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RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Americans invented beach volleyball.Brazil made it a passion.But theres another country making waves at the Copacabana venue during the Olympics, one with little tradition of beach volleyball -- or even a lot of sun-splashed beaches, for that matter.Canada.Yes, Canada.The ice hockey and curling power is one of only four countries to qualify the maximum four teams -- two mens and two womens -- for the Rio de Janeiro Games. Although Canada has won only one medal in the sport since it joined the Olympic program in 1996, this contingent is hoping it can change that.Canada is a competitive nation, said Ben Saxton, whose father was on the Canadian indoor volleyball team that ended up fourth at the 1984 Olympics -- its best finish ever. All of us want to win at every sport we play. Just because we cant play during the winter doesnt mean we arent resourceful enough to find a way.More often associated with ice and snow -- and sports played upon them -- than with the Summer Games, Canada has had its share of success in events like track and rowing and swimming. But the beach has been barren since John Child and Mark Heese took bronze in Atlanta.True, its hard to compete with countries where the athletes can train year-round. Yes, the lack of volleyball history itself makes it difficult to convince young Canadians to put down their hockey sticks and hit the beach. And Canadas population of about 35 million is smaller than Californias alone, not to mention Brazil.You take a couple of cities in Brazil and youve got more than the whole country, said Steve Anderson, Canadas head beach volleyball coach. You cant compete with the population. You cant compete with the history. People come to Brazil and the U.S. to immerse themselves in the culture because you cant get that anywhere else.But when Anderson took over the countrys beach volleyball program, he decided the problem was the mindset of Canadians who just didnt think they could compete with the sports powers.Anderson, an American who coached Australian Natalie Cook to the beach gold medal in 2000, called the Canadian players together and asked them: When was the last time you got off the plane expecting to win an event?The comment was, `Thats a bit arrogant. Thats not how Canadians think, Anderson said in an interview at the Copacabana venue on Tuesday.But I dont know any hockey player that gets off a plane just to show up, he said. How do we change that environment?Since London, Canada has seen enough success on the world professional tour to hit the country quota of two teams in each gender in Rio.Saxton and Chaim Schalk reached the podium five times on the FIVB tour; Josh Binstock, a 2012 Olympian, and Samuel Schachter have four top-three finishes since 2014. On the womens side, Heather Bansley and Sarah Pavan were No. 5 in the Olympic rankings and Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas were 13th.Only three other countries hit the maximum: The United States and Brazil, which have combined to win 20 of the 30 total medals since the sport was added to the Olympic program in 1996, and the Netherlands.So far, the Canadians have had mixed success.Bansley and Pavan are 2-0 and atop their pool after beating Switzerland 21-18, 21-18 on Tuesday. Broder and Valjas, who lost to Germany, are 1-1 with one game remaining in group play. On the mens side, Schalk and Saxton are 1-1 and Binstock and Schachter are 0-2.Were going to find out at these Olympics: What is Canadian volleyball? Anderson said. Thats what were going to find out. Cheap Air Max Ireland . - Levi Browns tenure at left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers is over before it even began. Cheap Air Max Sale . One game after a miserable showing in Oklahoma City, Gay tied a career high with 41 points and the Sacramento Kings cruised to a 114-97 victory at the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. http://www.airmaxireland.com/ . Barcelona also left injured defenders Carles Puyol, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba out of its squad for the trip to Glasgow. That means that Marc Bartra will probably start again in the centre of the defence alongside Gerard Pique. Cheap Air Max Wholesale .com) - Yankee Stadium is the home of the Bronx Bombers, but on Sunday afternoon it will open its gates to host the latest addition of the Hudson River Rivalry. Air Max Ireland Sale . -- San Francisco 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks was fined $15,570 by the NFL on Wednesday for his hit on Saints quarterback Drew Brees last Sunday. TORONTO -- And so we begin.The first World Cup of Hockey in a dozen years is set to open to all kinds of bells and whistles Saturday in the center of Canadas hockey universe: Toronto.Eight teams, representing six countries and two continents, and the largest collection of NHL talent ever assembled in one tournament are set to try to put the World Cup of Hockey back on the international hockey radar.Consider this: Of the 184 players on the eight rosters, 169 played in the NHL last season. Two others, Team North Americas Auston Matthews and Finlands Patrik Laine, went Nos. 1 and 2 in last Junes draft and are likely to play in the NHL this season.The players in the tournament, jointly organized by the NHL and the National Hockey League Players Association, have combined to play 73,299 NHL regular-season games and have a total of 47 Stanley Cup championships to their credit.The Tampa Bay Lightning leads all NHL teams with 12 players taking part, with representatives on seven of the eight teams. It would have been 13 if Ryan Callahan?hadnt withdrawn from Team USA because of injury. