Sports
Why Canadians are stung by Wayne Gretzky’s silence
As Canada played through controversy at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, its most beloved and iconic sports star grabbed a microphone and stood up for the nation. The Canadian men’s national team had just come from behind to tie the Czech Republic 3-3 in a heated round-robin match.
Wayne Gretzky, the executive director of Canada’s team, called media reports of unrest in the Canadian locker room “American propaganda.”
“I don’t think we dislike those countries as much as they dislike us,” he said. “They want to see us fail. They love beating us. … We’ve got to get that same feeling toward them.”
It was as fiery as hockey fans had seen the game’s greatest player since he’d retired a few years earlier. Canada was in pursuit of its first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey in half a century.
“Am I hot? Yeah, I’m hot,” Gretzky said. “Because I’m tired of people taking shots at Canadian hockey. … It almost sickens my stomach to turn the TV on because I’m such a proud Canadian and such a fan of our game and very proud of all the guys in the locker room, and it makes me ill to hear some of the things that are being said about us.”
Gretzky’s emotional defense of Canada was an inspirational turning point for the star-packed Canadian team, which went on to win the gold medal on American soil.
Since Gretzky rose to fame as a teenage phenom in the 1970s and went on to rewrite almost every scoring record in the game, Canadians have viewed the Great One as a symbol of national pride.
Now, all the pride that Canadians have felt in the country’s greatest sporting export is being questioned. North of the border, that sentence was once unfathomable. But Gretzky’s allegiance to U.S. President Donald Trump — and his silence after Trump’s repeated calls to make Canada the 51st state while hammering the northern neighbor with crippling tariffs — has left many Canadians feeling deeply betrayed.
Gretzky has made headlines and newscasts across Canada. A petition to rename Gretzky Drive in Edmonton has more than 12,000 signatures.
Some of Gretzky’s defenders have called the criticisms unfair and politically motivated. But in Canada, the sentiment reaches beyond the political spectrum, into a deep, rising nationalism as the country feels backed into a corner.
For decades, Gretzky — fairly or not — has embodied a sense of patriotism that transcends sports.
Yes, Gretzky is the pride of Brantford, Ontario — the tiny boy who learned the game on a backyard rink. He came from a working-class family, which arrived in Canada by way of Ukraine. His journey toward excellence, with hard work and blue-collar spirit, felt representative of a nation.
Over the decades, Walter Gretzky, his father, was so frequently seen at small-town rinks that he became affectionately known as Canada’s hockey dad. He lived in the same house in Brantford until he died. People visited. The place felt common and familiar, an anywhere-in-Canada that became a portal to greatness.
And despite his fame, Gretzky himself always seemed to retain those small-town Canadian ideals. He was kind to fans, humble in interviews, but unapologetic in his pursuit of success and the will it took to achieve. Because of that folksy familiarity, it seemed like Gretzky’s connection to home never wavered, even at the height of his fame.
That’s how it felt, anyway.
If you grew up in Canada through the 1980s and 1990s, Gretzky was at the pinnacle of national esteem. He set untouchable records in Edmonton, and battled for Canadian glory on the ice — and then he wept after learning he was being exported to California.
In his greatness, the Canadian with the flowing blonde hockey hair made people talk about Canada. We watched him on Saturday morning cartoons, alongside Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson. We saw him in Coke and Nike commercials and referenced in Hollywood movies. He became internationally recognized in a way that no hockey player had before. Rising through a transformative era of globally connected media, Gretzky became the first Canadian to sit in the pantheon of the world’s sports legends.
So it is difficult to overstate the pride that many Canadians carry for Gretzky. But pride isn’t the only word here. There was also a sense of ownership: that Gretzky belonged to Canada.
This, of course, was never true.
Gretzky has lived in the U.S. since being traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988. He married an American and they raised their tightly knit, loyal and loving family south of the Canadian border. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen. The Gretzkys have had homes in California, Wyoming, Missouri and Florida.
In 2009, Gretzky was awarded with the nation’s highest civilian honor, companion of the Order of Canada. The award recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation. But to date, Gretzky has not taken part in an investiture ceremony to receive the award from Canada’s Governor General at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
Somewhere along the way, the idea of Gretzky as Canada’s constant ambassador became mythology.
A simple reality underscores so much of the hurt and resentment Canadians feel about the mockery and threats and economic attacks coming from the U.S. president. There is a sense of knowing that this northern nation orbits its larger neighbor. There’s an unmentioned understanding that our greatest points of pride — indeed, or own sovereignty — can be swallowed by the behemoth.
