The COVIDLympics, Day P1

• Today was all about Dame Sarah Storey, who won her 15th Paralympic Gold Medal in the C5 3000m pursuit track cycling event.  One more will make her the greatest Paralympian in British history.
• Japanese advisors are condemning IOC head Thomas Bach returning to Tokyo with the COVID rates continuing to explode.
• A second athlete in the Paralympic Village has tested positive for COVID.
• Iyad Shalabi of Israel had a bad habit of finishing fourth at the Paralympics in swimming.  On Day One, he finally won the S1 100m backstroke.  (This classification is for the most disabled backstroke athletes.  "S" is the stroke classification, physical disabilities are rated on a 1-10 scale, 1 being the most disabled.)
• Put some respect on this man's name:  Ibrahim Hamadtou of Egypt, competing in a division of the table tennis.  Though many of his opponents have some use of their arms, he lost his in an accident, so he has to serve by picking the ball up with his toes, throwing it in the air with his foot, and the paddle is in his mouth!  Do not do that at the expense of the other 4400 athletes here, but that's just an example of the bravery many of these athletes present.   
• Douglass Emhoff was present to see the USA women win their first wheelchair rugby match.  You may not have heard of him much, but you would hear of his title if I said it.  He is "Second Gentleman"...  He's Vice President Kamala Harris' husband.

All the stories (the first is a bit more generally found) were from Inside the Games.  Even though mainstream coverage of the Paralympics IS improving, there is still FAR to go.

Medal count:

• Led by their performance in the pool, Australia tops the Day One medal table with 6 of the gold medals on offer.  China has 5.  Russia 3.  Italy 2.  Eight other nations won a gold medal on the first day.
• The total:  Australia with 10 medals.  China and Ukraine with 8 each.  Russia and Great Britain with 6 each.
• Some things to basically keep in mind:  The USA Paralympic program is far behind many other countries.  Through Day One in Tokyo, the USA only got two silver medals, 16th on the table.
• For example:  China topped the Paralympic table in Rio with 107 gold and 239 total medals.  (There are over 500 events in the Paralympics, when you take into account all disability levels in a given sport -- between physical, visual, and intellectual disabilities.)  Great Britain was second with 64 gold and 147 total, quite a distance behind.  The USA was a very distant fourth, behind the Ukraine as well.  USA's total was 40 gold and 115 total.
• China has won the last four Paralympic Summer medals tables by a significant margin.  They almost tripled their nearest competition in golds and doubled in total in London.  (USA was 6th gold, 4th total)  China doubled their nearest competition in golds and total in Beijing (USA was 3rd).  The margin was less substantial in Athens, but still China by a wide margin.  (USA was 4th)
• The last Games where China did not top the table was Sydney 2000.  The hosts from Australia topped the table in both respects, narrowly in the total over Great Britain.  USA was 3rd total, 5th in golds.
• The United States topped the table in four previous Games -- including (and I didn't know this until just now) that the 1984 Paralympics were actually joint-hosted with Great Britain!  Some of the wheelchair events and all of them involving spinal cord injuries were held in Great Britain.  New York City hosted the rest.  Los Angeles was never involved.
• The UK host, Stoke Mandeville, actually was the host of the largest-scale pre-Paralympics disabled-sports event, the Stoke Mandeville Games.  Held annually since 1948, except for Paralympic years)  The Games are still held annually on off-Paralympic years as the IWAS World Games, the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Games.  The IWAS Games are held in various world sites.  2019 was in the United Arab Emirates.  2017 in Portugal.  2015 in Sochi.
• Because of the replacement of the 2021 IWAS Games with the Paralympics, a brief weekend event will be held this year in Portugal involving track and field, powerlifting, and soccer for players with cerebral palsy.  No future information regarding future IWAS Games sites is available.
• The United States, other than Paralympic years, has never hosted the IWAS World Games since they were made a world-hosted event.