A viewer’s guide to watching Thompson-Okanagan athletes at the Olympics – Sports

Photo: Canadian Olympic Committee

Seven athletes from the Thompson-Okanagan region will proudly wear the Maple Leaf at the Summer Olympics, which begin Friday.

Jerome Blake (track and field), Malindi Elmore (marathon), Fynn McCarthy (volleyball) and Taylor Ruck (swimmer) all have ties to the Central Okanagan, while Matt Berger (skateboarding), Kelly Olynyk (basketball) and Ethan Katzberg (hammer throw) have ties to Kamloops.

Blake is going for a second medal in the men’s 4×100-meter relay. The team won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, but had that medal upgraded to silver when one of the runners failed a post-race doping test.

The men’s relay heats begin at 2:30 a.m. Pacific Time on August 8, with the finals at 10:45 a.m. on August 9.

Malindi Elmore will compete in the women’s marathon at the Olympic Games for the second time in a row.

She qualified for the Canadian team by running a personal best of 2:23:30 in Berlin last September, a finish just 18 seconds slower than the Canadian record she once held and more than three minutes off the Olympic qualifying time.

The women’s marathon is the closing event of the Games and is scheduled for 11 p.m. on Aug. 10. Elmore hopes to improve on her ninth-place finish from three years ago.

Swimmer Taylor Ruck, born in Kelowna but raised in Arizona, will compete in her third Olympic Games.

Ruck has four relay medals to her name, winning bronze in the women’s 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relay teams in Rio in 2016 and silver and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays in Tokyo three years ago.

Ruck will compete in the 4X100 freestyle relay on July 27. The heats are scheduled for 2:00 a.m., with the finals at 12:30 p.m.

She will also race in the 50m freestyle. Heats begin at 2am on August 3 with finals at 9:30am on August 4. Ruck may also swim in other relay events.

Lake Country’s Fynn McCarthy makes his Olympic debut with the Canadian men’s volleyball team.

The team is set to face Slovenia (12:00 – 28 July), France (12:00 – 30 July) and Serbia (12:00 – 3 August) in the group stage. The quarter-finals begin on 5 August.

Ethan Katzberg, a Nanaimo native who lives and trains in Kamloops, has high hopes for a hammer throw medal after becoming the first Canadian man to win the world championship a year ago.

The qualifiers start at 01:00 on August 2 and the final starts at 11:30 on August 4.

Kelly Olynyk, born in Toronto but raised in Kamloops, is making his Olympic debut with the Canadian men’s basketball team.

The team with a chance of winning medals is in a tough group with Greece, Spain and Australia.

Canada will play Greece (July 27 – 12:00), Australia (July 30 – 04:30) and Spain (08:15 – Aug. 2). The quarterfinals begin on Aug. 5.

Kamloops skateboarder Matt Berger will compete in his second Olympics after finishing 20th in Tokyo. Berger, 30, will compete in the street event scheduled for July 27. Preliminary heats begin at 3 a.m. and the finals at 8 a.m.

Canada sends 337 athletes, including 22 reserves, to Paris and for the fourth straight match the women’s team (193) is larger than the men’s team (122).