The COVIDLympics Begin: Day One Of Medal Competition

Medal play today in Archery, Road Cycling, Fencing, Judo, Shooting, Taekwondo, and Weightlifting.  Non-medal play in 16 other disciplines.

• China gets the first gold of the Games in air rifle.  And the second as well -- both air rifle golds have gone to China.
• Don't expect the USA to do a great deal in this first day.  They had possibilities with the Mixed Team in Archery (USA was eliminated R16 by Indonesia) and I think Fencing, but if you take a look at the medal-awarding disciplines today, it isn't a great deal of expectation here.  That'll start tomorrow with the first swimming finals and Simone Biles' march beginning.
• At least according to a list published Friday evening US time on MSN, there are no further COVID positives on the USA team.
• Once again, the Olympic truce is not airtight.  For what seems to be the zillionth Games in a row, a Muslim (this one an Algerian) has withdrawn from the Games rather than face an Israeli in judo.
• Kosovo has struck again.  It has two Olympic medals in it's history, both gold, and, as of tonight, both are in the judo women's lightest-weight class (-52 kg at Rio, -48 kg in Tokyo).
• USA women's soccer team looking out of sync again.  2-0 at the half over New Zealand, but have had FOUR offside goals called back in the first half!
• Final was 6-1, including two New Zealand own goals due to the pressure.
• And the first day's medal table is finally complete.  28 countries won medals on Day 1 -- the USA NOT one of them...  No country won more than 4 medals in the 11 completed events.
• China won 4 medals, 3 of them gold.  South Korea won 3, one gold.  Italy, Japan, Serbia, and the illegal Russian team won 2 each.
• It is the first time since Munich 1972 in which the United States failed to medal on Day 1.  There were opportunities -- a USA cyclist was part of the two-man break which eventually won the road cycling gold for Ecuador.  He fell back into the second pack and finished sixth or seventh.  The archery and fencing were disappointments, but this wasn't the most productive of slates for Team USA on Day 1.
• The USA can't even win when they're winning on Day One.  Their women's water polo team broke the Olympic record for goals and margin with a 25-4 win over Japan.  Neither record lasted more than two hours:  Spain then beat South African 29-4!!
• Yeah, there's #NBCFail, but that has nothing on South Korea, whose broadcast of the Opening Ceremony was so apparently offensive, they were forced to apologize.  South Korea, instead of using the country's flag and/or geographic location during the Parade of Nations, used instead things they felt representative of the country:  Pizza for Italy, Salmon for the Norway, the Chernobyl disaster for Ukraine, the Haitian riots.........
• At least two prominent Japanese medal hopes, the men's 400 IM world champion in swimming and a final bow for one of the greatest male gymnasts in history, both went by the boards on Day One.
• Japan's first gold of the Games (and both of their two medals) came in lightest-weight judo.
• As if the Games had enough problems, a SE Asia TYPHOON may be impacting them early next week...  It has already tweaked the rowing schedule rather seriously...
• There is now discussion to bring the Winter Olympics back to Salt Lake City in 2030.  From being there in 2002, I can't say, for the life of me, they were the worst of hosts.  The problem is that I don't know what kind of country this is going to BE in eight and a half years.   
• Samir Atd Said is performing gymnastics at the Olympics again for France -- after a near-tragic fall five years ago in Rio.   Said finished third in the qualifying in the men's rings event here, so he is a medal possibility later in the competition.
• We have our first in-competition COVID positive:  The Netherlands had to withdraw Finn Florijn from the single sculls repechage because he has the coronavirus, in a test from after his heat race on Friday.