The COVIDLympics, Day Nine

• Simone Biles has withdrawn from the floor exercise -- only the balance beam remains.
• Interesting decision at the end of the men's high jump.  Because of an absolute tie (both missed three times at the final height, and their misses matched each other, if any, at all previous attempted heights), Mutaz Esha Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy were offered a choice:  Share the gold medal, or jump off for it.  We have two high jump gold medalists.
• Qatar has now won their first TWO gold medals in the Olympics at these Games.  No further maiden-breaks today -- three gold maidens and two total maidens broken so far.
• And then Italy shocks everybody when Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy broke the European record at 9.80 seconds for the 100m and won the event!  The heavily favored Jamaicans won NOTHING in the event -- USA won silver, Canada bronze.  Andres de Grasses' bronze is the first male medal for Canada in these Games.
• The 9.80 is the same time Usain Bolt won the 2016 Games 100m with.
• International intrigue at Tokyo Airport -- a Belarussian sprinter, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya does not want to go home and has requested asylum.  She has been taken into protective custody by Japanese police.  Good luck, especially under these conditions.  
• The sprinter was tossed from the Games by her team for speaking out against her and the team's coaches.
• Lilly King is the latest American athlete who says the Illegal Russian Team should not be here.
• Fourteen additional athletes have forfeited their credentials for continuing COVID protocol violations.

Inside The Games material:

• An alcohol incident Saturday night at a park at the Olympic Village may subject a number of parties, athletes and others, to sanctions.
• The President of the Paris 2024 Games has expressed disappointment at the French total in the first half of the Games and urges lessons be learned so a similar result to Japan's gold medal haul can be effected when the Games come to Paris in four years.  Through nine days, France sits seventh on the table with five golds and a silver tiebreaker over South Korea.  In total, they stand eighth with 21.
• Olympic COVID rules indicate that if a racer of a team competed in heats, but was removed from the final for a positive COVID test and the team still is allowed to compete and medals, the removed athlete will receive the medal as well.  Bruno Rosetti of Italy's men's fours rowing team is the first such recipient, as the team won bronze.
• Anti-Olympic protestors attempted to audibly disrupt the men's singles tennis final, but they were unable to do so, as Russia's Alexander Zverev took gold.

And in the National Dick-Waving Contest:

• It appears that the gold medal race is about over and it is China's!!!  With 11 golds in the pool, not much in the track so far for the USA, and the swimming now concluded, the USA's deficit is now four -- China 24, USA 20, Japan 17, Australia 14, Illegal Russian Team 12.
• Total:  USA 59, China 51, Illegal Russian Team 44, Great Britain 32, Australia and Japan 31.
• Seventh in the total is Italy with 27 -- FIFTEEN OF THEM BRONZE.
• Day Nine five years ago for the USA:  26 and 69.  So six and ten short so far.  China was 15 and 45, so they are 9 and 6 to the good -- perhaps one of the speculations is that China, knowing gold tops the table and second place is the first loser on the official Olympic table, is racking up gold...
• 179 of the 339 events are now completed.
• 53 nations have struck gold.  There were 59 in Rio and 54 in London.
• 76 have medalled in total.  86 in Rio, 84 in London.