Wednesday Sports: Olympics Update, Tre Ford To Start, NFL

OLYMPICS

• Canada lost its appeal against the deduction of six competition points following a drone-spying scandal in the Olympic women’s soccer tournament. The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Wednesday said its panel of three judges dismissed Canada’s appeal and confirmed the six-point deduction imposed Saturday by FIFA. Two assistant coaches used drones to spy on New Zealand’s practices last week before their opening game.
• The triathlon events at the Paris Olympics will go ahead today after days of delays and uncertainty over water quality in the Seine River. The men’s race was postponed from Tuesday over concerns of elevated bacteria levels in the water due to rainfall. Officials had undertaken an ambitious plan including spending 1.4-billion euros in infrastructure improvements to clean up the river for the swimming portion of the triathlon and the marathon swimming events next week.
• Canada came up a win short, but still collected its first-ever silver medal in women’s rugby sevens at the Paris Summer Games earlier today. Defending champion New Zealand defeated Canada 19-12 in the final to claim gold. The Canadians won bronze when the sport made its debut at the 2016 Games in Rio, but finished ninth in Tokyo.
• The U-S women’s gymnastics team led by Simone Biles completed its redemption tour yesterday, taking gold at the Paris Olympics. The U-S won the team final competition in gymnastics, finishing well clear of Italy and Brazil — the second- and third-place finishers. Biles, who is 27, had removed herself from the team final at the Tokyo Games in 2021 due to mental health reasons.

MLB

• Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins says the club’s busy trade-deadline day did not signal a rebuild but rather a retooling for the MLB team. Atkins says he expects the Jays to contend in 2025 and beyond after shipping out every pending free agent on the team. The list included Danny Jansen, Nate Pearson, Justin Turner, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Kevin Kiermaier and Yusei Kikuchi. Toronto received 14 players in return — almost all of them prospects.
• The Blue Jays dropped the third game of its series with the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday by a score of 6-2. Toronto starter Chris Bassitt fell to eight-and-10 after giving up five runs and nine hits in four innings. The Blue Jays finished the game with just five hits — four of them singles.

WCBL

Regina 17 Moose Jaw 13
Weyburn 5 Saskatoon 4
Medicine Hat 5 Swift Current 3
Brooks 4 Edmonton 3
Okotoks 9 Lethbridge 1

CFL

Reports say the Edmonton Elks will start Canadian quarterback Tre Ford in week Nine against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Ford entered last week’s game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the fourth quarter and ended with 121 passing yards and three touchdowns. But it wasn’t enough for Edmonton, which fell 44-28. The Elks — at oh-and-seven –remain the only winless team in the CFL.

NFL

• The NFL will have a new look this year when it comes to kickoffs. Owners voted this spring to overhaul the kickoff, hoping to revive a play that had little action last season after most kicks resulted in no returns. Owners also approved other rule changes, including banning the use of the “swivel hip-drop” tackle that had led to several injuries and in an increase in the use of instant replay. The new rules get their first chance to be used Thursday night in the exhibition opener between Houston and Chicago in the annual Hall of Fame game.
• Bears quarterback Caleb Williams will not make his NFL preseason debut in Thursday night’s Hall of Fame Game against the Houston Texans, Bears coach Matt Eberflus said Tuesday. The No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft from Southern California along with all the Bears starters will sit out the first game. Eberflus said doesn’t see a need for starters to play in an extra preseason game considering the team has three other games plus a practice session at Halas Hall against Cincinnati on Aug. 15 prior to the preseason game against the Bengals two days later.
• Jon Gruden is asking the entire Nevada Supreme Court to reconsider a decision to throw out a lawsuit he filed against the NFL over emails leaked to the media before he resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021. An NFL spokesman declined to comment and attorneys for Gruden and the league didn’t respond to email messages about Monday’s court filing. It was the latest development in Gruden’s lawsuit alleging that Goodell and the league forced Gruden to resign from the Raiders by leaking emails containing racist, sexist and homophobic comments that Gruden sent when he was an on-air game analyst at ESPN about Goodell and others in the NFL.
• The NFL is moving closer to replacing the chain gang with new technology to measure line to gain. NFL executive Gary Brantley told The Associated Press the league will test Sony’s Hawk-Eye technology during some preseason games. The system most likely wouldn’t be ready for full implementation until next season, though it could happen sooner. Sony, which was named the NFL’s official technology partner on Wednesday, has expanded its sports technology through Hawk-Eye Innovations to support officiating and the development of on-field and sideline technologies, including a new coach’s sideline headset that will debut in 2025.

(Canadian Press)