The RIo Farce, Day 5: Rain, Green Water, and Other Olympic Pastimes

• Rain felled most of the tennis and all of the rowing today.  One has to wonder how far back everything is going to get pushed, especially with two days of rowing now having been postponed.
• That is not an optical illusion you are seeing.  The pool at the Rio Aquatics Center for the diving does appear, to the naked eye, to be green.  The Olympic people are claiming that the water looks green due to an algae growth in the water.  Given the concerns over open water at the Olympics, that's the last thing which should be happening...  According to FINA, the tanks with required chemicals to prevent this...  ran out.  AT THE OLYMPICS!!  (Deadspin)
• American and Australian water polo players have been reporting burning of the eyes -- excess chlorine to prevent the same at the water polo venue.  I have to break out the Electric Company line:  "WHO'S THE DUMMY WRITING THIS SHOW??"
• Upsets galore at the Olympics:  Brazil finally woke up to get in the quarterfinals with a 5-0 win for the men after two 0-0 draws.  The "Shut the Fuck Up, Hope Solo!!" moment, a 2-2 draw for the USA women against Colombia.  The US women's field hockey team has already beaten the #2 and #3 countries in the world and is 3-0.  Honduras drew Argentina in soccer today.  Fiji ousted New Zealand in men's rugby sevens.  The USA Dream Team was down five to Australia at halftime and only won by 10.  The USA women's basketball team should've lost to Serbia, but talent is worth about 35 points, so they won by over 20.  Large-scale upset in team handball:  Egypt besting a world power in the sport for a historic group phase victory.
• Another Olympics, another weightlifting competition, another gruesome arm injury.  I don't need to see it nor click it.  Deadspin gave all I needed with the headline.  Ow.  Run Away.  Now.
• We have a historic moment in the Olympic Games.  No, not QUITE the Refugee Olympic Athletes getting a medal, but the Independent Olympic Athletes (read, for 2016: Kuwait -- their Olympic Committee is suspended due to governmental interference) won the gold medal in double trap shooting.  The Olympic flag flew in the medal position, a flag Fehaid al-Deehani refused to carry in the Opening Ceremony.  The Olympic anthem was played for his victory. (Yardbarker and other sources)  It is the first gold for athletes competing from countries in which their Olympic Committee is suspended without fault to the athletes.  Yugoslavia had three medals, a silver and two bronzes, in 1992.
• Somebody did a history lesson on the Ancient Olympics, and found a runner who had won the three main running events in four successive Games.   This totaled 12 individual gold medals, a number Michael Phelps equaled Tuesday night (he has nine in relays).  The three running events, in short, are:  One length of the stadium, two lengths of the stadium (down and back), and two lengths of the stadium weighed down with armor and a shield weighing about 50 pounds.
• Sounds like our first major controversy in judging, as Oleg Vernaiev of the Ukraine thought he got jobbed to gymnastics celebrity Kohei Uchimura, who, with the best single performance in the history of the new scoring system, won the gold medal, defending his title in the all-around.  After Vernaiev did his routine, his score was one-tenth short, and the controversy was on.  (Yahoo!)

And from Inside the Games:

• The IAAF has already admitted that the Russian doping scandal has taken so much out of next week's track and field Olympic meet that several of the sessions will not be filled to capacity in the main Olympic Stadium at Maracana.
• As a result of the Russian scandal (and the fact the previous President of IAAF was arrested in France for helping the Russians in the coverup!), the IAAF has formulated massive changes to the way it oversees track and field.  They will be taken up by the full IAAF in an emergency Extraordinary Session on December 3, 2016.
• The Council for Arbitration of Sport has ruled Castor Semenya can compete in the women's track and field events.  Her performance, a number of years back, in the 800m raised significant questions among trans-phobes with respect to gender preference and equality.
• Though not for a medal, one of the two judokas competing for the Refugee Olympic Athletes, Popole Misenga won his first-round match in the judo competition.  Yusra Mardini held a press conference on Wednesday, stating she wanted to swim far faster, but was pleased with her experience and what the Refugee Olympic Athletes have done for the cause of bringing refugees to the full world stage.
• A media bus was attacked Tuesday night.  Rio organizers only would claim the bus had rocks thrown at it, but people on the bus claim the bus was shot at!
• Being a medalist in a fighting sport does not make you immune from being robbed.  Ask Dirk vsn Tischelt of Belgium, robbed at Copacabana Beach.
• Giuseppe Tassi of Italy was sent home and suspended by his newspaper.  After Italy's women's team archers fell short of a medal, Tassi called them "The Chubby Trio".

A couple more...

• Speaking of body-shaming idiots:  A Mexican gymnast who actually *gasp!!!* LOOKS LIKE A REAL WOMAN RATHER THAN AN EMACIATED SPRITE drew a number of body-shaming jackasses on social media.  She has also been defended by a number of other social-media users.
• And, in the Great National Dick-Measuring Contest:  Gold medal and total lead are to the United States, 11 golds (two today, one in road cycling and one in a swimming relay) and 32 total to China's 10 gold (table tennis and shooting -- their dream of sweeping all eight diving golds was done in by a pair of British men, with USA second) and 23 total.  Uchimura's gold (as well as a judo gold) gives Japan six golds and 18 total, third in both respects.  51 teams now have medals through the first five days.