Advertisement

Rio 2016: What to watch, Day 16 (August 21st)

Overture, curtain, lights. This is it, the night of nights. The Olympics of Rio are coming to a close. Prediction: International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will not call these "the best games ever," which almost always happens at a closing ceremony. Instead, I'll bet he calls them "exceptional" or "wonderful" or perhaps just "completed."

From the CBC media release on what we can expect at the closing ceremony: "Performances include International pop star Kygo performing with guest singer Julia Michaels, an homage to the Samba featuring Roberta Sá and tributes to Carmen Miranda and Roberto Burle Marx. A special segment of the Closing Ceremony will be dedicated to Tokyo 2020 with a mixture of Japanese cultural traditions and technological innovations."

Excuuuuuse me? That's all well and good but I distinctly remember requesting either Duran Duran singing "Rio" or Barry Manilow singing "Copacabana" in my column following the opening ceremony.

Oh, I'll watch your closing ceremony, Rio Olympics. But I'll have my arms folded and a stern look of dissatisfaction on my face. I'm not mad at you, just disappointed. CBC, 6pm ET. Hey, CBC, I've an idea for you: Just replay the Tragically Hip's Kingston concert.

All-time gold medal in shirts.
All-time gold medal in shirts.

By the way, Toronto area residents are invited to stop by the CBC broadcast centre to watch the ceremony in the atrium and there's gonna be giveaways. Unless the giveaways are a certain retro shirt I've been angling for, I ain't interested.

Now... before we get to that ceremony, there are still a few medals to hand out.

Day 16 (August 21st):

The marathon goes at 8:30 am ET, CBC. Is this the final? Are there heats, then semi's, then the final, all in one day? Yeah, that'd be gruelling. 78 miles in a day? That would be tough. A mere 26? Pffft.

There'll be gold medals handed out in men's basketball and volleyball. The Volleyball goes at 1:15 pm ET, on CBC, with Brazil meeting Italy. The basketball final see the United States taking on Serbia. I'm rooting for the Americans. A win could be, you know, real big for the sport there. 2:45 pm ET, CBC.

Wow. CBC really is hogging a lot of the gold medal events on Sunday, aren't they? Let's see if we can find some finals elsewhere... umm... oh, here's one: Men's boxing, various weight classes, beginning at 2:15 pm ET, on TSN.

CBC's complete viewing schedule can be found here.