horse racing. And it wasn't, hey, like at three o'clock, it's going to be on. No. Yeah. The 100 meter final is at four 14 p.m. Yeah. And it will be over by four 14 30. That is actually the thing that holds it back the most is in the Olympics like, hey, it's going to be on. And like, we'll get to it when we get to it. Watch the 1500, which great, I'm actually on board with that. But I think that's the other thing is if we had a, if much like the, you know what? I think I figured it out at the Kentucky Derby, they need to have 100 meter race. And it's just like on the infield or something there. And you do it at the exact announced time. That is the other part is the timing. Brent, I have news for you. Oh, that actually happens to the Olympics. You can actually find the timing of the 100. No, cause I've done this in the past and they've been, no, no, no, no, deep enough. Here's the difference is I need to know, I can find the post time in the Kentucky Derby two weeks in advance. I can find the time of the 100 meter, the day of the final of the 100 meter. They don't have the exact time two days ahead of time. They don't because they don't know what time the other events are going to wrap up. They have to move stuff. They have to do the staging. Like there is not a minute start as there is though. They know how long the race is. This day of they can give us that. They didn't get, I was looking heading into it. It was okay. It'll be at two, 30 ish. It'll be at four, 30 ish. Not good enough. Give me an exact minute. It's the 100. Yeah, I just, I like watching people run agreed, but like, but at the exact time, I want to know what I'd like to know and what a coach does. Anyways, time now for the waking rank presented by sports interaction, your home grown sports book, 19 plus bet responsibly, Canada, France, Olympic men's basketball at noon today. And it has the Canadians favorite pretty heavily, eight and a half over a wemby. The total 173 and a half. These totals are weird with 40 minute games. I'm not going to touch that thing. I will not be doing that. No, the spread. What do you think about Canada and then on the, on the money line, France plus 260 Canada minus 333. Yeah, I think the, the money line odds are just too, too jarring to take from me. I kind of like France to cover. I do like Canada in this game, but I think it's going to be super, super tight. Grab the points with France plus eight and a half. You love it. Yeah. I hate it, but you love it. No. Listen, France is better than Greece. It was a nail biter against wemby in Greece. It's going to be a nail biter. Even if Canada gets off to a big lead, they've been known to blow those things late in these games. I do like France with the points, but not to win. Come on. Patriots. Yeah, not a traitor. All right. That was the waken rake presented by sports interaction. Your homegrown sports book 19 plus bet responsibly. When we come back, Blue Jays, Orioles, as they go through the top two teams in the American League East, we'll talk to Kayla McGrath of the athletic next with the fan morning show continues. Ben Anis, Brent Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan.
