The COVIDLympics, Day Eight, End of Day News Dump: Halfway Done...

Just looking through some of the normal news avenues for some Olympics news this morning...

• Add Qatar to the list of gold maidens broken.  Fares Ibrahim, the only Qatari weightlifter on the Tokyo team, won gold in the 96kg Weightlifting class.  An Olympic record in both clean and jerk and the total.  Qatar is the third nation, with Bermuda and the Philippines, to get their first gold in these Games.  Two nations -- Turkmenistan and San Marino (which now has two shooting medals after a team silver today) -- got their first medals.
• Two athletes from the country of Georgia were expelled from Japan and sent home for breaking COVID protocols.  Both had completed their events and went sightseeing illegally.  Coaches and athletes CAN attend events (that's about the extent of the audiences you are seeing)-- they CANNOT break outside the Olympic compound.
• Novak Djokovic, after being denied his Golden Slam, lost any chance of any medal after he lost the bronze-medal singles match as well -- then withdrew from the doubles final (tweaked his shoulder), then threw his racquet into the empty stands after several Code of Conduct violations in the match -- only one of which was called.  He, as many of the tennis professionals, is quite angry at the conditions the tournament was allowed to be held in.
• Djokovic now has some question as to whether his Golden Slam attempt may have compromised his attempt at the Grand Slam itself, with the US Open later next month.
• Piers Morgan has joined his conservative colleagues in slamming Simone Biles and admitting mental abuse is part of being a top level athlete -- going so far as to say Biles' mental-health withdrawl and the rise of the belief that athletes should take care of their mental health means "RIP sport".
• Gracenote STILL believes the United States will pip 42 golds and 106 total medals (2 golds and 10 total more than their final pre-Olympic numbers), in numbers released on their social media at about 11 AM Eastern this morning.  HOW???????????????????????  Right now, I have them, just on a mental thought, having trouble seeing more than 30 and 90!   
• It appears that "inclusion" is beyond the pale for the IOC -- the number of transgender athletes in Tokyo will be pushed back by the IOC with new guidelines for the individual sporting federations to create their rules by.
• Make it five days in a row now for record COVID cases in Tokyo during the Games.
• Inside the Games notes that, with a seventh-place finish in women's rugby sevens, China is making strides in events they have little tradition in.  I told people before these Games started that China was winning the table.  A lot of American arrogance is still believing the track will bring it home...  They won't believe me til the men's marathon is done, I guess...   
• NBCUniversal is actually opening up a THEME PARK in China to cash in on tourism before the Beijing Winter Games.