Canada’s women’s soccer team enters the Olympics as the reigning gold medalist and No. 8 team in the world.
So it’s rather perplexing, then, that its Paris Games began with an accusation of spying on New Zealand, a team ranked 28th that has won only two Olympic games in its history.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) issued a complaint Monday about a drone being flown over its women’s soccer team’s practice. Police tracked the drone back to a staffer with the Canadian women’s soccer team, and the fallout of the incident has been fast.
The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) removed two Canada Soccer staffers, shared the findings of a second drone incident and announced that coach Bev Priestman will remain in her role — but won’t coach against New Zealand on Thursday.
The two teams face off in the opening game of Group A play Thursday at 11 a.m. ET, but questions about Canada’s activity won’t end there.
Here’s what we know so far.
What happened?
New Zealand team staff members noticed a drone flying above their practice in Saint-Étienne, France, on Monday and notified police. Law enforcement tracked the drone back to its operator, Joseph Lombardi, an “unaccredited analyst” with the Canadian women’s team, the COC said.
The “unaccredited analyst”…
