The Simone Biles gold-medal haul may begin tonight if the Russians don't say anything about it, and the hosts and the USA play for gold in softball. AND the women's soccer team has a must win with Australia for 2nd in the group.
- Another gold maiden broken, the second of the Games, this one for Bermuda! Flora Duffy won a rain-soaked women's triathlon. Bermuda's previous medal was a bronze in boxing in Montreal. Bermuda joins the Philippines in this honor.
- And a full maiden, the first of the Games: Turkmenistan has it's first Olympic medal in history, a silver by Polina Guryeva in weightlifting.
- AND DISASTER FOR NBC: Simone Biles forced to withdraw, Russia wins, and the whole timbre of the Games may be about to change.
- And then Japan shuts out the USA in softball.
- AND THEN the USA women's soccer team draws scoreless to advance to play the Netherlands in a quarterfinal match they have to be sizable underdogs in.
- I'm about this close to crying foul and doing a post of itself. There are all sorts of rumors, and no one is confirming WHY Biles withdrew tonight. Various sources, collated by Fox Sports Australia, are saying that a massive rumor swirl is going around, stating anything from a day-to-day ankle injury to a "mental health concern" not unakin to Naomi Osaka with the last two Grand Slams (Osaka was also eliminated from the Olympic tennis on Day Four). I have no problem with this if it's "ankle", but wouldn't we already have been told this, not unakin to what happened to Kerri Strug in 1996 in Atlanta? If this is a "mental health concern", do we have the prospect someone got to Biles and they threw the gymnastics events? Perhaps Biles doesn't want to represent this United States anymore?? This all goes away if we do find out this is an ankle -- but if this is done under the cover of "mental health"... And then you have the COVID possibility, even though she did stick around to be with the other athletes...
- Apparently Biles is one of the athletes, according to an ABC News report after the Russian hack four years ago, who takes an ADHD medication under medical waiver. So it's not 100% infeasible, but something just smells OFF...
- And who benefits from Biles' withdrawl the most? The same Russians...
- It is now officially a "mental health issue", Biles saying she needed to step back in a post-evening interview. Then why now and not before? That's not a question Biles should have to answer -- but it is a question someone like myself, who has some very real questions about Team USA in these Games as a general concept, still has. (And opens the possibility that Biles, for some reason, was ordered to take a dive.)
- However it is, I do sense a general rising anger of the "Medal Count" Americans in the Dick-Waving Contest... Just in the last 24-48 hours:
- The United States lost the men's 100m backstroke at the Olympics for the first time since 1992 Barcelona.
- The United States lost the women's gymnastics team event at ANY major international in a decade.
- Japan beat the United States for the gold in softball 2-0.
- Katie Ledecky lost the women's 400m freestyle, the first Olympic race of any kind she's ever lost. And she may lose another one tonight -- she has to swim both the 200m final and the 1500m final in the same session tomorrow morning Tokyo time.
- As for that Dick-Waving Contest, the United States leads the total with 25. China is second with 21, the Russians and Japanese are joint third with 18, Great Britain has 13. So, the usual suspects.
- Japan leads on the official table. That country leads in the gold medal department with 10. USA and China have 9 each, Illegal Russian Team now has 7, Great Britain has 4.
- I wonder how China and their "incomplete map" believe about the six medals, one gold, Chinese Taipei/Taiwan have won in these games. (If China were to demand that be added to their total, they'd top the table.)
- Seventy-two events have now been completed, about 20% of the total.
- Thirty nations have now won gold medals at these Games.
- Fifty-six nations now make up the medal table.
- A Moroccan boxer must be a big Tyson fan: Disqualified for attempting to bite off his opponent's ear!!
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