 Canada's winter athletes had a record-breaking weekend | | | Here's a rundown of the historic feats accomplished by Canadians on snow over the past few days:
Mark McMorris and Megan Oldham made Winter X Games history.
Yesterday at the annual action-sports meet in Aspen, Colo., McMorris won the men's snowboard slopestyle event for the second year in a row and seventh time in his career. The gold was the Canadian's 22nd X Games medal, breaking a tie with American Jamie Anderson for the most ever.
McMorris, who at 29 was the oldest athlete in Sunday's final, overtook reigning world champion Marcus Kleveland of Norway on the final run. McMorris won the men's big air world title last year and is a two-time silver medallist in slopestyle at the world championships. He captured bronze in slopestyle at each of the last three Winter Olympics.
Oldham, 21, earned her first two X Games titles over the weekend. On Friday night, the freestyle skier won big air gold after becoming the first woman to land a triple-cork trick in a ski or snowboard event. On Sunday, she added gold in the women's ski slopestyle.
Other Canadians winning medals before the Winter X Games wrapped up yesterday were Teal Harle (silver in the men's ski big air), Rachael Karker (silver in the women's ski superpipe) and Laurie Blouin (bronze in the women's snowboard big air).
Canadians finished with a national-record 16 medals at the Para nordic skiing world championships in Sweden.
The total haul, which included seven gold, obliterated the previous Canadian record of 10 medals set in 2019 in Prince George, B.C. Nine of the medals came in biathlon, and the other seven in cross-country.
Twenty-two-year-old Natalie Wilkie led the way with five medals (three gold and a pair of silver) while Mark Arendz added four (three gold and a silver) to his extensive collection. The 32-year-old now owns 19 world-championship medals to go along with his 12 from the Winter Paralympics. Collin Cameron was Canada's other gold medallist.
Canada finished third in total medals behind Germany and Ukraine, who each won 27 but only six gold.
Mikaël Kingsbury added to his moguls wins record on home snow.
The three-time Olympic medallist won the men's event Friday night in his native Quebec for his record-extending 77th career World Cup victory. Kingsbury, 30, added silver in the men's dual moguls competition on Saturday night.
Honourable mention: Abigail Strate climbed a World Cup ski jumping podium for the first time, capturing bronze in a women's competition in Germany on Saturday. The 21-year-old's medal came two weeks after teammate Alexandria Loutitt became the first Canadian woman to win gold in a World Cup ski jumping event. | | |  | Mark McMorris, a bronze medallist in slopestyle at three straight Winter Olympics, has now reached the Winter X Games podium more times than anybody. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press) | | | Quickly… | | | Other stories today:
1. Bobby Hull has died at the age of 84.
The Golden Jet was one of the greatest goal-scorers in NHL history, deploying a booming shot and a revolutionary curved stick blade to lead the league seven times during his 15 seasons with Chicago from 1957-72. Hull's five 50-goal seasons with Chicago included a career-high (and then NHL record) 58 in 1968-69, and he was a back-to-back Hart Trophy winner as league MVP in the mid-'60s.
Hull helped usher in the modern NHL when he left Chicago in 1972 for the upstart World Hockey Association. His million-dollar signing bonus with the Winnipeg Jets was unheard of in hockey at the time, and it helped raise salaries in both leagues. Hull scored a WHA-record 77 goals in 1974-75 before making a brief return to the NHL with the Jets and Whalers when the WHA folded and the NHL absorbed those teams for the 1979-80 season, his last. Hull finished his career with 610 NHL goals, the 18th-highest total of all time and one later eclipsed by his son Brett Hull, who ranks fifth with 741.
Bobby Hull's brilliance on the ice came with some unsavoury conduct off of it. A bitter divorce from his second wife, Joanne, included allegations of abuse, and Hull was convicted of assaulting a police officer who intervened in a dispute with his third wife, Deborah, who also accused Hull of assault in 1986 before dropping the complaint. During a visit to Russia in 1998, Hull told an English-language newspaper there that Hitler "had some good ideas" and that the Black population of the United States was growing too fast. Read more about Hull here.
2. The Super Bowl LVII matchup is a very good one.
Kansas City will play in the big game for the third time in four years after dethroning defending AFC champion Cincinnati 23-20 in yesterday's tense conference title game. In one of the more remarkable performances of his brilliant career, presumptive NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes gritted through a painful high ankle sprain to throw for 326 yards and two touchdowns before making the key play with his legs in the dying seconds. Mahomes' five-yard dash to the sideline on that injured ankle picked up a crucial first down and put K.C. in range for the game-winning field goal after the Bengals' Joseph Ossai was flagged for unnecessary roughness for hitting Mahomes out of bounds.
Mahomes will now have two weeks to rehab his ankle before facing the Philadelphia Eagles who crushed short-handed San Francisco 31-7 in the NFC title game. The contest essentially ended when 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, the rookie third-stringer who'd performed brilliantly since being pressed into action in early December, suffered a first-quarter elbow injury that rendered him unable to throw the ball. Ineffective journeyman QB Josh Johnson then left with a concussion, forcing Purdy to return even though he could only hand the ball off.
The Super Bowl on Feb. 12 in Arizona will be the first in five years to feature the top seed from each conference. The last time it happened, Philly beat New England for its first (and still only) Super Bowl title. Kansas City won it two years later over San Francisco before losing the next year to Tampa Bay. Read more about yesterday's conference championship games here.
3. The Arctic Winter Games have begun.
The weeklong festival for young athletes features traditional Arctic and Dene competitions like the high kick and the knuckle hop along with more mainstream sports like hockey, skiing and figure skating. Eight teams from different parts of the world are competing at this year's event in Wood Buffalo, Alta., including Alberta North, Northwest Territories, Nunavik Quebec, Nunavut and Yukon.
Read more about these unique Games here and here, and read about yesterday's opening ceremony here. Watch events live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem starting Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET. See the full streaming schedule here. | | | And in case you missed it… | | | A few more things from the weekend that you should know about:
Novak Djokovic tied Rafael Nadal for the most men's Grand Slam titles ever. A year after being kicked out of the country due to his refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccination, Djokovic captured his record-extending 10th Australian Open singles title on Sunday with a straight-sets win over Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. The victory gave Djokovic his 22nd Grand Slam trophy, tying him with Nadal for the men's record. Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus defeated Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in Saturday's women's final for her first major championship.
Mikaela Shiffrin will have to wait a while for the alpine skiing wins record. The American's victory in a women's slalom race in the Czech Republic on Saturday gave her 85 World Cup wins, one short of Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's all-time record. Shiffrin missed a chance to match him Sunday when she placed second in another slalom at the same venue. Her record quest is now on hold until after the world championships, which run Feb. 6-19 in the French Alps.
Jennifer Jones will play in her 17th Tournament of Hearts. The six-time winner of the Canadian women's curling championship earned a spot in next month's tournament in Kamloops, B.C., by winning the Manitoba playdowns on Sunday. Jones, 48, has played in more Tournaments of Hearts than any skip except Colleen Jones, who is tied with Jones for the titles record. Also clinching a spot in the Scotties over the weekend was three-time champ Rachel Homan, who won the Ontario qualifier. Read more about the provincial and territorial playdown results here. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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