Beijing 2008 wrap: The puttin' the dream back into Redeem Team edition

Day 3

Your daily Olympic wrap-up.

Notable Canadian performance: Douglas Vandor and Cameron Sylvester came out of, well, left field to claim a spot in the lightweight pairs semi-final. Canada has struggled in the lightweight boats in recent years and not much was expected of the two.

Notable international performance: The Redeem Team – Although the name makes me throw up in my mouth a bit. Still, the USA’s mastery over China gave notice to the world that the US is not going to be quite as dysfunctional this time around.

The Maple Leaf Gold: Brent Hayden – He swam the third best time of the heats in qualifying for the 200m freestyle semi-final. An hour or so later he was a big part of the Canadian 4X100m freestyle relay team that booked a spot in the final. Canada may leave China without winning a medal in the pool, but it has already shown itself to be 1000 times more competitive than it was in ’04. As a Canuck, It’s fun to watch swimming again.

Maple Leaf silver: Chris Cook– You have to wander up the dial to Bold to see the Finn class sailor, but if you do you may be surprised to see him in medal contention after four of 10 races. He should be a lock to race for the podium in a couple day’s time..

Maple Leaf bronze: The Star’s Dave Perkins. Stunningly, Perkins wrote a piece today that supports Southern Ontario's proposed Pan-Am Games bid. Why is that stunning? Because Perkins has always been a consistent and vocal media opponent of Toronto’s Olympic bids. Actually, he’s always been pretty much opposed to any public money being spend on athletic facilities anywhere. With athletic facilities falling down in Southern Ontario there is a solid argument to be made for the games to come (although there is an argument to be made that the best fit for Toronto is actually a Canada Games — the scale is even smaller, but the facility footprint would have an impact on the city without a doubt). It’s just surprising Perkins showed flexibility in his thinking.

Maple Leaf tin medal: boxer Adam Trupish. It was a quick and ugly Olympic boxing tournament for Canada.

Honourary Canadian award: Hyped to death, I know, but … it’s gotta be Michael Phelps. He’s pretty much inhuman.

Canadian highlights for day 3: The swimmers we are all hearing about. But away from the glare of the TV camera badminton’s Anna Rice is having a nice little tournament. Hopefully the Ceeb will find it within them to show her round of 16 match tonight.

International highlight for day 3: Chinese synchro divers Lin Yue and Huo Liang will look to capture the host’s send gold in the sport on the 10m. The event goes at 2:20 a.m. EDT.