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is also an associate coach with Team North America.Speaking of Team North America, it has quickly become the darling of the tournament. Many believe the collection of highly skilled players from Canada and the United States under the age of 24 has the goods to advance to the elimination portion of the tournament.Team North America features a bevy of players who represent the future of the game, including team captain Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Jack Eichel?of the?Buffalo Sabres.?The duo represents the top two picks in the 2015 draft. McDavid, 19, has been hailed as the greatest young talent to join the NHL since Sidney Crosby arrived more than a decade ago.And though Team North America is young, it does boast a two-time Stanley Cup winner in Brandon Saad of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and goalie?Matt Murray, who backstopped the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Cup win in June.The tournament will start with two four-team pools in round-robin play (Canada, United States, Czech Republic and Europe make up Group A; Sweden, Finland, Russia and North America are in Group B). The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals, with the No. 1 teams playing the second-place teams from the opposite pool. The winners of those one-game semifinals will meet in the best-of-three finals.Pool play begins Saturday with Team USA taking on Team Europe (3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2), another hybrid team featuring players from non-competing European nations. Team Canada?opens against the Czech Republic on Saturday (8 p.m. on ESPNEWS).The preliminary round will follow standard NHL regular-season protocol. IIf a score is tied at the end of regulation, there will be a five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime.dddddddddddd If nobody scores in OT, the game will be decided by a shootout. Teams will accumulate two points for a win of any kind and one point for an overtime or shootout loss. Regulation wins are favorable because they will factor into the tiebreaking process used to determine which teams advance to the elimination round in the event teams are tied in points after the three preliminary games.NHL playoff rules will come into effect in the semifinals and final, with overtime games played 5-on-5 until a resolution, regardless of how long that might take.Heading into the games, there are plenty of storylines to watch.The host Canadians will be without Jeff Carter, Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Duncan Keith, all of whom withdrew because of injury. Guess what? It doesnt matter. The Canadians are loaded, and they are led by Pittsburghs Crosby, who is coming off his second Stanley Cup run, and Montreal Canadiens netminder Carey Price, who is attempting to return from a core body injury that cost him most of last season.The biggest decisions facing Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock might be about whom to scratch for each game because one goalie, one defenseman and one forward from each teams 23-man roster will not dress.The Swedes are as complete a team as there is in the tournament, even though they will be without Henrik Zetterberg and Alexander Steen. The Russians, led by Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and Crosbys longtime teammate Evgeni Malkin, are explosive.Team Europe, whose players represent eight European nations not included otherwise, got off to a rocky start before rebounding to win their final pretournament game over Sweden. Europe is noteworthy for, among other things, completing the eighth father-son combination to take part in Canada Cup/World Cup of Hockey competition. Skilled Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl follows his father, Peter, who skated for Germany in the 1996 tournament.As for Team USA, its a hard-nosed, veteran group led by 2015-16 NHL scoring champion and MVP Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks. Two-time Stanley Cup champion Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings will get the start in goal. Team USA, 20 years after its seminal win over Canada in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, hopes to rebound from a disappointing showing at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.?Each team played three pretournament games. If the results tell us one thing, its that no team can be fully counted out of the running. Each squad won at least one game, and none went undefeated. ' ' '