The COVIDLympics, Day -3: They're going through with it -- MAYBE????

• I'm going to have to find a way to be a bit careful as to how the days are numbered because of the time change, meaning one day (probably "0" just for the Opening Ceremony and all the #NBCFail around that!) is going to have to be "short"...
• ... because today is actually the first day of Olympic competition.  Three softball pool-play matches, several women's soccer pool-play openers.  Also, the podium training for the men's gymnastics is today.
• Paralympic Story #1:  Becca Myers has forfeited her spot on the US Paralympic Team because she cannot bring her assistant, due to COVID restrictions.  She's deaf and blind.  Myers was to be a multiple-medal contender in swimming.  It is apparently the US Paralympic Committee who is blocking the move.  WHAT THE FUCK???  She's deaf from birth due to a rare disorder and is near-blind -- how is she going to be able to do anything outside the pool without that assistance?
• Paralympic Story #2:  A British long-jumper was actually told her shorts were too short at the Great Britain Paralympic Trials.  They're basically two-piece non-bikini swimsuit bottoms.  An official with the competition flagged down Olivia Breen to advise her on it.  Breen is protesting.  Breen has qualified in the event to compete in Tokyo at the Paralympics.  You know, there's a reason they call track athletes "thinclads".   
• On The Other Hand:  I don't know if any of these athletes are actually on the regular team handball team, but members of the Norwegian beach handball team were fined for wearing shorts (instead of bikini bottoms) during a recent competition.  Kinda tells you the purpose of sports like that and "beach volleyball", ifyouknowwhatI'msayin'....   
• Nneka Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams are out of the Olympics.  Both wanted to play for Nigeria, but both FIBA and, now, the CAS have ruled Ogwumike and Williams have had too high a "contribution" to USA Basketball to be allowed to play for Nigeria.  Effectively, they're the equivalent of what is seen as being "cup-tied" in soccer.   
• Jackie Young has been promoted to Team USA for 3 on 3 women's basketball due to the COVID positive reported yesterday.  Katie Lou Samuelson is a breakthrough COVID case -- she was vaccinated.
• Just this morning (or Tuesday evening in Japan, if you prefer), the current chief of the 2020 Tokyo Organizing Committee has said, in the face of sponsors also pulling out of the Opening Ceremony (Panasonic and Asahi have joined Toyota, at least with respect to the Opening Ceremony), that a last-second cancellation of the Games is NOT OFF THE TABLE.  Toshiro Muto has said that a spike in cases (which appears to be the case in Tokyo at large) and gaps in the "bubble" which is to limit athlete travel will be reviewed.
• Latest reports on the weather in Tokyo have indicated the forcing stopping of training for beach volleyball -- the weather is so warm in Tokyo, the sand is too hot that it ends up burning the players' feet!
• Somebody's head is going to roll with Poland and whoever runs Olympic swimming there.  They had to toss six athletes -- no fault of their own.  The Polish Olympic Committee or the swimming team did not take into account how many athletes the country actually had as quota-qualified for the Games, and sent way too many!
• If you want a reason why a lot of people may be getting sick of Team USA and the Olympics, I present to you Taylor Crabb from the men's beach volleyball team:  Suspended two years in 2017 for inappropriate conduct toward underage girls (including the use of alcohol), then suspended again in 2019 after an agreement which reduced the first suspension to four months was violated (participation in a camp which included underage girls)-- and USA Volleyball stated CLEARLY it was with the intent to remove Crabb from consideration from Team USA for Tokyo!  An arbitrator basically wiped out the second suspension -- he begins play on Sunday.
• Pita Taufatofua, the sensation who spent both the Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018 Opening Ceremonies shirtless and oiled has qualified for his third Olympics, qualifying once again for the 16-man field in the over-80kg division of Taekwondo.
• In a reminder the IOC is far more than just a ceremonial body, the IOC actually is having it's 138th Session starting today in Tokyo.  The highlight of the event is slated to be the formal decision to award Brisbane, Australia the 2032 Summer Olympics.
• One of the decisions today is to give formal IOC sanction to six sporting federations -- federations governing Lacrosse, Kickboxing, Muay Thai Kickboxing, Sambo, Icestocksport (a European form of curling), and Cheerleading.
• The longtime motto of the Olympics has finally been altered, as another decision today.  The new motto is:  "Faster, Higher, Stronger -- Together".