London 2012: What to watch, August 10th

Wowser. What an incredible "Day August 9th" we had. More highlights than a Jersey Shore cast member's hair appointment. I think that's a savvy pop culture reference... I've never actually seen the show.

Bronze for the Canadian women's soccer team. Look, there's no shame in saying the girls got a little fortunate against the French. A post and a crossbar. Lord knows the Olympic karma chameleon owed them a quick change of hue after Monday's royal you-know-whatting. Got to love little, five foot tall, Diana Matheson. Right place. Right time. Right foot. Beauty.

[Slideshow: Canada's gold medal victory over France]

While CTV was covering Jamaica's incredible 200 metre sprint sweep, NBC had live coverage of water polo. Which did I watch? Put it this way: Anyone know who won the U.S./Spain water polo game? In all seriousness, try and catch NBC's delayed coverage of the Bolt win Thursday night. Announcer Tom Hammond is terrific.

Tonya Verbeek's gold medal wrestling match was a treat. Credit to Vic Rauter for a fine call. And, generally, even more credit to him for not ever giggling when commenting on wrestlers reaching into a bag to grab a ball in order to determine who gets the advantage for the tie breaking clinch. Made me wonder whether I was watching Olympic wrestling or Olympic Lingo.

"Day August 9th" comes with a little something new in the rowing basin. No, not pedal boats, although I personally would care to see that. The K-2 2oo metre kayak sprint is a new event and Canadians Ryan Cochrane and Hugues Fournel will take part in the first heat. 5:45 am ET, on CTV.

[Related: Bolt leads Jamaican sweep on 200m]

The open water swimming event, men's edition, sees competitors hitting the chop at the Hyde Park Serpentine course and flailing for all they're worth, for 10 kilometres. Some think Canada should do well in this as well as some other cottage-inspired sports, but Canadian swimmer Richard Weinberger does not instill confidence when he says of the course: "It's only a couple metres deep, but I'm afraid to touch the bottom. It just freaks me out." Sounds like there's some unspeakably horrific stuff! What's down there? The official song of the London Games?! Richard, Richard, Richard. Watching "Piranha 3DD" just before the swim was probably not a great motivational idea. In fact, never mind the motivational part. Watching it is probably just generally a bad idea. 7 am ET, Sportsnet.

Could be some synchro swimming medallage for Canada on Friday. Sitting in fourth place after the technical swim, Canada's ladies will go with the flow in the free swim on Friday, with a shot at the podium. Russia, meantime, has swept gold in the duet and team competitions at the last three Olympics, and won the duet competition in London, too. They're a juggernaut. How can they possibly be stopped? I think spiking their hair gelatin with chili sauce would be an effective difference maker. Hell, isn't that what a Chef de Mission is for? C'mon, Tewksbury, do something! 10 am ET, Sportsnet.

[More: Does winning gold really matter for Canada?]

The 4 x 100 men's relay begins, with round one heats going off beginning at 2:45 pm ET on CTV. Canada takes part in the very first heat. The women's 4 x 100 metre final goes shortly after the men's preliminaries are done. That's an awful lot of speed and an awful lot of baton passing in one jam-packed, frenetic hour. I'd go so far as to say you won't experience that kind of high speed baton passing anywhere else. Email me if you can prove me wrong. 3:40 pm ET, on CTV.

Is it possible, is it just possible, that somebody can beat the U.S. men's basketball team? About as likely as me winning an Emmy award as guest actor in a drama, for a memorable performance in next season's Boardwalk Empire. By the way, as an aside, I have a terrific script in my bottom desk drawer, but haven't gotten up the nerve to send it to Steve Buscemi. But, back to the game. Argentina stayed with the States through the first half of their preliminary round match-up, then watched those American tail lights pull away, in a 126-97 loss. The Argentines trailed by one lonely point at half time before it started to slip away. Argentina and the U.S., in semi-final action. 4 pm ET, CTV. If Argentina wins, I'll thank them first in my Emmy acceptance speech.

Don't trust my viewing judgment? Then click on the Canadian broadcast consortium's entire schedule, right here.

More London Olympics coverage on Yahoo! Canada Sports:
• Pics: Canada's Day 13 at the Olympics
• Video: Who is the greatest Olympian of all time?
• Old nemesis prevents Tonya Verbeek from taking gold