This coverage was first sent as an email newsletter to our subscribers. Sign up to receive it, for free, on our Ottawa at the Olympics page.
Newsletter By Adam Beauchemin, Martin Cleary, Dan Plouffe & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
This morning, Ottawa gymnast Sam Zakutney wouldn’t have considered himself an Olympian.
“Once I get onto the comp floor and I start competing, that’s when I can officially say that I am an Olympian,” gymnast Sam Zakutney told the Ottawa Sports Pages’ Adam Beauchemin last week. “I’m here and I have all the gear to prove it, but it’s not until I do my job that I feel like I deserve the title.”
By this afternoon in Paris, all that had changed.
Zakutney made his Olympics debut in today’s men’s artistic gymnastics qualification event and helped Canada qualify for the team finals along the way.
Zakutney and his teammates Zachary Clay, Rene Cournoyer, Felix Dolci, and William Emard earned Canada spot at the games after a 16-year absence in the men’s artistic team competition.
The squad finished the day with a total team score of 247.794, securing the eighth and final qualification position for the team final. They edged Turkey by just .235 points for eighth place. China led the way with a score of 263.028, followed by Japan with 260.594 and Great Britain with 256.561.
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
Getting to compete as a team at the Olympics was already special for Zakutney, and getting to do it again on Monday will only add to the fun. The 25-year-old Franco-Cité high school grad moved to Montreal after finishing his engineering degree at Penn State University and trains alongside Cournoyer and Dolci there.
“We’ve developed that (great spirit and) bond over a good three years now,” Zakutney said in a post-event interview on CBC. “I’ve trained with two of these guys almost every single day. They’re pretty much my brothers at this point. We’ve bonded by sweat and tears, maybe not blood, but I couldn’t have chosen a better group of guys to compete with today.”
Zakutney competed on all six apparatuses — floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar — and he earned an all-around score of 79.698, which ranked him in 29th place.
While the National Capital/Ottawa Gymnastics Centre product did not make the top-8 to qualify for any of the individual apparatus finals, his scores on the pommel horse, the parallel bars, and the horizontal bar contributed to the Canadian’s team total.
Zakutney’s best effort came on the horizontal bar, where he was awarded 5.800 points for difficulty, and 8.233 points for execution for a total score of 14.033 to place 15th.
Derek Gee fights through nasty weather, tired legs to kick off Paris cycling competition
Derek Gee weathered rain and slick streets to make his Paris Games debut in the men’s road cycling individual time trial.
The 26-year-old from Ottawa covered the 32.4 km course in a time of 38:28.17, good for 20th place on the day. Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel won in 36:12.16.
Gee is just over a week removed from his debut at the Tour de France, where he placed ninth in the general classification. The Ottawa Bicycle Club product indicated via an Instagram post that he may still be feeling the effects of the gruelling, nearly month-long Tour.
“Always an honour to represent Canada. Not the post-Tour legs I was hoping for but still incredibly special to line up [at the Paris Olympics]. Now eyes on to the road race next week with [Mike Woods],” wrote Gee, who rides professionally with fellow Ottawa cyclist Woods for Israel-Premier Tech.
Paris marks Gee’s second time representing Canada at the Olympics. However, at the Tokyo Games three summers ago, Gee competed as a track cyclist, so today was his Olympic debut on the road.
A renowned cycling sprinter, Gee was one of 34 riders to take on the course that started at the iconic Les Invalides hotel and finished at Pont Alexandre III Bridge.
The rainy conditions lent themselves to a tough day on the road and several cyclists suffered falls and near-crashes. Two riders did not complete the race.
“It was super tricky conditions out there,” Gee said via Cycling Canada. “I knew my form going in would be a bit of a question mark … it was a tough one for sure.”
Fortunately for Gee, he will now have a few days of much deserved downtime as his next event — the men’s road race — is not until next Saturday, Aug. 3, which is also his birthday.
“Just recover a little bit and then build towards the weekend,” he said of his plans for the week before tackling the 273 km race alongside Woods.
“I think this kind of form after the Tour will be better for the road race — the longer effort,” he added. “Also, with Mike coming in, we’ll have some good options, I think he’ll be in good form.”
Ottawa Olympians in action on July 27:
Preview: Marial Shayok set to debut in South Sudan’s inaugural men’s basketball Olympic game
Tomorrow, Ottawa basketball player Marial Shayok will be making his Olympics debut, although he won’t be wearing the maple leaf as he does it.
Shayok is representing South Sudan in the Summer Games and his team will be taking on Puerto Rico in their first match of the tournament.
“Being an Olympian is, honestly, surreal – something I never thought of being growing up,” Shayok told High Achievers columnist Martin Cleary in an email interview earlier this month. “I’m super excited to represent my country, my family and friends at the world’s biggest sporting stage.”
South Sudan’s basketball team made headlines earlier this month when they nearly defeated Team USA — who were a 43.5 point favourite — in a pre-Olympics exhibition game. While South Sudan held a 16-point lead against the United States at half-time, the Americans rallied in the final seconds of the game and bested the underdogs by a single point. Shayok led his team with 24 points in the match.
The former member of the St. Patrick Fighting Irish is still plenty involved in the Ottawa Basketball scene. This summer, he held the second annual Shayok Showcase, a basketball event meant to provide local high school players with an opportunity to showcase their talent to Canadian and American university coaches.
“It was beautiful to see the community come out and support these kids, while they compete against each other, as all proceeds are donated back to the participating teams. I intend to continue to have this showcase for many years to come so that the kids that are up next have the same opportunity. I think it’s extremely important for our youth,” underlined Shayok, whose father Makur was born in Sudan and travelled to the United States to accept an athletic scholarship for basketball at the University of Dayton.
South Sudan, a 13-year-old nation in East Africa, is ranked 33rd in the world and will be underdogs against Puerto Rico, ranked 16th. They’ll face more tough competition down the road as they’re also set to take on Serbia led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and the powerhouse Team USA.
Shayok most recently played professionally with Shandong Hi-Speed Kirin and celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday, July 26, the day of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.
You can read Cleary’s full pre-Games feature on Shayok here.
Also in action tomorrow is the world’s #3-ranked women’s doubles tennis player Gaby Dabrowski, who will be making her delayed debut in the Paris Games tomorrow.
The three-time grand-slam title winner Dabrowski and her partner Leylah Annie Fernandez were set to face-off against the French duo of Clara Burel and Varvara Gracheva this afternoon, but inclement weather caused the match to be postponed.
This will be the 32-year-old’s third time representing Canada at the Summer Games and she’ll be returning to the site of her first grand slam victory, the famed Roland-Garros clay courts.
Team Canada soccer player Vanessa Gilles will be playing against her “second country”, Olympic host France. Despite winning their opening game 2-1 over New Zealand, the Canadians effectively face a must-win scenario against the French to advance out of the group stage after being docked six points as punishment for using a drone to record New Zealand’s practices before their match.
From July 24-Aug. 11, the Ottawa Sports Pages will be providing daily Ottawa at the Olympics coverage of the Paris 2024 Games via our free email newsletter. Sign up below to follow along!
By clicking on the submit button, you consent to receive a newsletter from Ottawa Sports Pages. You may unsubscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of our emails. Ottawa Sports Pages | 21 Kolo Dr., Ashton, ON, K0A 1B0
HELP SHINE A LIGHT ON LOCAL SPORT! The Ottawa Sports Pages is a not-for-profit organization committed to providing a voice for local sport. You can offer valuable support for our work with a tax-deductible charitable donation to the Ottawa Sports Pages Fund via OCF-FCO.ca/Ottawa-Sports-Pages-Fund today. 