Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Canada's women are trying to pick up where they left off in the Olympic pool.
Six swimming medals tied the track and field team for the most in Rio's Summer Olympics five years ago.
The women carried momentum from Rio forward through subsequent international swim meet before the global COVID-19 pandemic parked them.
Complete coverage: Click for all the news from the Tokyo Olympics
The erased competitions, the postponement of Tokyo's Games to 2021 and the loss of training hours early in the pandemic has them hungry to show Canada remains among the top women's swim teams in the world.
"Being in Canada with the lockdowns that we've had, we haven't really shown the world what we have yet so in a way I still think we're kind of seen as the underdogs right now," said butterfly world champion Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont.
"I think that will only fuel us going into the rest of the meet."
The relay team of Penny Oleksiak and Kayla Sanchez of Toronto, Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C. and Rebecca Smith of Red Deer, Alta., advanced out of Saturday's 4 x 100 freestyle relay heats into the final Sunday morning, Saturday evening in Canada.
Mac Neil and Katerine Savard of Pont-Rouge Que., swam into Sunday's 100-metre butterfly semifinals on opening night at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre.
The 21-year-old Mac Neil qualified fifth overall in her Olympic debut in a time of 56.55 seconds. Three-time Olympian Savard was 11th in 57.51. The final is Monday.
Canada's relay foursome ranked third overall just under two seconds behind Australia and less than half a second back of the Netherlands in qualifying.
"I think we all definitely have a bit more speed going into tomorrow," Oleksiak said. "I think we're all just here to swim as fast as we can.
"We've been training insanely hard. If you know us, you know no one of us is going to quit in practice so it's always a tough day every single day."
Oleksiak and Ruck were 16-year-old members of the relay team whose 4 x 100 bronze medal was Canada's first medal of the Rio Games in 2016.
"Penny and Taylor are my age," Mac Neil pointed out. "Watching them do that at 16 gave me chills. It's great to be here with them this time."
Oleksiak went on to win 100-metre freestyle gold, 100-metre butterfly silver and anchor Canada to another relay bronze in the 4 x 200.
Hilary Caldwell of London, Ont., who has since retired, and Kylie Mass of LaSalle, Ont., both earned backstroke bronze medals in Rio.
Tokyo's 15,000-seat pool built for the 2020 Games was devoid of paying spectators Saturday. Swimmers' teammates yelled encouragement from the seats.
International spectators already barred from entering Japan, when Tokyo entered a state of emergency July 12 because of rising COVID-19 cases, domestic ticket buyers were told they could not attend events
Mac Neil won a world butterfly title two years ago in Gwangju, South Korea. She'll attempt to become the fourth straight world champion to take Olympic gold in it.
"It's always a challenge coming in with a bullseye on your back," Mac Neil said. "Going into worlds I was relatively unknown, so I really didn't have that challenge."
Canada's Sydney Pickrem withdrew from Saturday's 400-metre individual medley heats for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, according to Swimming Canada.
The 24-year-old from Clearwater, Fla., won a bronze medal in the 200-metre I.M. in Gwangju.
Pickrem was pre-selected before June's trials to race the 400 and 200 medleys and 200-metre breaststroke in Tokyo.
"With a very busy program that also consists of two other individual events which would have heats, semifinals and finals, and may also include relays, this decision is in the best interest of the athlete at this time," Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson said in a statement Saturday.
"Our focus turns to supporting Sydney in her preparation for the 200m individual medley in two days' time."
Tessa Cieplucha of Georgetown, Ont., placed 14th and outside the top eight advancing to the women's 400 I.M. final.
Gabe Mastromatteo of Kenora, Ont., was 38th in the men's 100-metre breaststroke.
The last major international event in a 50-metre pool for the majority of Canadians in Tokyo was the 2019 world championships.
Canadians claimed eight medals in the pool and another in open-water swimming in Gwangju.
Mac Neil won the 100 fly and Masse defended her world title in the 100-metre backstroke. The women collected bronze medals in all three relays, which was a first for Canada at a world championship.
The Olympic swim trials called off in 2020 were scheduled for April of this year, then May, and finally staged in June in Toronto.
"It's a short turnaround for us this time," Atkinson said following trials.
Masse in backstroke, Oleksiak in the 100-metre and 200-metre freestyle and Mac Neil in butterfly are Canada's top medal hopes in the pool.
Ruck will be a key cog in the women's relays again. Toronto's Summer McIntosh, who is Canada's youngest athlete at 14, joins Oleksiak in racing the 200-metre freestyle.
Markus Thormeyer of Delta, B.C., is one to watch in men's backstroke.
Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C., who earned 100 freestyle bronze in London in 2012, came out of retirement and competes in the men's 50-metre freestyle.
"We are going there to challenge for medals, but we don't put any specific target on that," Atkinson said.
"Our pool team is quality. It's been selected to ensure that the team can perform and sustain repeatable performances over the nine days of swimming competition in Tokyo."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2021.
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.