You Just Never Know

So you woke up this morning and heard Canada won a medal in canoe/kayak events.
Hell of a guy, that Adam van Koeverden, you no doubt thought. Soon enough, though, you realized you'd thought wrong. Very, very wrong.
While van Koeverden — considered the surest of shots among the Canadian contingent at the Beijing Games — faded badly to a shocking eighth-place finish in the men's K-1 1,000-metre final, it was the much more unheralded Thomas Hall driving to a bronze medal in the C-1 1,000 at the Shunyi Olympic venue.
There, in a nutshell, is what you typically find at an Olympic Games, especially when it comes to Canadian results. For every van Koeverden or Brent Hayden who doesn't quite match high pre-games expectations, you'll also find a Carol Huynh or Ryan Cochrane or Priscilla Lopes-Schliep who produces an unexpected trip to the podium.
"Some people can handle (the Olympic pressure) and some can't," Hall would later tell CBC's Scott Russell on Olympic Prime. "Some people can bring their 'A' game when it counts. The Olympics only happens once every four years. It's a big deal and there's lots of stress."
Add it all up, and Canada generally winds up about where you'd expect at the end of the day. We sit on 17 medals with one full competition day left in Beijing, one shy of matching Barcelona 1992 as the second most successful Summer Olympics for a Canadian team at a non-boycotted Games (only Atlanta 1996, with 22, ranks higher).
Van Koeverden might yet contribute to that total. He's back on the water at Shunyi at 3:30 a.m. ET, gunning to defend his Olympic crown in the K-1 500 metres. He was as stunned as everyone watching about what happened in the 1,000, a race in which he won the silver medal four years ago in Athens.
"I just didn't have it," van Koeverden told CBC's Karin Larsen after the race. "It's a hell of a time not to have it. It's the worst 1,000 metres I have put together in years."
He's hardly alone. The sprint relays were littered with disaster, with both the U.S. men's and women's teams disqualified in the heats because of botched exchanges. The same fate awaited a heavily favoured Jamaican team in the women's final.
All of which goes to show that at the Olympics, you just never know. It's a whole different Games.
*****
It didn't take long for the so-called "Canadian flagbearer jinx" to be trumpeted by the media in the wake of van Koeverden's finish this morning. In the last five Summer Games, only kayaker Caroline Brunet (silver at Sydney 2000) was able to climb on to the Olympic podium.
Van Koeverden, of course, isn't done yet in Beijing. And it's worth noting that in 1984 and 1988, Alex Baumann (Los Angeles) and Carolyn Waldo (Seoul) both struck gold.
We're sure the latter two didn't believe there was any sort of hex attached to the red maple leaf. Confident guy that he is, van Koeverden likely doesn't subscribe to such thinking, either.

Silver Salute For Captain Canada

The ninth time really was the charm for Ian Millar.
But amidst the celebrations with Jill Henselwood, Eric Lamaze and Mac Cone — who combined to bring Canada a silver medal in team showjumping, the country's first medal of any colour in that event in 40 years — it was a bittersweet time for the 61-year-old Olympic veteran lovingly known as Captain Canada in the equestrian world.
Millar, if you didn't know, competed with a heavy heart at these Beijing Games. Cancer took away his wife, Lynn, earlier this year, but Millar felt her every step of the way at the Shatin Hong Kong Olympic equestrian venue.
"This one's for Lynn," a teary Millar told reporters after the Canadians had dropped a dramatic jump-off to the U.S. for the gold. "I had an angel riding with me, that's all I can say."
With a record nine Olympics under his belt, going all the way back to Munich 1972 (it would be an even 10 save for the boycotted Moscow Games of 1980), Millar had accomplished just about everything in the sport that has been his life. All that was missing was an Olympic medal and there were two earlier close calls, in Seoul in 1998 and Los Angeles four years earlier, when Canadian showjumping teams finished fourth both times.
There was no denying the riders wearing the red maple leaf this time.
"What a team," Millar told CBC's Erin Paul in the moments after the silver had been clinched. "I've been on many fine teams but this was real fine, this one."
Call it one of the greatest testaments to perseverance ever.
"I remember back in the early '70s when I had a disastrous Grand Prix, my wife, Lynn, said to me, 'Don't worry, you're going to be a late bloomer,' " said Millar. "That's what she said to me and I've always held that thought. And so the Olympics don't go well and I'd say, 'Lynn said I'm a late bloomer. I'll go to the next one.'
"And sure enough, guess what happened? I bloomed."
Millar might not be done yet. He has spoken of the dream of riding with his two children, Jonathan and Amy, at the London 2012 Games. It isn't beyond the realm of possibility.
But before then, here's one more honour Millar deserves. No matter what happens the rest of these Games in Beijing, the Canadian Olympic Committee should hand the flag to our grandest Olympian of them all for Sunday's closing ceremony.
Nobody would be prouder to do it for Canada, a country he has always represented with the utmost of pride.
And for the "angel" who has been his biggest fan and inspiration every step of the way.

NBC's Ratings Dream Alive By A Fingertip

The man they call the Baltimore Bullet might just be human after all, it turns out.
American swim phenom Michael Phelps (a.k.a. NBC's ratings gravy train) couldn't have cut it any closer at the Beijing Olympics tonight, edging Serbia's Milorad Cavic by a scant one-hundredth of a second in the men's 100-metre butterfly to win his seventh gold medal in seven events at a single Games. That allowed Phelps to match the once-thought unassailable feat of another U.S. swimmer, Mark Spitz, who went 7-for-7 in Munich back in 1972.
Phelps was fourth after 50 metres, 0.62 seconds behind, and appeared beaten until the final touch. An overhead replay showed the remarkable finish, with the American's massive wingspan getting the job done in the end.
Even then, it still seemed hard to believe. Phelps clocked 50.58 seconds; Cavic 50.59.
"I had no idea the race was that close," Phelps told NBC's Andrea Kremer afterward.
Now the chase for eight golds in the Games of '08 heads to its conclusion Saturday night with the men's 4x100-metre medley relay (10:58 p.m. ET, if you want to set your clocks).
Hard to say who's more relieved about it all, Phelps or NBC.
*****
Speaking of that crazy Olympic time ...
Anyone living in the eastern part of Canada had to heave a bit of a sigh of relief when they saw the semi-final start times for the men's 100 metres, the glamour event of any Summer Olympics.
They're set for 8 a.m. and 8:13 a.m. on Saturday. The final hits the track at 10:30 a.m.
Not the best for TV ratings. Far from the worst for anyone left sleep-deprived by these Games.
Oh, and the big rowing eights final on Sunday, in which Canada is favoured for gold? Try 5:30 a.m. ET.
Get a head start on your extra sleep now.
*****
So Ben Johnson is suing the estate of his former lawyer for $37 million, alleging Edward Futerman took advantage of his "diminished mental capacities" all those years ago after the former Canadian sprinter went from national hero to national disgrace at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Call me a cynic — and I'm guilty as charged if you do — but isn't it interesting this piece of news hit the newspapers just a day before the men's 100-metre final in Beijing?
Coincidence? I think not. Desperate plea for attention? Might be a little closer to the point.