London 2012: What to watch, August 2nd

"Day August 2nd" at the Olympics and some Canadian women will attempt to play the old game of "anything you can do, I can do better."

The Canadian men's eight rebounded beautifully from a terrible weekend to make the final in Olympic rowing and win silver. The women, on the other hand, had a wonderful weekend, winning their heat and avoiding a repechage race, instead, going straight to the final. Can they knock off the equally powerful Americans and win gold? Can announcer Rob Faulds possibly match the octave and decibel level he reached during the men's final?When that was over, I wondered who felt more spent. Faulds or the rowers. If Canada is in position for a gold medal down the stretch in the women's race, I will fear for Faulds' safety. And that of the windows near my television screen. Canada and the U.S. are huge rivals, the Americans besting the Canuck girls at an event in Lucerne a month ago by just 3 one-hundredths of a second. 7:30 am ET, on CTV.

Alright, since the name of this feature is "what to watch" and not "need to watch," I'm going to go ahead and suggest you watch competitive horse prancing. Because, Mitt Romney's horse, "Rafalca" is one of the competitors in dressage on Day August 2nd. Mitt's wife, Ann, oversees this competition because her husband has headed home for the U.S., amid speculation he's about to choose a running mate for the presidential election. Hold off, there, Mitt. If Rafalca does well, pretty sure you can make a go of your four-legged buddy as a veep candidate. The 2008 election saw a bit of a lowering of the bar, and an Olympic horse should be able to easily jump over it. 6 am ET, on OLN.

Speaking of lowering the bar, did Lisa LaFlamme, or her writers, do just that on Tuesday night? Sure, it was nice to have a three bronze medal day, but to tease the newscast with the phrase: "basking in a bronze rush" seems a trifle much. You bask in glory, or the glow of a gold medal, sure. Basking in the glow of a third place finish seems a little bit of an antiquated Canadian notion, a throwback to the pre "own the podium" days when we expected just to win the "aspiration to win and respect for the rules" award. "Surely, there isn't one of those," you say. Oh, yes. There is now.

Now I know that there are lots and lots of heart warming and heart wrenching stories at these or any other Olympics. The story of 17 year old Dominique Pegg of Sarnia, Ontario, is one of those Canadian "glowing hearts" deals. At least the way Sean Fitz-Gerald of the National Post writes it. You may already know Dominique from Canada's women's gymnastics team; they placed fifth in the team competition earlier this week. On Thursday, Dominique is all by her lonesome, taking on the world's top notch tumblers in the women's individual competition. And another thing: Justin Bieber tweeted to her earlier this week. If she's okay by him, really, shouldn't we all feel that way? Catch gymnastics at 11:30 am ET, on CTV.

Actually, Bieber kinda remains in my bad books. Another Canadian Olympian, swimmer Julia Wilkinson (@juliah20) asked him for a shout out on Twitter last weekend. Nada. She missed making the finals in the 100 metre backstroke. Still nothing. Now, she's missed the finals in the 100 metre freestyle. Do the right thing, @justinbieber. Tweet the girl before her appearance in the 4 x 100 metre medley on Friday. She's from Stratford, too, for crying out loud.

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