The COVIDLympics, Day Six, Part Two: UH OH....

• Sam Kendricks, a USA pole vaulter and medal contender.  Out of the Games, COVID positive.
• At least two other COVID positives in athletes reported as of early Day Six in the Athletes Village.
• As a domino effect, a later report that the entire Australian track and field team has been placed under precautionary quarantine due to at least one of their pole vaulters training with Kendricks.
• A Greek commentator has been expelled from the Games and fired for racist comments about South Koreans -- saying their table tennis players' eyes are so narrow, they can't see the ball.  Wow.  This has got the potential to go so far south...   
• As has a German cycling coach -- ordered to go home after calling some competitors "camel riders" (I think you can guess the general area they are from).
• So six hours into Day Six, and, for the first time, the United States (on a silver-medal tiebreaker) heads the official medal table after tonight's swimming haul.
• NBC now has to hard-pivot to Suni (or Sunisa, I've seen both representations of her first name) Lee, who rose up to take the women's all-around tonight.
• National Dick-Waving Contest:  China tops the medal table, and Japan is second on a silver tiebreaker, as both have 15 golds to the USA's 14.   Illegal Russian Team and Australia 8 apiece.  Total:  USA leads with 38, China 31, Illegal Russian Team 28, Japan 25, Australia 20.  USA is down two golds, but even on total, with Rio through 6 days.  China is up four golds and one total.
• Of the 15 gold medals for Japan, EIGHT have been won in judo.  There are just two more days left in the judo competition.
• I don't know if this is the latest in some time we've had a three-way golds race and a four-way total race in the Summer Olympic table, but it's gotta be close.
• Another full medal maiden on the table:  The tiny European island nation of San Marino won it's first Olympic medal in history today, a bronze for Alessandra Perrili in Women's Trap Shooting.  That's the second full medal maiden of these games, to go with two gold maidens broken.  (PS:  Before anyone asks, "maiden" is a horse-racing term regarding a horse which has not won a sanctioned race yet -- and "breaking maiden" is what happens when a horse does.)
  
• 66 nations have now won medals in Tokyo.  Four more today.  I didn't put on the blog the Day 6 total from Rio.
• 39 nations have now won gold.  And that's an increase of four in Day 6.
• We are now about 1/3 of the way through the medal count.  112 of the 339 sets of medals have been given.
• Controversy as Haitian taekwondo athlete Aliyah Shipman alleges that the USOC wanted to force her to compete for the USA, rather than Haiti, threatening to pull aid to the Caribbean nation if Haiti doesn't (and they eventually did) drop Shipman.

Some material from Inside The Games:

• New York Times reporting today that the IOC may actually drop weightlifting from the program if widespread doping in the sport isn't dealt with.  *waves bye-bye by Los Angeles -- maybe even Paris!*  It's gone.   
• An Iranian human-rights group (set up after the execution of an Iranian wrestler) is calling for the IOC to strip the Olympic championship from shooter Jarad Foroughi for being a member of the Revolutionary Guard, a deemed-terrorist organization.
• It appears as if a scaled-down Opening and Closing Ceremony will be the temporary norm, as Beijing 2022, in just about seven months, pledges "safe and simple" events for the Winter Games.
• Another example of how a small nation's medal sets someone up for life:  Thailand's Olympic champion in taekwondo, Panipak Wongpattanakit received a hero's welcome upon his return (remember, COVID protocols are that an athlete completing all events needs to leave the Village within two days), and a promise of over the equivalent of US$600,000 for his championship.
• Ten Nigerian tracksters were tossed from the Games by the Athletics Integrity Unit due to insufficient drug testing.  Over 40% of the Nigerian track team has been tossed because Nigeria is believed to be a country where doping is...  I can't even do that one with a straight face, given the USA's record on doping in track and field.  ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS, IAAF???