Gretzky was Canada’s, until America inevitably claimed him.
Over the past decade, I’ve had several in-depth conversations with Gretzky. He was thoughtful, willing to reflect on all the joy and pain in his life. He spoke of Canada fondly, with a sincere sense of gratitude.
Gretzky did not respond to a text requesting to speak for this story.
In the past, we’ve chatted about the passion he showed at 2002 Olympics, and later about the death of his close friend and mentor Ace Bailey in the 9/11 terror attacks. We spoke about his late father, his family and his legacy in the game — for which Gretzky mostly deferred to the greatness of other players. I followed him as he crossed the field at Fenway Park during the NHL’s outdoor classic, as fans of all generations called out to him — “Wayne! Wayne! Gretzky! Gretzky!”
That aura follows Gretzky wherever he goes. For years, it seemed like that would always be the case. But now in Canada, for many people, the image of Gretzky as a revered symbol of national pride has faded. And that’s not because of his politics or where he chooses to live. It’s not even because of anything Gretzky has done himself. It’s because we know the myth was never real and that maybe it was never a fair standard to hold him to.
There was politicized criticism when images of Gretzky first emerged celebrating Trump’s election victory at Mar-a-Lago, and later when he attended the president’s inauguration. But that wasn’t what Canadians were really upset about. It was what came later, when Trump turned his focus to Canada — and Gretzky, the national hero, stayed silent.
Wayne Gretzky and his wife, Janet, attended U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. (Kevin Lamarque / Pool / Getty Images)
Introduced as ambassador of the Canadian team inside TD Garden ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off Final a few weeks ago — a best-on-best match between Canada and the U.S. — Gretzky walked out from the American side of the benches wearing a suit while acknowledging players from both teams. He was greeted with tepid applause and a smattering of boos. From the stands, it was hard to decipher whether the lukewarm response was directed at Gretzky or his role representing Canada. The crowd heavily favored the Americans, but about a third of the building supported the northern rivals. In calmer times, Gretzky’s entrance would have faced a passing degree of scrutiny and then would have been forgotten.
But these aren’t calm times north of the border. And when criticism swelled, fairly or not, Gretzky’s silence was interpreted as a statement.
Bobby Orr — another Canadian-born hockey icon — defended Gretzky in a letter published by the Toronto Sun, calling his Hall of Fame counterpart “one of the greatest Canadians ever.”
Gretzky has represented Canada as a player and an executive for decades, Orr wrote, criticizing “fickle” people who have turned on him for his personal beliefs.
“Wayne respects your rights and beliefs,” Orr wrote. “Why can’t you respect his?”
Janet Gretzky shared a message on Instagram thanking Orr for coming to her husband’s defense.
“I have never met anyone who is more proud to be Canadian and it has broken his heart to read and see mean comments. … He would do anything to make Canadians proud, with his love for hockey and his country.”
There hasn’t been an uproar about the silence of so many other Canadian-born celebrities who found their fame and fortune in the United States. But then, there aren’t any photos of them in a MAGA hat supporting the president who has called for the country to be annexed.
President Trump also chimed in, posting on social media that he doesn’t want Canadians to turn on Gretzky.
“He is the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a ‘free agent,’ because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him,” Trump wrote.
“He supports Canada the way it is, as he should, even though it’s not nearly as good as it could be as part of the Greatest and Most Powerful Country in the World, the Good Ole’ U.S.A.!”
Those taunts were met with more silence from Gretzky and a stinging realization that hurts Canadians even more. In this moment of national upheaval, the Great One is on the opposite bench.
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic. Photo: Saul Loeb-Pool via Imagn Images)
Sports
London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France
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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.
France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.
As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May.
Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.
A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)
Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.
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It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.
Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.
Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)
Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.
Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.
One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.
France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.
It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.
Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)
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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.
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LONDON — A local boy sleeps in his own bed, plays in front of a king and queen and makes a Cinderella run to the Wimbledon semifinals. Sounds like a Hollywood script that might never see the silver screen.
But it’s no fairy tale — it’s Arthur Fery’s out-of-nowhere performance over the last 10 days.
Fery, a virtually unknown British wild card with a triple-digit ranking, has become the emotional heartbeat of Wimbledon while legitimately diverting some national attention from England’s World Cup quest.
The royal treatment at his matches across the All England Club has come in more ways than one.
