Interesting battles remain for Canadian Olympic spots in Beijing

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With fewer than three weeks until the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, plenty of unknowns remain.

Many athletes, especially those who have recently tested positive for COVID-19, can't even be certain they'll be able to enter China to compete in the first place. CBC Sports' Devin Heroux reported yesterday that the threshold to test negative in China is higher than many places in Canada. And one negative test upon arrival in Beijing could knock an athlete out of competition entirely.

Cyber security also re-emerged as a concern today following a University of Toronto study that revealed a "simple but devastating" flaw in the app that's supposed to be used to report health and travel data from those entering Beijing's "closed-loop system." Many athletes have already been given cell phones that would circumvent Chinese blocks on social-media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Read more about the potential security issues here.

Then there's the matter of choosing the athletes. In Canada, national sport organizations must submit their nominations to the Canadian Olympic Committee by Wednesday. Those names will be handed to Beijing organizers by Jan. 24 for final approval.

And so team announcements have begun flooding in, with more expected over the next week. Speed skaters, women's hockey and all three curling rinks are among the teams to be revealed thus far. You can see the full list of nominations on CBC Sports' tracker.

Here's a look at some of the squads we don't yet know:

Men's hockey

When the NHL announced it was pulling its players from the Olympics, men's hockey suddenly shifted from all-star rosters to an exercise in remembering some guys. Remember Martin Marincin? He's on Team Slovakia. How about Valterri Filppula? He could wind up on the Finnish roster. With Canada having to pull players mainly from overseas and college, guys like Eric Fehr (the 14-year NHL veteran) and David Desharnais (the former Montreal Canadiens winger) could don the Maple Leaf alongside Owen Power, the top pick of the 2021 draft who plays for the University of Michigan.

The most accomplished player in line to make the team is Eric Staal, last seen as part of the Canadiens' run to the Stanley Cup final last season. Staal recorded over 1,000 points in nearly 1,300 career NHL games, mostly with Carolina. He's now on a tryout contract with an AHL team as he seeks a ticket to Beijing. Staal, 37, was on Canada's taxi squad at the 2006 Games before joining the main roster of the 2010 gold-medal team. Read more about his Olympic comeback attempt in this piece by CBC Sports contributor Vicki Hall.

Snowboarding

Canada will send 17 riders to China across slopestyle, big air, halfpipe and snowboard cross events. The biggest decision may come from men's slopestyle and big air, where four total spots have been qualified and five athletes can make solid cases. Max Parrot pre-qualified for nomination based on last season's results. Sebastien Toutant, the reigning gold medallist, and Mark McMorris, a two-time bronze medallist, are still going strong, and it would be a major surprise if either is left out. That boils the decision down to Darcy Sharpe, a 25-year-old looking to make his Olympic debut, and Liam Brearley, the 18-year-old phenom who won medals in three separate disciplines at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games. However the team shakes out, all four riders should make strong podium threats.

Laurie Blouin, who took slopestyle silver in Pyeongchang four years ago, should return for her second Games as the veteran on a youthful women's squad. Speaking of youth, Eliot Grondin made his Olympic debut in snowboard cross at just 16 years old in 2018, placing 36th. But the Sainte-Marie, Que., native won bronze at the world championships last year along with gold at the world juniors. A pair of podium finishes on the World Cup tour in the past month could portend good Olympic things for Grondin.

Bobsleigh