The COVIDLympics, Day Two: NBC can finally smile now...

Medals in Archery, Road Cycling, Diving, Fencing, Judo, Shooting, Skateboarding, Swimming, Taekwondo, and Weightlifting today.

Non-medal competition in 19 other disciplines, including the start of the march of both Simone Biles and the USA men's basketball team.

• Much ado about Team USA's shutout on Day 1.  Day 2 should go better, with four swimming finals and Skateboarding leading the list.  But, like Day 1, unless something surprising happens, not much else on the docket except setting up for later.
• Like Simone Biles, who is performing such routines on women's gymnastics, that, should she successfully complete them, may be effectively impossible to score under current gymnastics guidelines.
• Statistic to keep in mind:  The USA won 46 gold, 37 silver, 38 bronze for 121 total medals in Rio.  Of that, in women's gymnastics, swimming, and track were 33 gold, 22 silver, and 19 bronze -- 74 of that total.  The rest of the contingent was 13 gold, 15 silver, 19 bronze.  If you need to know both where NBC makes it's bacon on coverage AND why there were no USA medals in Day 1, here you go.
• Australian television is happy:  The audience of 2.7 million Australians for the Opening Ceremony is not only the largest event of 2021, it's also a fair increase from both Rio and London for the OC.
• No word yet -- absolutely none -- on NBC in the United States.
• 7 AM JP start today -- surfing heats.
• Another in-competition positive fells an American medal hope:  Bryson TheShamBeau is out of the Olympics with a COVID positive.  Patrick Reed takes his spot for next week's golf tournament.
• And a later report adds Spain's Jon Rahm to the COVID positive list.
• And Day 2 is already going better, if you're NBC and Team USA.  A gold and six total medals in the pool already, and the day is young for Team USA.
• But the women's gymnastics, expected to be a massive medal haul for the USA, took a significant hit in qualifying.  Yeah, they still did better than most everyone else, but the Russians did even better than they did.  Simone Biles fell in two events, but the qualifications still were there for Team USA.
• Speaking of women's gymnastics, there was a BLM protest written into one of the floor exercise routines.  It was only performed once, though:  It was by Costa Rican Luciana Alvarado, who ended her routine on one knee with a fist squarely in the air...  And yes, it was seen as a pro-BLM protest by NBCOlmypics.com.   
• The Refugee Team nearly got it's first medal, as Taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh lost a bronze medal match today.  She's not quite like the other Refugee athletes, though -- she actually DID win bronze in Rio, but became a refugee last year when her home country of Iran turned her achievements into a propaganda tool.