Fery, who grew up five minutes from Wimbledon and is staying at home during the tournament, first played before grass-court king Roger Federer, Wimbledon’s eight-time singles champion, during Monday’s fourth-round victory. Two days later, he beat No. 9 seed and French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli of Italy in the quarterfinals 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 in front of Queen Camilla.
Ranked 114th, Fery had never reached the semifinals of an ATP Tour event, let alone a major, before his brief chat with the queen following the match.
“She just said, ‘Congratulations, keep going,’” 23-year-old Fery told reporters later. “I told her it was my birthday on Sunday, so it would be great to play the Wimbledon final on my birthday.”
That’s still a match away. To get there, Fery will have to get past one of the hottest players on tour: No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev, who is fresh off his first Grand Slam title at the French Open. Looming on the other side of the draw is a highly anticipated showdown between defending champion Jannik Sinner against 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic.
If Fery can continue his magical run to the end, he would become the first British wild card to win a Wimbledon title.
Arthur Fery reacts after defeating Flavio Cobolli in the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Wednesday.
(Maja Smiejkowska / Associated Press)
Born in France, Fery’s family moved to Wimbledon when he was an infant. His mother played professional tennis. He was a top British junior but chose to sharpen his game for three years in the U.S. collegiate system at Stanford, as many of his compatriots have done.
“I came out with a lot of hunger coming out of that, and I was ready to attack the pro circuit,” Fery said.
After struggling with bone bruising in his arm that limited him to playing mostly on the lower-tier Challenger circuit in recent years, Fery is finally healthy and playing consistently.
His path to the last four in London has been a masterclass in clutch come-from-behind performances. The Brit has stared down near-certain elimination in multiple matches, repeatedly breaking his opponents’ momentum with Houdini-like on-court acts.
At 5-foot-9, Fery possesses a skill set perfectly suited for low-bounding grass.
His compact strokes, low center of gravity, and elite movement allow him to hug the baseline, take time away from opponents, and confidently execute delicate volleys at the net, according to ESPN analyst Chris Eubanks.
“He defends well,” said Eubanks, a 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist. “He can scrap. He can claw. He can dig his way back into points. And when he ventures forward, he’s very, very comfortable at the net. This is a picture-perfect example of someone whose game is built for the surface.”
Still, it’s hard to fathom the multitude of milestones for Fery, who briefly reached the No. 1 ranking in college and earned 2023 Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year honors before leaving early to pursue a pro career.
He arrived at Wimbledon with just one main-draw victory at a major, a losing record as a professional, and only one previous ATP quarterfinal, at Queen’s Club last month. He’s now 11-8, won his first two five-set matches, and is the first British wild card to reach the Wimbledon men’s semifinals in the Open Era. The only other men’s wild-card semifinalist was Goran Ivanisevic, who won the title as a wild card in 2001.
Fery, who started the season ranked No. 185 and will climb to at least No. 36 after the tournament, said there were a “lot of first times” as he reflected on his unprecedented run. “First five-setter, longest match that I’ve ever played, first time breaking into the top 100, first second week in a slam, all at home, five minutes from where I grew up. It’s a great story for me,” he said.
The gap with his fellow semifinalists is understandably massive.
Entering Wimbledon, Djokovic, Sinner and Zverev’s combined records include 29 Grand Slam titles, 2,088 match wins and 155 tour-level titles. Fery was 6-8 in tour-level matches with zero titles.
But he has singlehandedly lifted the tournament for locals. With top hopes Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu withdrawing before the tournament and the rest of Britain’s singles prospects falling one by one — 18 men and women were eliminated by the third round — Fery became the nation’s last knight standing.
If his first name inevitably evokes Arthurian legend, Fery’s march through the draw gave Britain reason to believe again. No sword, no Round Table, just world-class shot-making, a lion’s heart and a Centre Court crowd thrilled to rally behind him.
“This is really quite something to see on home soil,” said Russell Fuller, the BBC’s tennis correspondent, who compared it with Raducanu’s stunning U.S. Open win in 2021 as a qualifier.
Fery earned every bit of it.
In the first round against Damir Dzumhur, Fery dropped the opening set and trailed by a break in the second before surging back. Against Zizou Bergs in the third round, he faced a 4-1 deficit with a double break in the fourth set, and again fell behind 4-1 in the fifth, before somehow surviving.
Then, stepping onto Centre Court for the first time against former top-10 stalwart Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in the fourth round, Fery clawed out of a 2-sets-to-1 hole and a break down in the fourth set to clinch the victory in a fifth-set tiebreak.
“He carries himself with humility, but he’s a fierce competitor, and he’s got a ton of belief in himself,” said Stanford men’s coach and former top-60 player Paul Goldstein, who flew to England Tuesday to see his former charge compete against Cobolli.
While Fery attempts to outmaneuver Zverev on Friday, the other semifinal features a 2025 Wimbledon semifinal rematch between seven-time Wimbledon winner Djokovic and top-ranked Sinner, who defeated the Serb in straight sets on his way to the title. It’s also their second Grand Slam semifinal meeting in 2026. At January’s Australian Open on hard courts, Djokovic bested 24-year-old Sinner in five sets before falling to now-injured Carlos Alcaraz in the Melbourne final.
Arthur Fery hits a return during his Wimbledon quarterfinal win over Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday.
(Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Djokovic, 39, enters the match after surviving a grueling five-set, 5-hour-plus quarterfinal slugfest against No. 3 Félix Auger-Aliassime that concluded just minutes before Wimbledon’s 11 p.m. curfew. But the seventh-seeded Serb has a way of defying Father Time and he has had two days to recover on a surface where points are shorter and generally less taxing on the body.
Italy’s Sinner, who defeated Alcaraz in last year’s Wimbledon final, has been efficient if not at the level that saw him capture five consecutive titles before crashing out in the second round at the French Open. After a first-round scare here, the four-time Grand Slam champion has dominated opponents behind his improving serve, winning 80% of his first-serve points. He hasn’t dropped a set since the opening round. Sinner leads the head-to-head with Djokovic 6-5.
According to Eubanks, Djokovic must disrupt Sinner’s movement to break his rhythm, and take his chances.
“He’s got to play similar to how he played in Australia, where it was just all-out aggression,” Eubanks said.
For Sinner, he added: “His serve can be a neutralizing force for what Novak is going to try to do.”
On the other side of the ledger, Fery’s poise under pressure and deft use of the home crowd will be paramount to continue his surprise run against Germany’s Zverev, whom he called a “step up again” from his last five matches. Zverev, 29, is seeking his fifth major final and first at Wimbledon.
“I’m ready for it,” Fery said. “I have nothing to lose. I’m just going to go out there and … put my game on the court, do what I’ve done, believe in myself. We’ll see where that takes me.”
Home has never been closer to Centre Court. Nor has Arthur Fery ever been closer to tennis history.
Sports
Pirates star pitcher makes unfortunate history after being taken out in middle of perfect game bid
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Jared Jones was flirting with Major League Baseball history on Wednesday night — he got it, but it was not what he originally envisioned.
The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher retired the first 18 batters he faced, but he was taken out in the middle of his perfect game bid after six innings.
Now, the Pirates certainly have their reasons — the 24-year-old Jones hasn’t thrown more than 81 pitches in eight starts since returning May 20 after missing all of last season while undergoing ulnar collateral ligament internal brace surgery on May 21, 2025. He was yanked with 77 pitches and likely would have needed more than 100 pitches to record the 25th perfect game in MLB history.
Jared Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on July 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
However, Jones left the game after getting zero run support, so when the Atlanta Braves tacked on three runs late for a 3-0 victory, Jones instead found himself in the wrong chapter of the history books.
According to Opta Stats, Jones became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1920) to pitch at least six perfect innings and not record a win.
“It does suck. Something’s cool coming on, but I’m on what? My eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is,” Jones told reporters after the game.
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) makes his way to the field to warm up before pitching against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. (Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images)
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Jones said he didn’t entertain attempting to complete the perfect game.
“Not with the pitch count,” he said. “Not really ever expecting to go nine right now, so that was never in my head.”
Joey Bart, traded to the Braves from the Pirates on June 18, followed a double by Mike Yastrzemski with a 422-foot, two-run homer to left-center field off a slider from Dennis Santana. Drake Baldwin added an RBI single to center in the ninth for good measure.
It was the second time in less than a week that a pitcher was taken out of the game with a perfect bid through six innings — the Miami Marlins took Eury Perez out after seven innings in which he had 92 pitches. Perez, too, is in the midst of returning from injury and has surprisingly found himself right in the postseason mix.
He was pulled for Lake Bachar to start the eighth, and the Marlins allowed eight runs to the Athletics in the final two innings, but held on to win 9-8.
Jared Jones (17) of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivers a pitch during a MLB game against the Cincinnati Reds on June 27, 2026, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The Pirates are 4.0 games out of the final wild card spot, which is held by the Marlins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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